I was going over some photos I took in the studio and noticed one painting that has been on the wall a long time in a number of forms but is now almost done. The painting recently had one face taken out and another put in that was based on one layer of a computer drawing. I thought I would take this opportunity to show how an image moves through my work.
I began with a large color drawing based on a webshots photo. At that time I was looking for images with blank expressions in rooms full of stuff. I liked this one and played with it a number of times. After finishing the color image, I worked up one that took everything out but the blank look that accentuated the lost feeling. I printed out the simple version to use in the studio but it did not really jell into anything. The painting took shape as a face of another lost expression with the odd combination of a paper hat. I never considered it done because the balance of the face to the background was never settled. After months I just painted out the face on the original painting in order to start over. It was at that moment I ran into the old computer drawing and the current image took form. Sometimes this cycle goes the other direction when photos of paintings are used to complete computer drawings that are stuck. It is odd how the new painting reminds me of a friend from art school. The working title of this one is now Lost and Found but could become The Foundling.
My work has always been one of oppositions playing off each other in an attempt to both create and define the personal. This “personal” is my awareness of my self as an individual and the social and cultural structures that both create and define an individual. I have been currently looking at all the self portraits that flood our digital world with there attempt to express ones uniqueness at the same moment reinforcing the droning sameness of what I refer to as the digital bloat. It seems to me our world filled with millions of individuals has been reduced to nothing but surface. Here are a couple of images that deal with this idea in my work. The two are chosen to show both the side of my work that comes from my neo expressionist roots and the more conceptual side that looks at the structures that operate in social and cultural constructs. I must stress that I have been working on what might be called “sketches” in order to better understand the shift that I am taking in the painting studio to an installation presentation of work. I am only showing my “sketches” at this point but will eventually get to the paintings when these ideas take hold and direct them.
I went to the studio yesterday but started sketching something on the computer and managed to do this image but not paint any in the studio. The computer can be addictive but it is important to work in the studio because the process of visual connections is very different. So as I finish this I am heading in to paint. I try to follow the flow of the random playing off more deliberate choices. I have done a number of sketches where I put the descriptive fine copy you find on the side of advertisements in magazines into the work and I decided to do this here. I did a web search for a Woolight slogan that I was thinking would be the title of the image but ran into this generic description of a product and thought I would use it.
Gazing At The Lillies Of The Field
I am currently working on a body of work that deals with the concepts of “the Gaze” in the age of information over communication. Stayed up late working on a few digital images that are not finished but will be using some of the layers as ideas to paint off today in the studio.
I based this drawing on a wonderful photo from Webshots. I really liked how the woman wearing her underwear to a party still had a cell phone on her hip. It just made it even more special with Martin looking down from the wall from a vintage poster. I left out the normally dressed couple sitting on the couch looking at her as if she was from mars.
