Painting Today

The discussion in painting today was interesting to me due to the variety of approaches to the task. Towards the end Nell talked a bit about discomfort through experiencing things differently. This really resonated with me as I am looking to foster discomfort in my senior work. Thus far I have done this by utilizing really gnarly graphic images of blood and violence and dead things, but lately I have been feeling like I should move away from this. I think instead I want to cultivate discomfort in the viewer by disrupting their expectations of the work so that they must approach familiar objects with an artist’s eye.

Rather than being able to label and categorize objects or places in my work I want the viewer to feel unsafe and be forced to directly experience the forms for what they are. Like Nell said, the opposite of survival mode. I want the viewer to be drawn in by an uneasiness in the work and then be forced to reconsider what they are seeing in front of them. Size will help this because I will be working smallish and the viewer will have to get somewhat close to the piece to see all its parts.

Another thing I realized today is how important materials are to my work. Not only painting, but also collaging, sculpture, drawing, etc. How I respond to a material has a lot to do with how a work evolves. This isn’t always a good thing though. For instance, I love working with oil pastels, but hate everything I make with them because I really don’t know how to use them effectively. Sometimes reacting to materials and letting the work go from there works, and other times it doesn’t. Either way I think this is a big part of my process and will definitely be written about in my artist statement.

Also, thoughts on the upcoming project. I definitely want to do a fantastical landscape on a giant canvas. At least as tall as me and wider than it is tall. Okay, maybe thats a little large, but something huge is what I’m going for. I want the viewer to be eclipsed by the size of the work, but drawn in by the subject so that they feel like a part of the piece. I want the landscape to be dark and sketchy, kindof like my skull painting, but based in realism and with thoughtful color. I am also excited to work on a big scale over a decently long period of time. I get nervous when I work large, but I feel that I will have enough time so that I don’t get ahead of myself and rush.

I also plan to film (hopefully) every minute of me working on this big painting and then speeding up the footage to create a short movie showing the process from beginning to end.