Venice Beach Laundry © Taylor Barnes 2014
"Seeing
the Light" may refer to the many levels that "light" is
experienced when creating a piece of art. This recent painting posed the
challenge of rendering a dramatically lit nighttime scene (alá Edward Hopper).
In some ways, dramatic lighting is a cheap trick because if you do it at all
well the result is a magical and dramatic work. Lighting used to portray a
story within a story is something photographers and filmmakers understand only
too well. A scene filled with dramatic lights and darks just screams to be
interesting. Think, film noir.
I
have passed this laundry for years and watched life play out in front of these
well-lit windows. Some nights there is a line around the corner for the
homeless to do free laundry, compliments of the management. Every night there
is a congregation of homeless hanging on the steps trading information and
hitting up the well-healed patrons of the Whole Foods Market next door. This
laundry represents a true class intersection that is practically symptomatic of
the entire economic displacement of people happening in Venice Beach.
Through
these windows, the light reveals a whole society of people normally hidden from
view. "Seeing the Light" refers to the technical aspects of how this
work is painted as well as the story it reveals. The emptiness is probably the
future of this place. As wealthier families move into the area, they won't need
a laundry. In the past, this was where neighbors gathered to meet neighbors,
exchange information, or find a helping hand. Local artists painted the walls
and there was a sense of an extension of home. The landscape is changing and
some of the soul of Venice is leaching away with that change.
Of
course, it is only a laundry mat but it is also a symbol - if we look, we can
see the light. The final part of the journey of this painting revolves
around communication. In my effort to communicate clearly what I was seeing I
rendered the white letters of "Venice Beach Laundry" with the
precision of a sign painter. I failed to see the painting that was the engine
to the image – until I showed it to both my mother and my daughter. Each,
independently of the other, said the letters were too dominant and should be
pushed back. Their critique helped me to "see the light." I realized
that the danger of leaving the painting and the world it creates in favor or
the literal world is to loose track of the dynamic of painting. By being too
literal, I was loosing the spontaneity of the brush and what set my work aside
from a photograph. Texture, depth of color and – lighting – were my tools. I
pushed the letters back to a rougher form and the work was complete.
In
the end, I find each painting is a psychological journey into some aspect of my
thinking that has yet to be revealed to me. This painting was about seeing the
light, literally and spiritually. It is a little like playing God in your own
personal universe, “… on the seventh day God said, 'let there be light' and
there was light."
