The story of Vance Kirkland's studio, and the techniques he developed for completing his Dot Paintings.

1. THE STRAPS OVER THE TABLE
In Kirkland’s Workroom
To create large, abstract paintings with his unique oil and water mixtures and
later dots, Vance Kirkland had to place them flat on a table. Since he then could
not reach the center of a painting (he was 5’2”), nor could he bend over a
painting for 10 hours a day, he lay across straps that were strung from the ceiling,
about 1 ½ feet above the painting. He would already have attached skateboards
to the painting’s wooden stretcher (see skateboard on table) and could take a
cane or hook and pull the painting back and forth. He also could lie in either
direction in the straps.
A third reason he wanted to float over his canvases, which mostly depict
imaginary nebulas and galaxies, was that he did not like to think of his paintings as
directional, as having a bottom. “There is no up or down in space,” Kirkland
stated, “and this is as close as I’ll ever get to being an astronaut.” For the same
directional reason, he hated to sign his paintings. He would say, “By signing this
abstract painting, I am condemning it to be hung one way for the rest of its
existence.” Numerous Kirkland paintings are signed twice, along different edges,
and he encouraged collectors and museums to hang them all different ways,
regardless of the position of his signature. If it was a square painting, Kirkland
would sometimes hang it in a diamond position.
More information about Vance Kirkland is available at
kirklandmuseum.org