So. I've finished the first and have broken my rule from the year before. I decided to post as I finish each. What I'm not saying is about requests and that they to drive me work towards creating a solid oeuvre. I took up a friends suggestion to wait then till I hand the whole body done. Today in the last strokes he and others concede out of curiousity I'd like to think. Who am I to deny that? Take a look here. It is the first of a series that may take a minute or two to start and finish.
While I was losing the battle of spraying fixitive against the wind, I finally broke my composure and stepped back from the mount. I could not longer find rhyme or reason. The only thing I found was motion. No matter where I started I did not rest to long in any section. I moved on and around the piece. So that was one for me. Meaning I accomplished one design principle I set out for the piece. Another was massive bodies of texture built by pencil or contained by its absence. That was joy as well. However I began to argue that there is no focal point and there is little if any reference to the real world in shape or shading. That is why I had to read Kandinsky and learn about the history of the Guggenheim. The word non-referential stuck in my mind for days after finishing that book. And now here is the manifesting of my learning. The journey was on was not one untread by other artists. I am happy with pushing it a little further since Scritch Scritch.
Right now I look forward to the where the next group of collage elements will take me. The process is a guideline and I will not be churning out the same piece over and over with color of shade change. This will work. Before I sat down to type I wondered if I need defend the process. There seems an air of putting everything including the kitchen sink. The passages are thick and the dimension alluding to tactile and the sensual. At the bottom the cursory eye may not forgive a dominant image. That eye may resent the obligations I set on it as an artist. It is true. I am not easy. I require presence of mind and patience to see the artist's hand at work. I've been poo pooing the square structure for its references to photography. I think about the artist who made art out of pixelating photographs for their light and shade then sets them to build an iconic image of a flower, a cross or people. I wondered if that would be an accusation of a failing because the rhyme and reason of the piece is not a take on graphic design skills. There is no iconic image that the piece structures in the totality of its cells.
Forgive me. I'm starting to use this mode for a personal diary on art. I may put to much meat on the table and there is only one piece posted for now. The journey in this will take me some where. And you my dears are welcome for the walk.
With that, I remember one tenants I hold to when working and talking. The first is when creating art, you have to know when you are done. There is no excuse for an undeveloped piece. It is an instinct you must develop. Also an overdeveloped piece my weigh heavily on your shoulders, but better that than undeveloped washes in a heavily impasto painted series. I say this because I lingered to long for a friend what I was in the last stages or polish and edging. He was afraid I was about to ruin in. I trust my instincts first and heed the series and not the sole piece for now. Working in the 12" separation zone means faults in detail scream in your face. I'll remember to take into account that distance changes everything.
Gloves off and it is after six.
I am now a body at rest.
As ever, stay hungry and curious.