Painting 1-75 1975

Joseph Marioni made this painting, simply titled "Painting 1-75", with what looks like layers and layers of brown. This methodical approach reveals artmaking as a journey, a slow build-up of color and texture. Up close, the surface is a landscape of its own. You can almost feel the drag of the brush as it pulls pigment across the canvas, each stroke adding to the depth and weight of the color. It's not just brown, it's a symphony of browns, dark chocolate melting into rusty earth. I find myself drawn to the bottom edge, where the paint seems to feather out, less controlled, more like a stain. It reminds me of how color can seep into our lives, subtly changing everything it touches. There is something about Marioni's work that makes me think of Mark Rothko, not in terms of style, but in the way he treats color as a source of pure, emotional experience. Art is about exploring these kinds of ambiguities, these feelings that don't have clear answers, but resonate deeply within us.