Fluid Art as Resistance:

I get asked about my new work often, where it came from, how I learned it etc. The short answer is that fluid art is 1 part science, 2 parts art and 3 parts magic. Like any medium, if you have the tools and no training you can still make something happen. The skill comes from understanding color theory, and paint densities so you can plan where your colors fall. The magic comes from within. Your vision, your feelings, your soul has to show up on the canvas for it to be worth anything to anyone.

What most folks don't know is where it came from - and the truth is it was an act of rebellion by a very well- known muralist, Mexican artist and activist, David Alfaro Siqueiros. Siquieros was a contemporary of other revolutionaries like Diego Rivera and Friday Khalo.  

Many have said that Siqueiros' art was "interrupted" by his politics, he, like most artists, believed the two were intricately intertwined. In his manifesto Vida Americana, after being exposed to Marxism and seeing the life of the working and rural poor, he called for a "spiritual renewal" to simultaneously bring back the virtues of classical painting while infusing this style with "new values" that acknowledge the "modern machine" and the "contemporary aspects of daily life". He felt that a "constructive spirit" is essential to meaningful art, which rises above mere decoration or false, fantastical themes. Through this style, Siqueiros hoped to create a style that would bridge national and universal art.

In the 1930's, now a dedicated Marxist, Siqueiros developed his "accidental painting" technique in a workshop with the intent on making works less individual in nature and more communal. We now refer to this as fluid art or pouring. This style heavily influenced later artists, including Jackson Pollack who was attended this workshop.

In the end, Siqueiros would not only paint controversial and politically charged murals paid for by the wealthy while simultaneously exposing their vices, but create an entire new genre of abstract art that would indeed bridge universality. Fluid art itself was a commentary on elitist notions of art and who can access it, without ever including the in your face revelations of his murals. When I see so many artists critiquing this art form as not really art because any one can do it...I think, yes. That, my friends, is exactly the point.