CONGRATULATORY GESTURE

Blue Prayer
Melinda Stickney-Gibson (American)

In 2008, I was in search of an appropriate something to congratulate myself for finally escaping the New York advertising rat race. I found that something in the Elena Zang Gallery near Woodstock New York. Though a 60s hippie at heart, the now late Elena possessed a very discerning eye that attracted some of America’s finest artists to her rural gallery.

This powerful work by American painter Melinda Stickney-Gibson immediately caught my attention. I’ll admit that its commanding size (178 cm square/70” square) was a motivating factor. Plus I’m partial to blue. I was also fascinated by the many paint drips reflecting the creative process. But mostly, it was its enigmatic central figure: Was it an atomic mushroom cloud?

When I reached out to Melinda from Istanbul, I learned her intentions were diametrically different from my catastrophic interpretation…

It was painted at a time in my life that was full of change, uncertainty, and contentment: all at the same time. As with almost all of my work, I began by writing personal thoughts directly onto the canvas—withholding nothing, either good or bad, because as the painting developed those writings would be obscured (but always there). I’ve always felt those honest written thoughts help give a painting its life. From that point, paint is applied, scraped off, and applied again. The painting’s character began to inform its title: Blue Prayer. It’s related to an openness and calm, at least for me.

I’ve spent quite a lot of time trying to find (or at least imagine) those underlying secret thoughts. Though I haven’t been successful, I’ve come to appreciate the many layers of color that hide behind a seemingly singular blue.

BluePrayer’s size has sometimes proved problematic. It didn’t fit into either the building’s elevator or staircase of my Istanbul apartment. Not to worry. The movers simply hauled it up on a rope to my 4th-floor balcony (as I looked on with fingers crossed).