Give Form Instantly Throughout Time

By Blake Brasher

Piece description from the artist

This is an abstract painting on un-primed (raw) canvas in acrylic and Sharpie marker. I made it while I was an artist in residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA in December of 2019. The painting was wrapped around heavy duty gallery depth (1.5”) stretcher bars after it had dried, such that elements of the composition wrap around the sides of the final piece (see detail images).

This painting makes excellent use of my layering technique to set ordered and chaotic elements against each other to create a sense of space within the painting. A delicate organic formation composed of carefully brushed purple leaves seems to grow between a brutal black and white foreground of poured and smeared paint and a background of blue to yellow mottled gradient reminiscent of a pastoral landscape. Beneath it all is a scaffolding of automatic doodles and drawn patterns in Sharpie marker and in places the raw canvas is visible.

The space within this painting draws the viewer in, gives the mind a place to think, and invites the discovery of unexpected connections and the contemplation of other ways the world might work.