Mephistos

Morning Caress

By Ray on December 14th, 2008

Laying in bed, holding someone you care about has to be some of the sweetest moments that I think can possibly exist. As such a moment occurred in the not so distant past I kept thinking in my half awake state how one would capture something like that artistically. The more I thought of that the more I realized how come I could never truly be an artist and am instead left to appreciate the artistic endeavors of others. My thoughts ran something akin to the following:There has to be color, warm colors. Colors that represent each touch, each caress. How would that work? Maybe the hand could be dipped in paint ran across the canvas. Warm hues of blue. That only does so much though, perhaps each finger should be dipped in slightly different hues ranging from blues to greens.

Unlike the above, it would more like finger painting, the motions would have to be similar to the same touches that occur the morning caress. Sometimes the whole hand moving up the arm or down the back, smearing the blues and greens together in deep boldness. At other times only the lightest smudge of color in a circle as a finger tip only lightly moves, leaving only the blue itself.

But then I start to wonder how can you represent all the touches in different places in any sort of meaningful way on a flat canvas? But how does one paint in a three-dimensional space? And given the issues I have with just thinking of it as a painting I can’t imagine going to sculpture instead. Maybe a HUGE canvas four or five feet tall and hundreds of feet long. Touches at matching points on the height of the canvas and the touches move through time working left to right on the length of the canvas? But then that is to logical perhaps, to much of the trying to fit everything in instead of the artistic representation of it.

And the color of where the lips touch, red? To expected, gold, again varied in hue based on the intensity of the touch. And the warmth of a breath on flesh? A swirl of a burnt orange perhaps?

And what colors would the other hand have? Reds and purples? Is that too much color? And this doesn’t begin to explore where the bodies are just touching be default and there is that spot of warmth? And what of where they touch?

And yet again I realize I would want the perfect representation and would no know how to achieve it. Would Picasso have ever gotten so hung up? Maybe? But maybe it that ability to try for the perfect representation that separates the artist from those that merely can appreciate it.

So the only thing I know of for sure is that the name of the painting in my head is Morning Caress and it is beautiful, warm, and sweet just like the moments. And just like those moments it is constantly changing. And MUCH better than the mere words that I have tried to express here.