Blue Balls V 1962

Sam Francis’ Blue Balls V is a painting made with acrylic on canvas, a dance of blues on a stark white ground. It’s all about the process, you can see it in the drips and the way the shapes kinda float and bleed into each other. The material aspect is right there, staring back at you! Thick swipes of cobalt, thinned out washes that ghost around the solid forms. Look at that big shape on the upper right, it’s like a deconstructed kidney bean with a shadow. The paint’s allowed to drip down, making these little vertical streaks that contrast with the curvy shapes. It’s both intentional and totally free, a balance I really dig. Francis reminds me a bit of Joan Miró, with the way he lets the shapes breathe and play off each other. But where Miró’s got this tight, surreal precision, Francis is all about letting it flow, embracing the mess, and seeing where the blue takes him. It’s not about answers, it’s about the questions the paint throws back at you.