Fellow artist question: Are you a shredder?
I mean, as in, the impulse to destroy and reassemble canvases?
I’m a compulsive destroyer of my work (you see me do it on here, all the time; post, delete, post, delete) but I can’t waste the pieces because I think it’s morally wrong to be wasteful, so I end up with containers of pieces of canvas, material, etc. Well organized chaos. I can work on a canvas for years, only to feel zero anxiety over taking scissors or knife to it and hearing the frayed canvas squeal as I split it into piles.
Then I sew them back together and bind them, sometimes with intentionally visible/decorative stitching (backed with liner reinforcement) with gesso and hard setting glue and later, varnishes. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “deconstruction” because it’s utterly base and primitive snake-brain level of assembly. There’s no high skill to it. Franken-canvas but without the Franken-genius.
I found this photo as the inspiration. I can’t remember why I was searching for Appalachian quilts but she came up when I did. It’s an Appalachian Granny and her quilt.:
It’s the same with manuscripts, scripts, etc. Shred and burn. Scribble furiously; shred and burn. No pain. No anxiety over it. What does it mean?
I don’t care if this behavior is classified as “madness” because I don’t believe in madness (Physical harm? Imposition of trauma on others? No? All clear) but I am curious to hear if any, other artists do this? Create, shred, create, shred?
Anyone? Am I “primal screaming” into the void 🤣?
(“The Scream”, Edvard Munch, 1893.)
2 notes
·
View notes
Your loving wife.
Acrylic and crayola oil pastels on 16”x20” canvas
2K notes
·
View notes
Evening with Bright Light, 2020
Leif Engström. oil, acrylic and glitter on canvas
8K notes
·
View notes
Valentinsbad, 2023 by J.G.Wind
30 notes
·
View notes
Liu Ye: Night 夜 (2005) acrylic and oil on canvas
579 notes
·
View notes