“While working on my newest series, my thoughts traveled through time and space, reflecting on theories of relativity, chaos, quantum entanglements, DNA, but mostly thinking about time.
Time became something I could see – layers of paint, one on top of another, things appearing, disappearing, reappearing – nothing ever really going away. Not exactly going back in time, but more like looking down through time.
I dreamed of parallel worlds – universes where every conceivable eventuality actually happens … universes in which you are painting this and I am viewing it.” —Wini Brewer 2013
ARTIST STATEMENT
Most artists do not like talking about their paintings. They certainly don’t like analyzing them.
Over the years we’ll develop a visual vocabulary and palette that becomes uniquely our own — a recognizable style.
There was a period when I painted a badminton birdie into every painting. Whatever the subject matter, I’d add a birdie. It felt like I had no choice. I didn’t know why. Until the morning I remembered my best childhood summer — the summer my brother and I played badminton from sunrise until sunset, when our dad came home and retrieved the day’s birdies stuck high in the gutters.
I understood. All those painted birdies were my brother. With that new found knowledge, the birdie paintings stopped.
Shapes and symbols come and go, sometimes returning, sometimes not. Sometimes I understand. Sometimes I do not.
I do want my paintings to talk to me, surprise me, teach me. But I won’t force it. I stay open to messages appearing naturally, not through active analyzing. Sometimes I am not ready to understand.
There have been paintings I’ve disliked for no reason. Others liked them, even bought them! It might take a few years for me to realize that the reason I didn’t like a particular painting was because I didn’t want to hear what it had to say. I wasn’t ready.
Though many symbols are universal (I believe in the collective unconscious, important to my process) there is also the personal.
While the viewer’s meaning is every bit as valid and valuable, it will likely differ from mine. Unless you spent a summer playing badminton with my brother?
My paintings are many layers and patterns. Layers are like a biography. Our lives can be viewed as layers of years. Some aspects remain visible while other aspects are painted over, lost. I see my paintings as autographical in that they are layers like I see in my life. Layers that are a battlefield. Decisions made. Some good, some not so good. I ruin and save a painting many times. The bigger the battle, the better the painting. You must not stop too soon. You must not be afraid to make a mistake.
I love patterns. Nature loves repetitive patterns.
An assignment at UCLA was to paint a very intricate, complicated pattern using the grey scale. Labor intensive. Turning it in we were told, “OK, that’s your BACKGROUND. Now go paint an object over top.” I fell in love! My running studio joke became “every painting in progress is a nice background”. My paintings are often a series of painted over backgrounds.
Everything from my Connecticut childhood eventually finds it’s way into a painting. I paint bumble bees, dogs, trees, flowers and song birds. You may not even realize that hiding between the layers there might be a bird or a bee or two.
It’s always nice when someone tells me they like a painting. But it is thrilling when they tell me they want it to share a place in their home. I can’t imagine a greater honor for me and for the painting.
Photo: Wini in her studio by James Payne