An afternoon in the Pompidou Centre, wandering around the 20th century works, and I stumbled upon Picabia's "L'adoration du veau" (Adoration to Veal). Why is it that some works just grab you by the throat and shake? His painting has nothing to do with virgins or saints, but features a clutch of reaching hands grabbing for an austere and disinterested bovine. It hooked me. I loved it.
Double click on it and look carefully. You will find references to the Brisbane floods, the death of my beautiful dog that week, and an inventory of all the CDs I played that subliminally influenced the work as I ventured into it. And then there's the frustration and adoration.
A work this size takes me about 3 weeks to complete (9 days of 8 hours each day) Toward the latter stages, a great deal of that time is sitting in a large chair and studying it, fine tuning, pushing and pulling, lightening and darkening, enhancing 3D. And then at some moment, it just works!
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