Noir d'ivoire IV 2008

Monique Orsini made this painting Noir d'ivoire IV with gestural marks in black and white. I can almost imagine the artist in the act of painting. Trial, error, and intuition all play a part in a painting like this, shifting and emerging until it finds its final form. I sympathize with the artist, thinking about what it might have been like to create. The paint looks relatively thin in this picture. Notice how that affects our experience of the painting. We are able to see every gesture, every brushstroke. Look at the marks in the top left. You can clearly see the artist load her brush with pigment and then drag it across the white surface. It communicates feeling, intention, and meaning. Artists are in an ongoing conversation, exchanging ideas across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression that embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations.