Following on from the previous post:
The drawing in oil on card above was created with the discarded material from a painting: The marks, though randomly made, never-the-less seem to be a self-organising whole. It makes me wonder, is the ultimate state of everything disorder (entropy) or is it actually order arising out of a compositing of layers (or orders!) of the disorderliness?
I wish I were mathematician enough to be able to play around with the idea in that beautiful (because it is universal) language. Instead, I toy with the notion in my paintings; there is a type of line I make (see header image) made up of countless small bodies of paint, each touching on one another, like a chain. This type of line wanders apparently randomly but look closer and it is possible to detect to a degree that it also feels its way, unpredictably but purposefully visiting different loci along its way, empathic with its surroundings though not always. Making something inevitable unpredictable is not easy, every decision regarding each little addition to the line has to be made according to is guiding principles, which rooted in sensations and feelings regarding a relationship with the world are problematic to articulate, involving contradictions. This type of line does have definite overall direction – is pre-determined in its wandering – it could not happen at all otherwise. But it moves freely showing a kind of free will in its way, being accountable primarily to itself. The source of its poem resides somewhere within and amongst all of this.
Random (Brownian) motion is fascinating, indicating how atoms themselves move; a dynamic active principle underpinning the whole of nature which we are integral with. I see in this an aesthetic principle to be adopted in the making of a painting. There is an additional function of this line I make; it alludes to writing as a continuous flow with visible direction. The line feels its way in empathy with the poet feeling their way as they organise their words according to their literary aesthetic. The dynamic, rhythmic aspect of the line is fundamental in the visual aesthetic of my work, everything can be worked back according to line, to the point of origin, its source out of which it grew and was cultivated.
A look at the wonderful Brownian Motion: