JAY BURTON TRACY | Paintings
blast : detail #5 (from The Ruined Sky), 2011
latex, water-soluble pigment, silica, polyurethane, homemade walnut ink
carbon black, victoria blue, wax, iron oxide, steel shavings, gesso on plywood panel
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches | private collection
carbon black, victoria blue, wax, iron oxide, steel shavings, gesso on plywood panel
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches | private collection
blast : detail #6 (from The Ruined Sky), 2011
latex, water-soluble pigment, silica, polyurethane, homemade walnut ink
carbon black, victoria blue, wax, iron oxide, steel shavings, gesso on plywood panel
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches | private collection
carbon black, victoria blue, wax, iron oxide, steel shavings, gesso on plywood panel
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches | private collection
blast : detail #7 (from The Ruined Sky), 2011
latex, water-soluble pigment, silica, polyurethane, homemade walnut ink
carbon black, victoria blue, wax, iron oxide, steel shavings, gesso on plywood panel
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches | private collection
carbon black, victoria blue, wax, iron oxide, steel shavings, gesso on plywood panel
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches | private collection
blast : detail #8 (from The Ruined Sky), 2011
latex, water-soluble pigment, silica, polyurethane, homemade walnut ink
carbon black, victoria blue, wax, iron oxide, steel shavings, gesso on plywood panel
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches | private collection
carbon black, victoria blue, wax, iron oxide, steel shavings, gesso on plywood panel
12 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches | private collection
this group of paintings documents
some of my first concerted efforts
to locate form through the construction
and destruction of emulsified layers of
material whose physical and chemical natures,
compatibilities, and incompatibilities combine
to generate (and memorialize) multivariate
accretive processes—some visible, some
invisible; some purposefully cultivated;
some raw or undercooked—all left
open and unresolved inside what
i term a stratigraphy of damage.
the sublimated gesture—as explored
in my work with cameraless photography
in the early 1990s and in subsequent work
with heliogenic and thermogenic drawing—
finds new application here in these
small but dense paintings.
the plastic properties
and chemical responses
of certain receptive compounds
and sensitive materials remain
important elements in much
of my current work across
a variety of media.
some of my first concerted efforts
to locate form through the construction
and destruction of emulsified layers of
material whose physical and chemical natures,
compatibilities, and incompatibilities combine
to generate (and memorialize) multivariate
accretive processes—some visible, some
invisible; some purposefully cultivated;
some raw or undercooked—all left
open and unresolved inside what
i term a stratigraphy of damage.
the sublimated gesture—as explored
in my work with cameraless photography
in the early 1990s and in subsequent work
with heliogenic and thermogenic drawing—
finds new application here in these
small but dense paintings.
the plastic properties
and chemical responses
of certain receptive compounds
and sensitive materials remain
important elements in much
of my current work across
a variety of media.
disjecta studio (north portland, oregon)
