Impasto Limoso

In 1992 I was repairing some cracks in a plaster ceiling, a calling card of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. After patching those cracks and texturing the ceiling, prior to painting, I suddenly saw art in the patchwork variations of five yellows and off whites. I thought what if I added pigment to sheetrock mud and did multiple layers of skip troweling so I had color behind color? Hmmm. Two years later I gave the technique a try. The first piece wasn't particularly stunning but there was just enough potentially interesting about the idea that I persisted. That was true of the first seven pieces. On #8 I hit pay dirt. I decided to add an element of 'realism' to the background and delving into my bag of stupid came up with Punkasaurus Rex.

The flush of pleasure I enjoyed after making that piece lasted for several weeks and I was hooked on sheetrock mud as a creative medium. As time went on I developed all sorts of techniques and the work became rather sophisticated. A good friend happens to be a distributer of beautiful custom frames for artwork and I was able to trade labor for frames that I never would have been able to afford. He suggested that I coin a term for this 'new' style of art. As he pointed out, pigmented sheetrock mud doesn't have much mystery and art is all about mystery. I'm not sure I bought into that assertion but as a laugh I decided to make up a name for the work.

I was using heavily textured material and using trowels and palette knives for the work so obviously I was already into the realm of impasto. All I needed was an Italian word for 'mud' to go with it and I was all set. Sure enough, an Italian-English dictionary had the word limoso, an adjective for mud. Aahhh, that had a truly artsy ring to it. Impasto Limoso. Impasto Limoso. I completed 115 pieces in five years. Here are thirty of my favorites. As always, clicking/tapping on the thumbnail will display the full size image. Clicking on the X or anywhere outside the image dismiss it.