painting fire on silk, mixed media

Dye painting on silk is an ancient technique that produces intense color and chemical dynamics of chaos and control. A fundamental "feeling in your bones" for physics and chemistry is the underpinning for successful mastery. I typically paint with two hands full of mop quill brushes, each brush loaded with a different color. I drop dye into dye, wet-on-wet, using rubbing alcohol instead of water for a vehicle, as it makes the color move faster. Painting color into color, pools of dye moving across the threads, being sucked into dry areas, controlled by masks, resist lines, and sometimes other chemistry, I create pictures of the collusion of natural forces.