“I am so happy to view your stunning painting when I’m at my desk!
… First Right of Refusal was the one in the foyer of your house that took my breath away…”
~Anne Akiko Meyers, violinist
For the 25 paintings created for the Volcano Project, Arveil formulated a varnish-medium based on natural resins, and employed her knowledge of the layering process of Oriental lacquer. The paintings are on wood panels and natural gesso. This particular use of resin is part of the process of varnishing violins, a complex technique which is unfit to expressive painting and particularly difficult to manipulate over large areas. It is a self-destructive process, as the image is extensively sanded by hand or eroded with strong solvents at each layer. Repeated along 20 or 30 micro-thin layers, the method challenges the notion of the artist’s control.
The varnish layering superimposes different refraction indexes that construct fleeting, evolving images and denote a presence of life, unequaled for reaching to the core of human experience. The spectators see the painting each time as both alike and different, triggering new sensations and interpretations. They comment that these paintings and texts have an immediate “speaking” presence.
