im-age ar´chae-ol´o-gy™, [im-ij] [ahr-kee-ol-uh-jee], n. 1. The systematic recovery by artistic methods of imagery within the ground of a painting.2. A dig into the surface ground with the butt of a paintbrush to imprint an image.3. The space between the figure and the ground from which emerges a skeletal impression of an image.4. A constant searching for the middle ground through the application of paint and projected thought that culminated into a work of art.
This is the first painting completed in over two months since I began the gallery/school/studio journey. The painting was inspired by a friends photograph of the Gorge amphitheatre in George, Washington. He calls the spot "heavens amphitheatre". The green, blue and yellow palette is reminiscent of paintings that I did when I was 16 and 17 years old. The earth object that is overlapped on the foreground is actually the same object painted in the "Dubai" painting. It is from the poplar tree and looks somewhat like a spire. I chose this object for its pointed shape and majestic look like that of a kings spire. There is also a tower metaphor going on in the imagery. The sky was inspired by Sharon Antholt's Tibetan paintings. Antholt is one of my teachers who used to show her work at Anton Gallery, in Washington D.C. The gallery closed several years ago.
Some thoughts about the spire are as follows.
A spire is in the word inspire. Dictionary definitions:
a tall, acutely pointed pyramidal roof or roof like construction upon a tower, roof, etc.
a similar construction forming the upper part of a steeple.
a tapering, pointed part of something; a tall, sharp-pointed summit, peak, or the like: the distant spires of the mountains.
the highest point or summit of something: the spire of a hill; the spire of one's profession.
a sprout or shoot of a plant, as an acrospire of grain or a blade or spear of grass.
