Pieces for Painting Final

I have been thinking about abstract expressionism a lot lately. There is so much freedom in this style. These men and women broke the mold, and did something new and completely different. I hope this is something that my art can do as well. They also managed to express something, and to touch me, without normal conventions or a very recognizable subject matter. This is striking. It makes the viewer think and ponder. Such pieces also have the ability to touch each viewer in a different ad unique way, as the relate to and dialogue with the piece, in their own way, based on their own experiences. This is not to say that a representational piece cannot do that--it certainly can, and many pieces do--but I think there is something fascinating about the ability of something abstract to do this.

Happy Easter!

Today I dyed an Easter egg. The way the colors drip and blend until they finally dry is fascinating and beautiful--perhaps even more so than the finished product. I am not sure that this qualifies as painting, or even art at all, but it was extremely enjoyable nonetheless.

And it would not be Easter without this wonderful tradition.

I don't really know where I was trying to go with this piece. I do not like the way it turned out at all.

"Hand"

I used my hand to create a resist in this piece. I then went back through and adjusted some of the edges, in particular making some areas softer, so there was more variety. The whole process was really enjoyable--painting over my hand and getting rather messy. I don't think I am completely satisfied with the end result, however. I think is needs more value contrast or maybe the addition of another color. Perhaps I will play with it more later.

Some Reflections on Art

The concept of appropriation and reference images came up, so I am going to attempt to convey my jumbled thoughts on the matter.

I think everyone uses reference images in their work. We are all inspired by something. Even the great painters of old had something to look at while they painted--even if that something was a real person, they were nonetheless referencing some image. I think it is impossible to paint without reference. Even the paintings I do while not looking directly at something come from an image in my head, which inevitably came from an image I actually saw. Now this is not to say that there is no difference between painting from life and painting from a photograph, because there is certainly a difference there. Painting from life leaves the painter with the problem of transforming the three-dimensional world into a two dimensional surface. The photograph inevitably eliminates that difficulty since it is already a two-dimensional image. Photographs also cannot, and do not, move or suffer from changes in lighting, which make painting from them easier--and yet this is precisely the value of photographs. Is it so wrong to use your resources? Vermeer used the new technology of his day--the camera obscura--to create more realistic rendering in his painting, and yet those are considered masterpieces. So what is so different about using a reference photo? Photos, of course, also create their own set of challenges. They can lock the painter into one scene and make it difficult to deviate--to make the picture one's own, rather than just a copy of a photograph. But this can also be a good thing. It pushes the artist to think outside the box, and to create a piece that touches on the unseen, rather that just the seen. As artists today, photos can capture the world for us, so we do not have to worry about painting it--we can be free to paint the deeper feelings and emotions and characteristics of life in a new a unique way. I know in my own paintings, reference photos help me with a pose and give me a guide for proportions, but leave me the freedom to adjust everything to create the mood or the emotion I am looking for.

The issue of the photograph also brings me to the issue of appropriation. What happens when one uses someone else's image in their own, either as reference, or literally incorporated in? As noted earlier, I think every artist does, in a sense, appropriate something in their work. We do not live or create in our own little bubble, so we are influences by the work and the images around us. This is a good thing; it inspires us and pushes us. I am so intrigued by the whole concept of appropriation. It is a dialogue with the past, and it is pushing the boundaries of what has already been done. Now, I don't think is is ok to simply copy someone else's work; it has to be altered or changed or made one's own somehow. Copyright laws also come into effect here, and I do not understand all of the rules regarding that, so I cannot accurately comment on that aspect of this matter. But I certainly would not want to do something that breaks a law, so one must be careful in this area, I suppose.

Lastly, about the debate over whether something is more valuable, or less valuable, because it is more realistic. I don't think that realism equals value at all. There is value in both realism and abstraction--and the whole gamut in between. To me a piece by Jackson Pollock can take my breath away and touch me and make me think as much as a piece by Caravaggio. They are different, yes, but they are both striking.

"Yellow"

Inspired by Henri Matisse, I thought I would try something new and do a piece with cut paper. I painted solid areas of color in watercolor on watercolor paper, and then cut pieces out. It was a miserable failure. Not only did it stress me out--it was way too tedious for my liking--but I could not seem to come up with anything that seemed to work. Finally, after much toiling this weekend, one large piece intrigued me enough to post. The curvilinear shapes in this one appealed to me. I was also interested by the varying shadows this piece created when placed on a white piece of paper. The paper curls up slightly, which created dramatic shadows in some areas, and barely a hint of a shadow in others.

"Abstract 7" &"Abstract 8"

7

8

These are two abstract experimentations with drips and splatters to get myself back into the swing of painting. I am particularly pleased with the first one. It had a nice emphasis on the dark areas, and there is a nice contrast between the softer and the harder edges. There is also a nice organic quality to the piece overall. The bottom one seems a bit too plain--like maybe it isn't quite finished yet.

Alone

This rather relates to my post yesterday, but people are increasingly disconnected. There is the sense among so many people, myself included at times, that one is alone in life. I think that technology only adds to this isolation, it doesn't help diffuse it. We far too often look to facebook or myspace or twitter for companionship, and never form truly deep lasting relationships with real people. This is something that seems to come out in my paintings. The world is full of people who feel alone, but we are not alone. I paint people because it makes them real--it makes me real. And they are painted in real paint, because it makes everyhthing all the more tangible.

I have been thinking about the pros and cons of natural media versus digital media. There are wonderful things about digital art, and they can mimic natural media fairly well, but there is still something lacking--at least to me. There is something so wonderful about paint. They way it flows off the paint brush, the way is gets all over you hands, the way it can be thick--three dimensional really--or thin, the way it changes as you apply it to the paper and the way it changes as it dries. Paint is real, it's tangible--I can touch it. Digital art is not. It is stuck in my computer until I print it. And even then, it never seems to have the same physical quality that I love so much about paint. I think in an ever changing world--where so many things are fleeting and where things change so fast, and which is becoming increasingly disconnected--that natural media is a necessity. It proves that things are real.

Not really paintings...

These next six images are a project, not for painting class, that has been consuming all of my time lately. They are a series of posters which I have created to help bring awareness to and reduce some of the stigma associated with self-harm. Since this has kept me from painting the last few days, I thought I would at least give you something to look at and post these. Enjoy!