Untitled 1974

Clyfford Still made this untitled painting with oil on canvas, and looking at it, I can imagine the act of painting itself – all that shifting and emerging through trial, error, and intuition. Still’s marks remind me of when I’m in the studio, wrestling with a painting, trying to get it to do something, anything! I wonder if he also felt that tension between intention and the unruly nature of paint? The way these strokes of yellow, white, and black paint bristle and drip feels so alive, so urgent. They're not just colors, but emotional states, intentions, maybe even frustrations, caught in a delicate dance on the canvas. I think of other painters like Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler and wonder, what would they have made of this? I believe we’re all just trying to figure out how to make this messy, beautiful world of ours make sense, or maybe, just make good art! It’s like we’re all talking to each other, across time, saying "Hey, I tried this, what do you think?"