My title for this painting, Half-fathom, is a reference to Jackson Pollocks vertical canvas Full fathom five at MoMA. Pollock’s title comes from a passage in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, where the character Ariel describes a deadly shipwreck:
Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
It’s not just the title, though. I also love that particular painting for all the weird stuff Pollock left embedded in it- paint tube lids, cigarette butts, nails. Texture is important to me and here is “texture” in the extreme. And then the title makes this dark, poetic reference to the sea. For me at least, it all adds up to something more than the sum of its paint, studio trash, and title.
My version is less dark and more delicate. I didn’t embed any paint tube caps in mine, but I am perhaps being similarly literal by using reflective palladium leaf to signify light. Hopefully, the results continue the poetry.
