the art of procrastination

Almost a year ago I had an idea for a series of paintings. They were going to be big (36" x 36") and each would be based on the theme of a different sacred animal to the aboriginal people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. I grew up surrounded by two kinds of indigenous art: the local stuff and the pre-Columbian art of Mexico, of which my mother and grandmother, both of whom grew up in Mexico City, brought examples to Canada. I have explored the ancient Mexican motifs quite a bit so I figured it was time to look a little closer to home. I love this stuff. I also lust after primitive Australian and African art and would be a huge collector if I could.

So, with the best of intentions, I set out to plan my series. I decided to mix it up a bit, with collage elements, stencilled bits and stamps made with lino cutting materials, and employ the patterns and techniques of my other work. So far so good. I also decided to use a geometric division of space, something a little more structured than in previous work+. Last March I started work on a salmon painting. I used Tlingit basket designs for the two fish at the top and a Tlingit wood-carving design for the salmon collage below. Here I am adding collage elements ... and that's just about where it stopped! For the last ten months I have been having staring contests with this:

The important elements were done; I just needed a day or so to tie it all together. But did I ever set aside that day? Apparently not. Anyway, this past week I seem to have stalled out and needed a quick success to jump start me so I dove in again ~ after dusting it, that is! Not sure if it worked yet...

I finished the three unfinished panels in the top two-thirds of the painting then panicked when faced with the bottom panel. So I photographed the painting-so-far and then used that crass crutch known as Photoshop to figure out what to do next. I have repainted areas enough times to finally recognise the value of a little pre-planning. For someone as impulsive as me that's a HUGE step forward! These are the four alternatives I liked best:


As you can see below, I went with the green but darkened it even more. The next question is: will I continue the series? I'm not convinced it would be anything other than an interesting but expensive and time-consuming exercise for me so I haven't decided yet. In the meantime, there are a few dead trees on my painting agenda.

+Even though I abandoned the series before even finishing one painting I did use the spatial division idea in my series of Celtic tree calendar drawings of last summer.