Provocateur

2008

18" X 37"

Oil on Panel

SOLD

I remember talking with Todd in the Alison Shaw room
at the gallery last year and noticing, over his shoulder,
a couple of these giant old brushes on the top of
an antique cupboard.

He said they might have been for cleaning engines
or machinery of some kind. I asked, and as they are
so famously kind to do, they let me bring them home to
the studio to study.

I wanted to play with the color and the texture
and see if I could render them larger than life
and let them tell a different story.

This brush was never intended to touch paint.
But this tube of Old Holland Barok Red
was up to the challenge.

Laid bare and in deep shadow
on that worn tile floor
I had to step aside
while they danced.