BridgedLott.com
A PASSION FOR DANCE – ARTIST’S STATEMENT
"Creating this series has been highly pleasurable for me. I have been a dancer all my
life. I am no longer as agile and lithe as I used to be, but I still dance. It was a good
thing that I painted this series in my studio and not "en plein air" as I was regularly
inspired to pirouette or execute a quick tango with a brush in my teeth. I can no longer
physically leap as I once could, but, in my mind, especially in my dreams, I can fly,
executing "grande jettes" with ease, the height and duration of which would turn even
Baryshnikov green with envy.
I began each painting by covering the canvas with black paint. This was not just a
preliminary process of providing a protective layer as a base for the upcoming painting,
no, this was the beginning of the painting with each brush-stroke lovingly and carefully
executed. I was not just creating a gloriously black background, free of extraneous light
and colour. I was creating the unlit stage, the place where the magic would happen.
In painting these pieces I could feel the pleasure of a perfect line of limb, the floating
tulle, the satisfying "clunk" of a toe-shoe, the exhilaration of a perfect performance, the
passion for dance.
I can fly!"
B.L.








