Eye Eye

I’ve just finished two large commissioned canvases. They tantalise the eye, teasing them with their bold splashes of colour and irreverent ‘don’t tell me I know how I look’ sense in the way they hold themselves. The attitude was never intentional, it just emerged from the canvas.

I believe most times that’s what happens when, as an artist, one begins a new piece. We stare into each others eyes, the canvas and me, half believing that were one of us to look away first, that one, would concede ground. I try hard never to drop my gaze first. It’s instinctual yet somehow critical in the process.

It’s been a life lesson that one. Some days I was a good student, other days I didn’t do so well at all. Lowering one’s gaze can be culturally respectful in a particular context but none that I’ve found myself in lately. I prefer to look into the eyes of an inquisitor, a questioner. Wouldn’t you?