Category: Simplification

Resting at Home

2/22/2023

Drawing 02·10·2023 (state 2), pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Today I required a day off. Yesterday I remade this drawing, whose first state was executed on February 10th. Look back to my blog post of February 12th to see how far this drawing is altered from its original. It is much better. Now it is easier to comprehend. This proves my premise. I am moving everything I do toward more direct, simpler statements. By implementing a simpler way of seeing my work's profundity has increased.

Even More Reduction

2/19/2023

"After Words" (2023 No.1, state 10), oil on canvas, 54½X47½ inches

Finding Peace with Minutia

2/18/2023

"Reclamation" (2022 No.11, state 21), oil on canvas. 54¾x 58¾ inches

"After Words" (2023 No.1, state 09), oil on canvas, 54½X47½ inches

"Course of Action" (2023 No.2, state 04), oil on canvas, 50x63 inches

Reduction is getting me closer to my intended impact. Yesterday I worked on three paintings. All are better. I expanded their impact by reducing the complexity of their forms. This resulted in an increase in each painting's percentage of negative space. "Reclamation" is wider. "After Words" is wider and taller. "Course of Action" remains dimensional stable, but the colors in its forms are simplified.

"Reclamation" is Alive & Well

2/16/2023

"Reclamation" (2022 No.11, state 20), oil on canvas. 54¾x 57⅛ inches

Simplify, Simplify, Simplify

2/15/2023

"Course of Action" (2023 No.2, state 02), oil on canvas, 50x63 inches

"After Words" (2023 No.1, state 08), oil on canvas, 49¼X45 inches

Drawing 02·12·2023, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Less is More

2/9/2023

"After Words" (2023 No.1, state 06), oil on canvas, 49¼X45 inches

It is obvious to me, this painting, "After Words," has fallen short of its maximum impact. Maximizing impact has been reduced by too many confusing extras. It is cleaner today than was in yesterday's blog-post, but it must me cleaned further. It continues to be victim of too much, too many ideas, too many directions taken, not enough self-editing. Today I will go in, destroy that asterisk-like distraction lying on the belly of the right-side form.

As example of my failure to see that "less is more", I give you a photoshopped image of "Catapult" (2022 No.10, state 6), oil on canvas, 60¾x 56¾ inches. A third major form has been removed, the one that took up a vertical position on the right side of the composition (see below).

"Catapult" (2022 No.10, state 6), oil on canvas, 60¾x 56¾ inches (third form removed by Photoshop)

Finding Meaning in Simplicity

10/20/2022

Drawing 10·19·2022, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Did I Lose This One?

10/19/2022

Drawing 10·18·2022, pencil on paper, 20x16 inches

This drawing started simple, became complex. I have been making a great effort to keep my statements simpler, more direct, right to the point. Did this one get away from me? I am in the midst of personal turmoil. What makes most sense to me? What allows me to communicate best? I want clear communication for myself, and for my viewers.

About Changing Your Mind

5/11/2022

Drawing 05·10·2022 No.1, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

Drawing 05·10·2022 No.2, pencil on paper, 16x20 inches

I feel different. I have changed my mind. You can see this change in today’s drawings. Art-making is the act of changing one's mind. My drawings, my recent paintings, embrace a simple approach; they embrace face-on compositions. These works are realizations. Complexity of who I am cannot be reduced. Deception occurs if complexity be ignored. Simplicity must be sought. Yesterday drawings are practice toward achieving simplicity.

8, 9 and 3

4/29/2022

"Uphill the Hero" (2022 No.4, state 9), oil on canvas, 60x58 inches

"Uphill the Hero" (2022 No.4, state 8), oil on canvas, 60x56⅝ inches

"The Beginnings of Caution" (2022 No.4, state 3), oil on canvas, 47¼x47 inches

There is an article in today's New York Times about the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat (quoted below). I worry about my propensity to make complex compositions. In this blog I have often written about my compositional worries. I am struggling to be free of the complex. I want to engage viewers quickly, easily; Basquiat models this well, Basquiat’s compositions are inherently simple; he was a master of compositional simplicity, which allowed complexity in everything else. Basquiat did not always have a complex message, but he always produced simple compositions. Yesterday I moved in that direction. Both of my recent paintings became simpler in composition. At last, I am giving in, I am learning to communicate more deeply by relying on simplicity of composition.

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK, New York Times, April 29, 2022
How to Look at a BasquiatIt’s not every day that New York has two Basquiat exhibitions. At “Art and Objecthood,” decoding the basics: his materials, iconography and unmistakable line.

Composition: One thing in particular that’s easier to see in “Art and Objecthood” than in the overwhelming visual cacophony of “King Pleasure” is how conservatively Basquiat organized the elements of his paintings. The sheer profusion of marks can be misleading, but if you recognize the scratches and scrawls of “Minor Success,” for example, as providing a texture rather than so many pieces of separate information, you’ll see that the arrangement of crown, face and car couldn’t be more straightforward. A squat little refrigerator is adorned with a burst of letters and a face in “Untitled (Refrigerator),” but they stop just short of the handle, letting the mostly blank lower section balance their effect. And even when every mark really does carry the same weight, as in an intricately painted yellow door, Basquiat keeps careful control of shape and color to create an overall effect of harmony and stability that balances the frantic energy of his lines.

Will Heinrich writes about new developments in contemporary art, and has previously been a critic for The New Yorker and The New York Observer.

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