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—with-holding 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.

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