He is proof that I have also been going to art-related events. So far I have been to two. Well... one was First Friday at work and the other was from when I went to check out the new Obscura gallery. At the former, I met Dorothy Pitman-Hughes, a literal icon of second/third-wave feminism and it was magical. The latter was at Obscure, where I saw some interesting artworks by Marleigh Culver which I didn't necessarily dislike.... but still found hard to appreciate. However, I was interested in her artist's statement and the many different forms in which her works could be bought/sold.
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I'm taking a brief break from architecture attempts so that I can produce some works that I might actually be alright with showing at the BA Portfolio show... Also to show my professor that I really am doing work for this class. I put my 2 weeks in about 2 weeks ago so that I can concentrate more on classes.... and because I was fed up with a boss who actually accused me of stealing because I planned on continuing to work after putting in my 2 weeks. But I digress... I'm doing a landscape again because I'd been looking for some architectural references from a trip to my dad's home country 10 years ago and I inevitably remembered how much I'd loved the scenery. It reminded me of visiting my mom's hometown in PA and looking at elk with amish people and I realized that I really miss traveling and that I may be trying to make up for my current immobility by doing these works. I've been hitting a wall with these urban landscapes and I thought that starting over would be a good idea. It was not. I showed it in class and expressed my disappointment in how things were working out and was asked why I don't just stop,,, give up. I don't like giving up, especially because this project has proved to be a real challenge for me and now my pride is kicking in and I have to overcome it so that I can feel like a successful student again. References now include Gregory Lang and the building across the street from where I work I have continued to follow my desire to paint an alleyway within an urban landscape, and I must say that it has not been going as I had expected it would. I had started out with my initial sketch and subsequently decided that the small format was not to my liking and believed that a larger surface would make things easier. I wasn't entirely correct in this belief.... the larger size and rectangular shape of my canvas has not given me as much motivation as I had hoped. I am used to painting organic shapes that can give some leeway in terms of brushstroke placement. It has been what I liked most about painting because I had the opportunity to be more improvisational with my approach, which is how I often work. Urban settings do not work like that. A certain amount of precision needs to be in place- even after a rough sketch is put down and I have found myself being incredibly wasteful of masking tape as I have attempted to perfect my one-point perspective lines. I have been looking at Jamie Tweddell's works as references because I see such a relationship between his landscapes and his street settings. His color choices have greatly influenced me and I am considering his compositions as I move forward as solutions to other problems which I have been facing. Below are photos of my current progress (notice the masking tape) as well as a few paintings by Tweddell which I have been using as inspiration. After reading through Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art’’s Gestural Abstraction section, I chose Joan Mitchell, Louise Bourgeois, and Alberto Burri as the three artists whom I can identify with in relation to my own work. I was intrigued by Mitchell and Burri because they both touch on the role of expression in their work- how they use it to express thoughts and emotions dealing with existence and the difficulty of placing their work into any categories. I chose Louise Bourgeoise because I have found her process to be influential on my own work and because she discusses the role of materials in her work.
I was interested in gestural abstraction as a concept because I have wanted to become more expressive in my work- moving away from rendering exactly what is in front of me. After viewing works by these artists ( reviewing works by Bourgeoise), I have concluded that they are either on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, or they contain certain elements which I would like to bring into my own work. I was particularly interested in Burri and how his writing explains such an inability to fully articulate what he is trying to do- that he fully expects his art to explain itself to the viewer- and how that is what is so liberating about it. He calls his paintings “a reality which is part of myself [himself],” and that is something that I can certainly agree with in reference to my own work as well: I make it for myself, to create a space wherein I am familiar, even if it may not exist in others’ realities. Mitchell, I found to be interesting due to the fact that she does not constrict herself to creating only one type of art. Her sunflowers and cityscapes, though containing certain similar elements, still stand very well apart from each other, and she even admits in her interview with Yves Michaud that her objectives are very broad. She paints what she has reactions to and stops when she has no more questions that need to be asked or answered. I have a great respect for that instinctive approach and find myself doing the same thing when not painting representationally. I believe that it that kind of spontaneity is very important to creating quality gestural abstraction because it prevents the painter from having to be confined by any certain structure. While there may be a vague objective in mind- to capture a feeling or motion, it is still important, as Kanefsky stated in his interview on Painting Preceptions to let the art know when it is done. Louise Bourgeoise’s interview with Donald Kuspit touches on an aspect of art which I believe to be even moreso important to gestural abstraction than to any of the other categories that we were give. This is because a material can only be worked on to a certain extent. It more ofter forces its handler to work with it and that can often lead to the same concept being represented differently throughout various mediums. While she is predominantly a sculptress, I am aware that she has drawings as well and I believe that it is those quick sketches which help her decide which material will be most suitable for representing her vision. |
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AuthorArt Student at Flagler College. I am frequently instructed to write blog entries about my artistic thoughts and process. Archives
April 2017
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