In the last newsletter, Jim Klein revealed the completed “Red Dot” painting. This week, he discusses “Red Dot” and the unexpected series the artwork has inspired.
Q: As an artist, are you happy with the finished version of “Red Dot”? Was there anything you might have done differently?
Jim: When a painting is finished I don’t feel happy or sad. The art is just complete. As for doing anything differently, it wouldn’t have mattered in the end. The art tends to take on a direction and a life of its own.
Q: How long did this painting take you to complete from start to finish?
Jim: I don’t keep a strict record of time when I paint, although I did notice quite a lot was spent on “Red Dot”. It also spent a lot of time in the Incubation Room*.
Q: Was this a longer than usual time for a painting to be hung in the Incubation Room?
Jim: It varies like anything else. Some paintings hang in the Incubation Room for a while, some are complete the moment I put my brush down.
Q: Would you like to share your personal interpretation of “Red Dot”?
Jim: I like to leave interpretation of my paintings up to others. “Red Dot” is more geometrical than what I usually paint so I think it would be fun to allow the viewers to interpret their own meaning.
Q: Will we be seeing more of these “before and after” versions of other paintings in the future?
Jim: I would like to showcase more “before and after’s” but the paintings are often very unpredictable. Sometimes I find myself dressed up ready to go out to dinner when suddenly inspiration hits and I have to paint. I’ve gotten paint on some very nice dress shirts because it can be so spontaneous.
One thing I can say is “Red Dot” has inspired a series of geometrical and mathematic paintings. I’ve got a new one in the works that I am calling “Goldbach’s Conjecture” and I’ll leave the math people to decipher the meaning.
* The Incubation Room is a space located at Jim’s Farm Studio in Colorado where paintings are hung and let to sit (or incubate) before revealing to Jim if more work needs to be done or the artwork is complete.
To view more abstract artwork like “Red Dot”, please visit the Online Gallery here.