Claiborne Colombo is an artist, Creative and Design Director based on Lopez Island, WA.NOTES
Making art and designing things where the land meets the sea. A digital journal and visual record of Claiborne’s art, life, design, and inspiration among all other things…
Island Universes (my favorite quote)
“We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain. By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies - all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.”
Coloring outside the lines.
it has been 7 years since i had last played in a world of full abstraction. i’ve always had motifs or a horizon line to ground the work. something brains could recognize and then interpret.
now, there is just color, water, and paper. though there is simplicity in supplies the output is complex. the nature of water is fluid but stubborn. it will pick a path to flow and never want to deviate. it moves the color with it. pulling it down and dripping it off the paper. it will pool up and settle into the paper at it’s own rate. the colors soak into the page in unpredictable ways.
these paintings are of the stroke of color field where color itself becomes the subject. when there is only color that informs the painting the viewer is left to read into the emotion the piece provokes.
reading and judging the work has become subjective – pieces i hate others love. it is forcing me to work off of intuition more than my educated eye. this challenge in ambiguity is well worth the energy. the body of work is an exploration into unknown territory. it is terrifying and freeing at the same time.
the only way is onward.
Quote of the Day.
“…paving the way for further future experimentation with coloring outside the lines.”
kate haveles
article
Time, time, time.
“Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there… Where is there a place for you to be? No place… Nothing outside you can give you any place… In yourself right now is all the place you’ve got.”
W A T E R
water is associated with qualities of emotion and intuition. it is fluid, strong, never loses shape. it is connected to the moon. water personalities tend to be deep, nurturing, imaginative, moody, sentimental, escapist, etc. it can be a powerful force, it can be still. it is a source of life. it is cleansing, healing, and loving. it is heavy and passive.
if you grew up around water it becomes apart of you and your life. you crave it when you are land–locked and its presence calms you when you make it back.
Day 4 : Onward
today was a day of revival and new beginnings.
two significant things happened today. first, i decided to go all in on piece no.5. drips on drips and i realized that they were taking on a life of their own. the inherent struggle was that i now had two different paintings fighting for space on the same piece of paper. so, say goodbye to no. 5 and say hello to no. 6. these drips and colors needed to stand on their own. with a little bit a breathing room and greater focus i am now really excited about where this piece is going.
this made me realize the second important thing: my work is not over. i knew that going into it but this whole process made me re-realize how sacred studio time is. having been making art since i could hold a crayon in my hand you would think that i would always know that. life happens and to be honest sometimes you just forget and need to be reminded. these past 5 days have made me recommit to what a really love. consider it done, i have renewed my vows to art.
