“Room 237” by Michele Bledsoe
The title of this painting is kind of an inside joke my husband and I share.
Room 237 is a documentary we watched one evening.. a film that explores a bunch of weird theories about the secret meaning found in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie, The Shining.
The documentary was pretty ridiculous..
but when I finished this painting, I understood the connection.
I don’t plan out my paintings.
No preconceived ideas. No preliminary sketches.
I just sit in front of a blank canvas and start drawing.
A strange thing happens when you work this way..
you become a conduit.
Those seemingly random objects form a mysterious language of symbols. On the surface, a painting may appear to be very simple and straightforward… but underneath, it communicates on a much deeper level. Far greater than the sum of its parts – art explores the shared experience of the human condition.
So, I am not going to dissect my painting, examining each separate element, providing a simple explanation for every individual object it contains..
It doesn’t work that way.
Art is not a puzzle to be solved..
it is a mystery to be contemplated.
Such is life.
