Caroline Blaker 

I work in two ways: One is very quick, expressive, loud, and graphic, and the other is thoughtful, slower, and usually done in phases. I use these two media, latex and oil, to differentiate these two ways that I work, as I have largely assigned one working method to each- quick to latex, slower to oil. In latex, I have chosen a palette that I had always been drawn to for one reason or another. I use these colors repeatedly in whirlwind expressive artwork that touches my love for color and satisfies an acute creative urge. Latex paint is sculptural in nature, dries quickly, and is opaque and thus lends itself to a faster working process and less layering.

Oil paintings typically begin as underdeveloped, abstract ideas and change as they are worked on for longer. They more often than not reflect a concept that intrigues me, and will show evidence of the step by step nature of grappling with abstract ideas to a conclusion. A finished work in oil is an artifact of this process, and the conclusion is the image that is photographed and recorded as the image associated with the title, dates, medium etc. Oil invariably takes a long time to dry and is transparent, and working with oil in phases has proven its rewards to me time after time.