Pale Composition

Pale Composition – 2012 – 60’x48′ – Michael Burris Johnson

Pale Composition – 48′ x 60′ – oil on canvas – January – Decemeber 24, 2012

This painting took me one full year to complete. It is an attempt to create something that touches a limit of what a painting is capable of expressing, something that reaches out to the senses’ horizon. The original intention was to make manifest an intangible concept of patience and faith. In the process the painting changed, and I was changed. In retrospect it feels like there were ghosts down in the studio with me. The process became a study of many things – the continual return to the painting was Sisyphean, the time warp of progress became both a burden, and a relief, that the painting was not going to go away for me, and continued to provide me with work. I realized that space and time are essentially the same thing. When the grid became fully filled I felt as though I had emptied a portion of my spirit, or allowed myself a deep exhale. I hope that the painting is capable of offering an eternal exhale to a viewer. I feel as though this painting takes place on a spiritual plane. I began this painting in January 2012 when I was 22, and completed it December 24, 2012 when I was 23.