Constructing An “Absolute: Moment” In Latest Painting

The Painting, Process, & Background to “Absolute: Moment”

by Daric Gill

“Absolute: Moment” (detail), Oil paint on reclaimed quilted maple. 11 1/2” x 18 1/2” 3.9.16. — “Absolute: Moment”, Oil paint on reclaimed birds eye maple. 11 1/2” x 18 1/2” 3.9.16.

Snow gloves, tank tops, and an umbrella? Where I live, that can only mean one thing: the seasons are changing. Spring is fast approaching. The 30º shifts and seasonal mixes each day make getting dressed seem more like a daily challenge to design a functional superhero costume. A balancing side effect of this spectacular shift in weather is the equally impressive change in environment.

Crocuses wake up through icy snow crystals. The deciduous trees, with their angrily wild stick-bones, soften due to crimson red buds and fluorescent green leaflets. There’s a change that happens; a release of life back into the world as if a clinched fist has loosened, allowing the life-blood to flow again. As if constantly looking at one’s watch while waiting for company, I actively search for that moment when I can find spring in the world. My latest painting, “Absolute: Moment” searches for that transitional happening, where the old is reborn into something new.

This piece has been selected for this year’s Art for Life benefit. Recently this piece has been dropped off at the prestigious Pizzuti Collection Museum and may travel to several other locations before landing at the Columbus Museum Of Art where it will be auctioned off in support of two worthy causes. Read on to find out more about this piece.

[Process Video & Full Image Gallery Below Article]

A dried and withered purple flowering raspberry (rubus odoratus) twists aside a purple freesia flower that is just seconds from bloom. Both grow up and over a sky-blue paper, torn in two, and placed upon a birdseye maple backdrop. The paper halves are reciprocated in a horizontal orientation.The raspberry bramble once held a set of massive purple flowers and bared fruit during the summer. They have all long since fallen. This hairy-stemmed plant grows in my backyard and I’ve half-heartily tried drying its flowers between book pages. The freesia flower is not at all native to my area and often symbolizes trust. It can be given to thank someone for performing gracefully under difficult situations; An apt gesture as the grey tumultuous winter subsides.

Birds have started to flush back into the newly budding trees. Maybe the actual moment when winter leaves have happened and spring has sprung. Naturally, this metaphor isn’t simply assigned strictly to seasonal change. Often my work will double (or triple) in meaning. The Absolute series deals with forces in our lives that are constant and how they play against those more relative forces. This piece portrays a transitional change in prosperity to rest and back again, of relation and departure, and of course death and life.