Spiral

I was up painting Friday night and wasn't having a lot of success. Earlier in the evening I'd put a 36"x48" canvas sup on my primary easel just to have something on it. I got a funny feeling right after I put it up. I was walking away from it and turned around for something and I got the oddest sensation that it (the canvas) was looking back. I even posted a note on Twitter commenting on my new, blank canvas "smiling" at me and how I knew it was going to be something different. I had no idea what tho.
I'd covered my palette with plastic wrap and had turned off the tunes. I was ready to hang it up for the night when, for no apparent reason, I snatched a dirty brush out of my turp can and started frantically... for lack of a better word, scribbling. I still really didn't have any idea what was going to come out. Kindof like Voodoo Chevalier(i think that's the name for it). Like it wasn't me and someone else was driving. I'm not really talking about spirit possession of course, but the sensation is odd to be sure. I think a lot of artists get this feeling.
So here she is. I'm calling her Spiral. It's a comic book reference to a six-armed woman that appears from time to time in the X-Men. Her character always made me think of Shiva as the Cosmic Dancer. Those images have always fascinated me. It's not the first time I've depicted a figure like this. I painted a six-armed feminine figure a few years back. A personal favorite of mine. This one's feeling different tho. I'm not sure where she's going to go from here. I'm not putting much into planning. I plan on doing some conscious tweaking, but for the most part I'm just going to step up to the canvas and let it come out. She could wind up with dozens of limbs... who knows? I'm looking forward to seeing where this one goes. Maybe moreso than anything else I've done recently. It's nice to take a new direction. It's been a long time since I've let myself explore so it's exciting. Maybe a change in direction will be good for me. Maybe this represents new things for me in other areas as well. Sometimes I think this facet of my work is my real self speaking up.
We'll see what he has to say.

Cheers,

R