Crude
60 works on paper from 100 Crude (Carbon Credits series) exhibited with Relation–40 Prints from a Lifetime by George Burton Wallace at The Point Gallery, 132 Beaver Point Road, Salt Spring Island, 22 May through 21 June 2015. Exhibition opening Sunday, 31 May from 2pm–5pm.
Artist Statement
100 Crude is the genesis of Carbon Credits, which surfaced from my need for a break without the time to go anywhere. My desire to create without having to think determined the limited, no-mix, colour palette—black and white pigment in paint and drawing media on paper, canvas or board. A purely intuitive approach to composition called automatic drawing determined the abstract imagery.
100 dated, sequentially numbered mixed media paintings on paper document a 5-month journey in black, white and grey—a sometimes bumpy, sometimes smooth ride, with a few rest stops—a road trip of discovery and release. The discipline of resolving each journal entry before moving on to the next, reveals the many roads taken, with all the details of a route traced on a topographical map.
My search for a title lead to research on black pigment, which lead to research on carbon, which poetically suggested carbon credits. A carbon credit is defined as “the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas with CO2 equivalent to one tonne of CO2”. The right to pollute is packaged as a corporate commodity, traded on the global market and promoted as progress.
What is a real carbon credit? A diamond perhaps? A painting by Franz Kline? Or one of 100 crude paintings on paper.
The number in the title 100 Crude alludes to the grading of motor oil viscosity by number (the higher the number, the thicker the oil). Crude refers to unrefined oil—and intuited, unrefined paintings.
Crude is comprised of the first and last 10 paintings from 100 Crude and a selection of 40 works covering the remainder of the journey.
Artist Statement
100 Crude is the genesis of Carbon Credits, which surfaced from my need for a break without the time to go anywhere. My desire to create without having to think determined the limited, no-mix, colour palette—black and white pigment in paint and drawing media on paper, canvas or board. A purely intuitive approach to composition called automatic drawing determined the abstract imagery.
100 dated, sequentially numbered mixed media paintings on paper document a 5-month journey in black, white and grey—a sometimes bumpy, sometimes smooth ride, with a few rest stops—a road trip of discovery and release. The discipline of resolving each journal entry before moving on to the next, reveals the many roads taken, with all the details of a route traced on a topographical map.
My search for a title lead to research on black pigment, which lead to research on carbon, which poetically suggested carbon credits. A carbon credit is defined as “the right to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas with CO2 equivalent to one tonne of CO2”. The right to pollute is packaged as a corporate commodity, traded on the global market and promoted as progress.
What is a real carbon credit? A diamond perhaps? A painting by Franz Kline? Or one of 100 crude paintings on paper.
The number in the title 100 Crude alludes to the grading of motor oil viscosity by number (the higher the number, the thicker the oil). Crude refers to unrefined oil—and intuited, unrefined paintings.
Crude is comprised of the first and last 10 paintings from 100 Crude and a selection of 40 works covering the remainder of the journey.
