Statement

Watermarks

Stan Cardinet

24 July 2007

The term watermarks suggests quality paper. The painting has the ocean with its frothy white surf and sky above the ‘paper’ on which markings appear on two levels. In surf, the marks rise, a mixture of pseudo petroglyphs and fake calligraphy, suggestive of fish and human bones. Above the surf, an abstract dark script comments on what’s colorfully emerging below. The commentary is beyond translation, existing as painted oil marks that suggest a narrative. The painting balances (false) symbols, failed language, and colors that rise into the splendor of decorative silver and gold. 

What is a fresh perspective? The answer rests in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s observation, “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.”

Perhaps my painting Watermarks evokes the silent voices, the smell of seaweed and the taste of warm salty Pacific water.