Clarity

I experienced this vision while meditating, a bright cousin to my previous painting, Vision.

This project was an experiment as I had never painted on glass prior. I began by doing two layers of matte medium on either side, carving in waves with my brush around the uncovered central point.

From there, I did two layers of neon acrylics what became the backside. Originally, I had planned to do the whole piece in acrylic but I found the medium to not create my desired outcome.

So, I flipped the glass and began on the other side with gouache paints, a medium I am more familiar with, and began to play with its watery properties. The gaps in the gouache revealed the acrylic on the back side, creating a cool sense of depth. I was excited!

I did an initial sketch of the mirror, focusing on blending natural and crafted shapes. Small animism began to pop up from the feline feet, to the turtle shell body, to the crab like arms. But, I wanted to maintain this idea of long lost artifact, like something you’d find at El Dorado.

Then I painted on the gouache side with oil paints to be completely opaque.

Some fun I had in trying to photograph this piece was using the mirror as a mirror or a window, depending on what was behind the glass. Even more so, how to bend the transparencies of the acrylic and gouache layers.