When I first brainstormed my 19 videos in response to the coronavirus, I jotted down the idea of painting on the wall of my home studio/office. Since it was due for a fresh coat of paint anyway, the idea of making a big mess of paint seemed an apt image for all the home improvement projects being talked about during the pandemic. I imagined a big mess of brush strokes on the wall using movement to dictate the arcs, swipes, and dabs.
As the idea percolated in my head and in beta tests (without paint), I found metaphors like "painting oneself into a corner," "painting the town red," and messing up the "white space" I live in. Further, I watched artists paint murals in the wake of protests, and wondered if marks on my interior walls could suggest my commitment to putting my body on the line (in the age of covid.)
When John Lewis died, the New York Times published an essay he had written to be shared after his burial. In it, he urged getting into "good trouble, necessary trouble" as a call to action. He also talked about how freedom and democracy are not states, they are action. So more and more I saw my act of painting as a metaphorical way to align with social justice movements, to "mark" myself and let other colors subsume my body, literally. To be sure, this is a subtle aspect of this work and a viewer may develop any number of other narratives. I find when choreographic work (or other artistic expressions) insists on message, dogma, or proclamation, the "messaging" can overtake more compelling complex emotion, image, and memory.
This work took a while to birth as I struggled with the meaningfulness of painting myself with colors... I tried recording the words of John Lewis; I tried dancing to a recording of MLK Jr. sermon in Alabama. In the end, it is simultaneously an image of simply trying to improve a room in my home, and wishing to improve democracy in my home country; hence the tone of yearning in the music, and messiness in execution.
Other side notes: I couldn't ever rehearse with the paint so I couldn't do a re-do even after the cap fell off my head (sad); I papered the entire floor to protect from flinging paint; the shirt got tossed, the pants will remain forever painting pants; next, I will actually re-paint the room and continue to make more room for color in white spaces.
see the video: https://vimeo.com/468768388
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