The proposed technique helps this ambivalent goal of exerting a bit of control over the fluid simulation while keeping the flows as natural as possible.
Half the reactions have been supportive, and he's relieved the other half have just been ambivalent. " I didn't really have to be ashamed of it anymore, " he says.
It seems that Rothko always felt ambivalent about the commission, as his contract had a clause, which would allow him to back out of the deal and retrieve his paintings, if necessary.