Artist Presentation (gs674)

Assignment: Begin by selecting 10 cohesive images and arranging them so that they flow as a series. Begin and end with a strong image.
Then write an artist presentation about your work. Introduce your series with an overall statement about yourself and your work, and then follow that with specific examples from your series. Have at least one sentence to explain each image. End your presentation with a strong closing visual statement about the series.
Post all 10 images and your presentation together in one posting.

I've been working on this statement for a while now. Every time I get it out I change it some. I guess it will be done when I get it out and don't want to change anything. That's how it works when I paint, it's reflective on that level as well.  This top 10 will be different for final review because the smaller ones, though I like them, have to be replaced by the new ones I'm doing because for final review I pitched work that is bigger than 32"x46". Online it's impossible to see how scale effects the impact.


At first I was like, "Oh brother, how am I going to write something about each one of these?" But I got the idea to think of the blurbs as the biographies of the paintings. That tickled me, and I rather enjoyed it.

Statement

I work in search of new relationships between strangely juxtaposed elements creating surprising harmony.

I spend a lot of time thinking about dichotomies, dualities, and continuums. Every part of my process is about relationships, simply, taking two disjointed things and adding the thing that makes them all make sense together. I always keep in mind and avoid the obvious choice, as surprise and wonder are crucial parts of my process.

I always have several diverse projects going on. I used to think I needed to combine my tighter, more observation-based work with this emotional, gestural, abstract painting to find something in between, like a Venn diagram. But I now understand that traveling back and forth between the two helps me learn and stay on task and keeps me excited.

My “AbEx-ish” painting is the most self-centered work I do. Here, the opposing ingredients are formal elements & principles of design paired against the raw uninhibited application and chance, how the paint moves due to gravity, momentum, pressure, etc. I work big, moving my body around, using my whole body to move the paintings around. The compositions must be dynamic from across the room, but the details are more exciting to me. They last longer.

 I always change my clothes to paint. I am a laborer with a series of tasks to accomplish. I seek to achieve as much contrast as I can manage inside a harmonious world of colors, textures, and layers. 

Painting Biographies

1.  18”x24” acrylic on cotton paper. 2011. This painting reminds me to persevere through the ugly stages. I started this 6 months before I finished. It was so horrible to look at, so I stashed it away. But one day I picked it back up and two days later it was finished. I love it now.

2.  24"x32". acrylic on board. 2011. I find the transparent layers in this painting most interesting, but getting that effect it hard for me because I thin the paint down with so much water it takes days to dry. I’m not good at waiting. This painting taught me that even though I have to force myself exercise great restraint, the result is worth it.

3.  40"x48". acrylic and papers on board. 2011. The papers in this I collected from fashion magazines. I like sensitivity in the subtle value shifts. The papers also give the viewer clues about when I made it. The bright yellow takes up most of the space, but it plays a more passive role to the reds and blues. As I progressed in making this painting the yellow got bigger and bigger until one day the whole thing worked.

4.  46"x 48". acrylic and house paint on board. I started this painting in 2009 with paintbrushes attached to long sticks so I could trace my shadows while standing. It sat for a long time in an unremarkable, fairly recognizable state. Then I set out to annihilate the mediocrity. The blue, black, bright yellow, and white remain but now it has a lot more life. 

5.  36”x 48. acrylic on board. 2010. The blind contour portrait in the “background” of this painting reflects the more abstract head-head like form in the “front” creating a dialogue between the two. Then the blue oval is echoed throughout to minimize the attention on the “head.”

6.  36”x 48. acrylic and styro print on board. 2010. Chronologically this painting is the first of this series. When it came about I tried to produce similar results with very little luck. It was not until I put this one away could I get anything new to come. It taught me that this work does not lend itself well to preconceived notions.

7.  40"x48". acrylic styro print on board. 2011. As I developed this painting my colleague and I kept referring to it as “the post apocalyptic baby bird”.  We agreed the post apocalyptic baby bird was not ok, but none of the parts were fundamentally wrong. One day I turned it up side down, bird gone, problem solved.

8.  40"x48". acrylic and fabric on board. 2011. I’ve had this gold “fur” fabric forever. When it recently resurfaced I was curious to see how it would behave in a painting. In some places the “hairs” are matted down by paint. I had fun manipulating some of the strands and then having the free flowing ones move around with the swirling air. The color and value relationships change with the angles of light and point of view.

9.  40"x48". acrylic on board. 2011. This painting started with all the transparent circles. Then I knew I needed something to overpower them. I created what I like to call the “poured grid”, surprising yet structured enough to leave the circles almost passive in comparison.

10.  24"x32". acrylic styro print on board. 2011. Oh my, this was an awkward self-portrait in its first life, but I find it represents considerably more of my identity now than it did with an attempted likeness.