Spirit in the Sky 1969

Ronnie Landfield painted "Spirit in the Sky," and it feels like he made it with light itself, doesn't it? The way he's dragged the paint, those horizontal lines, it's all about the gesture, like a dance across the canvas. You can see the evidence of the making, the movement of the hand. Those drips and thin trails of paint – some white, some ochre, some with the faintest blush of rose – it's like he's letting the paint have its own little adventure. There's this one thin tendril of paint, see how it breaks away from the pack and just goes wandering off on its own? It's so delicate, so fragile. It reminds me that painting is all about embracing the unexpected, the happy accidents that lead you down new paths. Landfield is maybe looking back to Kandinsky, but he’s doing his own thing. It's a conversation, an exchange of energy. Ultimately, it's up to us to decide what it all means, and maybe it doesn't have to mean anything at all.