Island. 1965.
As seen at Portland Art Museum.
I went to the Portland Art Museum yesterday, and found two Helen Frankenthaler pieces that remind me just how much I love her work. The spontaneity in her mark-making inspires me to my bones!
Spaced Out Orbit. 1973.
As seen at Portland Art Museum.
“A really good picture looks as if it’s happened at once. It's an immediate image. For my own work, when a picture looks labored and overworked, and you can read in it—well, she did this and then she did that, and then she did that—there is something in it that has not got to do with beautiful art to me. And I usually throw these out, though I think very often it takes ten of those over-labored efforts to produce one really beautiful wrist motion that is synchronized with your head and heart, and you have it, and therefore it looks as if it were born in a minute.” —Helen Frankenthaler
I love this quote, because I struggle with the same things in my own work. How much do I try to control the media, and how much do I allow it to control me? When is a piece finished, and when is it overworked? Mmm... Good questions!
