Torodoro 2004

Dan Christensen made Torodoro with paint, but I don't know when or where. It is a real tangle of looping lines, kind of like yarn when a kitten has been at it, all on an orange background, and you can really sense the speed and energy with which he worked. Looking at the paint itself, it’s applied in thin, drippy layers, allowing the bright orange ground to peek through and create a sense of depth. The lines are varied in color – white, red, blue, green – each one a quick gesture, almost like a doodle in space. There's a splattery quality to the edges of those lines, suggesting he might have been using some kind of unconventional tool, maybe flicking the paint or using a really worn-out brush. Christensen’s mark-making reminds me of Cy Twombly's scribbles, but with a more playful, less classical feel. Both artists understood painting as a form of open-ended experimentation, inviting us to find our own meanings within the chaos.