SPACE Archives - Constance Patterson

Notebook

LIGHTS OUT

Here at the studio, I am working on a second tessera canvas. This one … pictured above … is still a work in progress, but is nearing completion.

The work is composed primarily of tessera from one painting that was chopped into pieces and reconfigured into an entirely new image, but it is nevertheless a reflection of the original work. Tessera from other paintings have been added, and like bits of memories that we call on to help us when telling a story, the new bits add depth and interest to the original. So too do the traumas, and joys and grief and love that we experience add color and texture to our memories.

While working on this piece, it was struck by how this image is like my interior vision of myself. I always seem to be stitching together a new version of myself to present to the outside world. Whatever it is I piece together might look solid and cohesive, but is in fact cobbled together with bits and pieces that have washed up on the shore of my life. I would suppose that most people find this to be true. But then again, maybe not. Maybe it is just that I have the time to mull over all this existential dreck while cutting up old canvases.

CRUISE NIGHT

So this is the new form of the old planet series that I started last fall. Since then I have started a second series of fish and their world as our own.

The two motifs, planets and fish, come together in this piece and begs the question … What if space in our world is really no different than that of outer space? In this circumstance, which world is being invaded by whom?

Both fish and planets share a sense of weightlessness that gives them a graceful, and rather surreal quality that is intrinsic to their nature. In our dreams we share that same weightless sense of freedom. But it brings with it some of our other, less reassuring, unease.

In this case the feeling is energizing. not frightening, but there is a sense that that could change at any moment.

CELESTIAL POOL

CELESTIAL POOL #2 – OIL – 40 X 30 – $1,800

There is a part of me that is always aware that something could be lurking beyond our view. Space after all is constantly in motion. What if that motion is about the movement of space toward a big old hoedown of sorts? Or maybe a late night get together after work at the local pub? What if space is really a big ole biker bar? I mean they do sort of look like billiard balls, right?

What if space is a huge billiard hall filled with felt covered tables and biker gods that play for high stakes?

Would you really like to hear what they are talking about? And, what would happen if your old TV antenna were to become the cell tower for conversations with the celestial Minnesota Fats & Co?

Or maybe you realize that the Moon is really just a huge plasma screen that is showing feature films after you are asleep.

I guess it is reassuring that there is always an escape hatch … you know, the black hole.

CELESTIAL POOL #3 – OIL – 30X40 – SOLD