Blocked

Carol-Jean *Sparkle* Zrinko

Watercolor and Archival ink on cold press paper

“Blocked” is, in hindsight, about my struggle to return to
making art. In all areas of my art and my life, I struggle. I have
always struggled to create planned, cohesive, and generically attractive works
of art. My life overall has been an organic trial and error. Why should my art be any
different? Every time I tried to make my life as I thought it should be, it
became a chaotic mess. The same has applied to my art more often than not. Abstract art has always come most naturally to me. With
abstraction I can let my current feelings and emotions, and my natural creative
talents, flow into being. “Blocked”, was created on a weekday afternoon. I had
not touched watercolor paints since 2000. I had not painted with a brush in any
medium since 2015. I was a child again with a new set of paints and fresh
paper. But what to paint? I didn’t sketch anything. I tested the blue paints on scrap.
I am always first drawn to the blues. Then I just put brush to paper. I painted
a square. Simple. Then another. When the page was full of varying hues of blue
blocks, I layered on more. Then the pointillism. It has been a favorite
technique for me since grade school, and it added the layer of depth a piece carrying this much on
its shoulders needed to have.