Blind Painting Project
Experimental Process: Painting while blindfolded
I began by placing three empty canvas boards on three easels in a circle formation. My intention was to try and document the feeling of being seen or watched. To evoke the feeling of being observed I asked a collaborator to document the project with my 35mm film camera.
Soon after this experiment began, the discomfort of sightlessness far outweighed the discomfort of being watched. So instead, I decided to test my ability to trust and listen to my environment. I focused on the physical sensations: the wetness of the paint, the texture of the boards, and the excitement of uncertainty of what might be developing on the canvases. Disregarding completely the aesthetic quality of my own work was strange, but I soon found the freedom of releasing all expectations.
Before I took off the blindfold my art was, like Schrödinger's cat, a paradox: simultaneously a masterpiece and a piece of trash.
