Randomness of lines

The past couple of days I’ve been thinking about random lines in drawing and painting, and as I was going through my photos, I started to notice random lines appearing in nature which provide an abstract, but beautiful design.

I think what is drawing me to the idea of randomness is that happenstance leads to discovery, and non-curated, unplanned events cause an interruption to a go-with-the-flow routine which is safe, but maybe less interesting.

Randomness helps keep staleness of control in check. Sometimes I intentionally scribble lines over a drawing I am working on. A spurt of angry emotion, throwing a wrench into the gears. Then I have to figure out how to continue to work with the new marks, because I cannot throw anything away.

Too much rain causes my heirloom tomatoes to split, causing both ugly and beautiful drawn random lines on an otherwise perfect fruit.

Distemper is allowed to flow and mix in a wet paper.

Random patterns caused by steam escaping from dough.

The setting sun illuminates a narrow strip with a shocking vermillion glow in just one spot. A moment that lasted less than five minutes.

A randomly drawn line can be cut apart, and put back together to create something altogether different. Maybe more intentional.

I struggle with abstraction and keep wiping off my work and then try again. Beneath each layer is a trace of pentimento.