Carroll Cloar, Hostile Butterflies

Carroll Cloar (Arkansan), “Hostile Butterflies,” acrylic. Imagine a blank white canvas before you. Then you splatter drops of diluted color randomly on the surface, an “imprimatura.” Then you draw the shapes of the butterflies and the fleeing children. Then paint opaque color only outside the edges of those shapes, leaving the butterfly wings and parts of the figures as windows to the splatters beneath. That’s how this painting was constructed. Is the image charming or terrifying to you? You’re looking in a mirror. The painting reflects you.