Signposts to the Past

Signposts to the Past
In this painting, the past is not the subject of representation. It is part of the material substance of the work itself.

Into the structure of acrylic and impasto, I incorporated ash from old wooden boards that once belonged to my family home. From the same place come three old nails — rusted, bent, and bearing traces of earlier use and of other people’s hands.

I did not treat them as decoration or as symbols added to an already finished composition. Their existing forms became, for me, gestures I had not made myself. I responded to them with gestures of my own.

The nails point towards one another. Their directions continue into incised marks, the movement of the impasto, the gesture of the hand, and the flow of colour. In this way, they help determine the structure of the painting — becoming signposts to the past.

The ash and the metal come from the same place, yet time treated them differently. The wood lost its form and returned as matter. The metal retained its shape and was given a new function — it became direction.

I do not reconstruct what once was. I take up the trace that remained and carry it forward.

The past is not represented here. It takes part in the making of the painting.