The White of Old Bones

Intimate Communication Series, collage, 6 inches by 6 inches, by Leslie Avon Miller

So, for about the forth or fifth time, I am working on a White Series. Now let me tell you, this isn’t easy. That’s why I’m still working on it. White is a color, but as colors go, it isn’t very extroverted, like red or even introverted, like blue. It is actually quite neutral. Kind of like the kid in school who was always okay but never excelled at anything; until he went away to college and became an engineer. Or the girl, who hitchhiked to Los Angeles, took off her braces, got beautiful and became an actress. When they show up at the class reunion, people say “wow!” White is like that. Quiet, unassuming and blended into the background. Until it finds the right setting, with the right cast of supporting actors, and then, well, something beautiful happens.

Whites in all shades of warm butter or gray misty fog, or blue toned sandy seaside, the white of winter drifted snows, the color of old bones; those whites can sing in three part harmony. Those whites mixed together are like a surprise gift wrapped in tissue paper. And that’s what I am seeking and striving to create. And I am also looking to get a little funky kind of thing going with a personal language of symbols, marks and layers of texture. I want to create contrast that accentuates what’s happening, but remains true to the beauty of white, like old world marble which is white but all those other colors too.

I have been reading Wolf Kahn again. What rings true for me is Wolf speaking about the artist expressing unique, particular perceptions. He said “the intimacy of his personal relationship to the work at hand has to remain inviolate.” The White Series keeps calling me back again and again, like a spiral. So here I go again. It’s going to be fun, engaging and challenging work. What could be better than that?