Deer Dancer 1989

Carlos Almaraz built up this painting, Deer Dancer, with layers of energetic brushstrokes and vivid color. I imagine the work coming into being with an intuitive back-and-forth, adding and subtracting, shifting, and building until it found its eventual resolution. Looking at Almaraz's painting, I feel for him as a fellow painter. I wonder what he might have been thinking when he made this? His process has brought the painting into being through layers of thin paint. See how these combine to form the artwork’s surface, building texture, and adding to the emotional and intellectual resonance of the work. Look at the dancer’s green leg thrusting forward and see how the gesture communicates feeling, intention, and meaning. I think of other painters like Marsden Hartley and the way they built up the surface of a painting, embracing uncertainty, allowing multiple interpretations, and layering meaning. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another’s creativity through an exchange of ideas across time.