Yesterday's changes to Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 were excellent alterations, bringing that painting to the edge of completion. Also, today's reproduction is closer to the original. I took extra care to make sure the viewer of this blog could see the floor lines on the red surfaces. They animate both panels. Besides the floor lines in the right panel, yesterday saw a change to the plant and pot in the same panel. That plant perked up, helping the compositional movement, if not the emotional, physical, symbolic expression of that panel.
Yesterday's drawing is intriguing in a few ways. First, in its spatial qualities. Secondly, the emotional expression finds an unusual solution. The right man's head flattens against the wall. The intertwined legs further compound the ambivalent connection between these men. BTW: This was not an easy reproduction. I am making great efforts, using the program Photoshop, to reflect the impact of the originals. But, as you may see, if you review the history of the reproductions of Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014, when one element is reproduced to closely reflect its impact in the original, sometimes another element does not reproduce well (I am referring to the dark lines on the red surface in Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014, which, in many reproductions, were lost to enhance other elements of the painting). Yesterday began with me framing a drawing for the exhibit at Long River Studios. The spatial play in that drawing tilted down, fast forwarding itself toward the bottom of the page. I then made yesterday's drawing. The framing took me longer than expected, so the work did not go up at Long River Studios, but will go up today!
Every one of these drawings was done in a spirit of adventure and openness. In process, each felt right and good. All three drawings are my large size (16X20 inches). All of them are different in spatial play. Yesterday, my overall thought process was the same as always. Even when I did not paint, I am looking for solutions for my painting. In these drawings I am asking questions about detail versus overall concept. I was exploring in order to finish the painting Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014. The solutions to yesterday's drawings will help me finish my present painting, and all my work going forward.
This drawing was made in two isolated spurts. A couple of household problems arose, so my day was divided. Nevertheless, I am happy with this drawing because it reckoned with my recent flirtation with Modigliani and the competition in my work between shape and volume. Modigliani solved this problem in his own way, and now I am in the midst of solving it for myself. I love the artifice of volume on a two-dimensional surface. This has led me to the enjoyment of the art of people such as Amedeo Modigliani (who solved this problem in a peculiarly early 20th century manner), but also to the art of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) and Georges de La Tour (1593-1652).
As I get closer to the completion of the painting Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 I question my ability to be self-relevant. What a crock! No need! Yesterday I proceeded through my studio time with a drawing, then the painting, then a drawing. All the while I was asking myself about self-relevancy and the means to get there. In the painting I see figures that could be more expressively self-aware and self-relevant. I am probably wrong about this, but I do wish to make myself, and the viewer, experience the people in my art more powerfully than they experience the people in our world. I believe my people are becoming this, but not as fast as I would like. Leaning is described as a curve, like a graph. I agree with this idea. It is basically upward, but not consistently. Art's process is so complex that all problems can not be solved at once. The painting Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 did solve a few of my problems, like how to animate the structure of time with still images, and how to use positive and negative space to more advantage. However, I do find the figures in Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 more tame, and not as expressive, as those in yesterday's drawings. I am not going to take this as a failure, but as something inherent to the process. Even though I feel urgency, my art cannot immediately become all I imagine it must be. It is on a upward curve, but like the process of scientific discovery it is... two steps forward, one back, two step forward, one back, and on and on...
The painting Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014 does work for me, but my two recent multi-panel drawings do not work for me. So what's the difference? The difference is my need for the vigorous illusion of three-dimensional space. I crave that artifice of space. Yes, yesterday's drawing has it, from tip of nose to back of head, but that is not enough for me! I truly enjoy the ins and outs and circles of space created in the painting Untitled Diptych-04·15·2014. So, in conclusion, my drawings of the last few day have shown me a road I must take. There will be no multi-panel painting full of heads, but there will be a new spatially robust multi-canvas painting.
I will say little today. I am back and feeling well after a couple days of feeling low with a cold. I just want to get back in the studio. Yesterday I did a drawing. You see it above. The possible potency of negative space is a concern I am now actively researching. I am not sure if the negative space in yesterday's drawing works extremely well here, but I think the figures are good.
What's this about? Space, time, form and their compositonal integration on the picture plane!
Often I think my art is nothing more than the manipulation of the zero sum existence I live in. My efforts to make sense of the visual picture plane is analogous to the difficulty I have making sense of my existence. I am trying to find meaning and purpose by laying down paint and pencil marks on canvas and paper. There is no surprise here. It feels mundane for me to broach this subject. Questioning one's reason for being here is endless and has been done since humans obtained the capacity to be reflective. As I wrote that last sentence I asked myself, "Why do I dare put this thought out there? All of us feel the same." The answer to this question is important to me, of course, but I write it here because it is equally important to the choices I am making in my art. I am continuing my search to find a proper subject. I am seeking self-satisfaction and purpose. I am motivated by my search. The subject of my art is important to my self-motivation. At least that is the way I feel right now, since I do not fully comprehend my present choices. I do know the full development of form and space is important to me, i.e creating forms and space on a two-dimensional plane that appear three-dimensional. I know I represent people over and over again, and I often represent couples entangled in emotional responsiveness to one another. I am beginning to feel that my need to create three-dimensional form and space will be with me always. I am not sure if my present manner of depicting human figures is lastingly important. I intended to begin a new painting yesterday. However, after completing the first drawing I found myself with just 20 minutes left in the studio. So, I decided to make a quick drawing. The result is above. Willem de Kooning talked about making drawings while watching TV. Setting his attention into conflict apparently released a portion of his mind. Otherwise he would have restricted the images in his drawings to a repetitive reissue of his previous manner of making images. Quick drawings, like the one above, may help me to separate my conscious mind from repetition as well.
The last four drawings have surprised me. They have a mastery, one after the other, which I have not seen in my work before. Rockin'! Yes. But, No, they are not there yet. Nothing ever will be. I listened to an NPR Fresh Air interview with the Astro-Physicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is about to host a series on FOX TV called Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey. It is an update of Carl Sagan's influential 1980 PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Journey. Tyson said, to be a successful scientist one "has to fall in love with the problem." He explained how answers are few and far between. In other words, it is the journey one must enjoy in order to be fulfilled. Final answers will never come. As I move deeper into acceptance of this process my work is better. I am accepting the manner in which I see, without a lot of criticism. This allows me to make a form in my way, a way that fits my peculiar understanding. One comment on composition: Negative space is becoming more important in these recent drawings. I feel as if I used to crowd my forms on the paper, but now I am giving them some space to live in. "But my favorite question is one that we don't even know to ask yet because it's a question that would arise upon answering these questions I just delivered to you. ... If you're a scientist and you have to have an answer, even in the absence of data, you're not going to be a good scientist." |
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May 2024
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