Where water and land meet there is mud – combining resistant yet ultimately friendly elements of wet and dry. Clear as Mud squishes together multiple attempts at painting into singular endeavors.
Most of the paintings employ a technique I call, Stretch/Re-stretch, wherein I take a larger canvas and staple it down to the stretcher. I then make a painting as normal. I then pull it off the stretcher, tack it down with some of the previous painting showings, then make yet another painting. It is like writing an essay with a paragraph that does not relate yet can be used as a jumping-off point.
There are multiple paintings in one painting. Some of the larger paintings are stretched and re-stretched twenty times or more. The paintings are made with different scale stretchers.
The idea came about when I wanted to get outside the standard truth of painting/drawing: it is a solitary activity. In 2017 I got together multiple Maryland, Washington D.C., and Virginian painters to engage in this system. I made a painting then re-stretched it for each artist to work with. They modified my paintings then I turned my solo show into a group show.
Clear as Mud takes this back to a self-working scenario, safe in a personal studio. Each painting attempt doesn’t really extract a singular sort of painting because I am always the author. While I try to pierce the veil of wet and dry I just kind of end up with something that is clear as mud.