Studio Journal Entry #2

More organized/cohesive thesis thoughts:  Painting professor, Marc, introduced me to the idea of a "post-apocalyptic" approach to my landscape paintings.  Being that my theme is so personal and unfortunate, exaggerating my palette and subject matter can help further push the emotional boundaries I want to reach with my viewers.  I want my viewers to sense a sort of looming danger when they see my landscape paintings.  

                                         
Progress thus far...

   

     I think I am becoming successful with portraying a stormy and menacing sky, but I want to push it.  I want to see how dramatic I can make my paintings without them becoming unrecognizable or phony.  The last painting shown (the one with the dock) is the most unsuccessful to me.  I find that painting sunsets/rises can become cheesy and for lack of a better word, boring.  This painting definitely needs the most work.

Currently looking at...

     I've been looking at movie stills and interviews with Werner Herzog concerning his 1992 film, "Lessons of Darkness".  The film is based in the oil fields of post Gulf War Kuwait.  The film reveals a "post-apocalyptic", foreign terrain that is hard to recognize as the world in which we live.  The stills are almost unrecognizable- They appear to be photos on a planet from a distant galaxy.  Here are some stills:

One can truly sense the danger when looking at these photos.  In relation to my thesis ideas, I'd like to create a similar scenario.  I want to show the dangers and uncontrollable power of the ocean by exaggerating the skies and terrain in my paintings.  Though these stills from Herzog's film have little to do with the ocean and natural disaster, they show disaster inflicted by man on our own planet.  The destruction is overwhelming and extremely troubling, and I hope to look to this as an artistic reference.  

READING: http://www.wernerherzog.com/52.html

     ****This is a translated interview I read with Werner Herzog following the screening of "Lessons of Darkness".  In this he states, "There is not a single frame in "Lessons of Darkness" in which you can recognize our planet"..."From the cries of the public I could make out only 'aestheticization of horror'".

Though the seriousness of the war waged in Kuwait is far greater than my idea concerning the seriousness of the ocean, the themes kind of relate in a sense.  Unless an individual was directly involved in the Persian Gulf War, or a part of the loss experienced due to a hurricane or ship wreck, one can not truly understand how unfortunate both are.  I hope to create a sort of "first-hand" experience for my audience.  We can watch the news and see pictures and documentaries concerning war and natural disaster, but we can not help to become jaded by it.  In a world so guided by the media and technology, we are bombarded by images of disaster and ruin on a daily basis.  Often we oversee the magnitude of sadness and misfortune these disasters bring individuals and their families.  I want to resurface what has become perpetually overseen in an artistic manner.****      

"Life in the oceans must be sheer hell.  A vast, merciless hell of permanent and immediate danger.  So much of a hell that during evolution some species-including man- crawled, fled into some small continents of solid land, where the lessons in darkness continues."

 -Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.  April 30th, 1999. Werner Herzog

Still from the 2010 film, "Book of Eli"

Still from the 2009 film, "The Road"

Each movie depicts a post-apocalyptic world and the few individuals who take any measures to survive. Visually, the movies are beautifully surreal and disturbing.  I can look to these as artistic material as well.

THIS WEEKS GOALS: 

Tweak palette

Warp perspective

Use similar colors to make series cohesive

Paint thicker

The sky is the focal point- MAKE IT MOVING!

Studio Journal Entry #1

J.M.W Turner: The Slave Ship

Budding Thesis Ideas: I've recently become very intrigued by landscapes.  This interest developed by accident over the summer while I was painting abstract organic forms.  My thoughts and ideas have since developed into a cohesive idea for a series of paintings.  I love nocturnal scenes and BOATS.  My family has owned commercial fishing boats for decades now.  They are responsible for all that my family has.  Recently, in the wake of hurricane Irene, My grandmother's house (which is right on the water) was destroyed.  I find it ironic that the ocean, something that has brought my family all of its income, has destroyed what it created. I want to paint this.  My ideas have not fully developed yet so I want to find a way to make this interesting and relatable to an audience greater than myself and my family.  I want to emphasize destruction on a personal level and on a more worldly level.  I'm having trouble trying to convey this in an art form.  We'll see how my thoughts develop.   

Tom Mcgrath: The Dry Strip

This is an artist I have been researching lately.  He paints mainly landscapes.  Some are more abstracted while others are more literal and recognizable.  Marc Handelman, my current painting professor, asked me the other day if I have a thing for nocturnal landscapes.  I immediately answered no, but this question has stuck with me throughout the weekend.  Maybe I do?  I look at a lot of nocturnal landscapes because they speak to me.  They create a mood that would not be there if painted during the day time.  McGrath's use of brush stroke and accent of color creates a foreboding mood.  This piece feels like it's warning me of something bad that is about to happen.  The overwhelming use of darks can be attributed to this mood.  If I want to convey a certain feel in my paintings, nocturnes may be the way to go.  I find them unsettling and interesting.  This could go hand in hand with my theme or idea concerning "destruction".  

Kristopher Benedict: Meditation

I'm hooked on this piece because of the power of the silhouette.  Silhouettes are mysterious but straight forward at the same time.  I like the unknown about them.  They provide little information about what they are representing and are open for personal perception/interpretation.  It leaves the viewer responsible.  For me, silhouettes read very lonely and sad no matter what the rest of the painting looks like.  I could also utilize this technique in my own paintings to further create a certain mood. 

Mini Landscape Paintings I worked on this summer...  I'm useless when it comes to taking decent pictures so the quality of these is pretty crappy, but I suppose you get the point.

 

First Critque: Gerry suggested I go to the site of my landscape paintings and paint them on location.  This could help further illustrate the emotion I feel when I'm at these places. It is difficult to convey this emotion when I paint them from photographs months after I have visited.  I'm having trouble articulating what I want to say.  Essentially, if I paint my landscapes on site, my feelings will become more evident in the finished product because I am experiencing and painting SIMULTANEOUSLY!  

I also have a thing for drawing old people.  The more wrinkles the better- they tell stories about the person.

READING: "Tom McGrath: Landscape Redux". In Tom McGrath: Paintings 2002-2007. New York: Zach Feuer Gallery, 2007; pp 3-13. Text copy-write Robert Hobbs. 

http://roberthobbs.net/essayandexcerptpdfs/mcgrath.pdf

I found this interview/reading concerning McGrath's landscape paintings.  I found a particularly interesting segment concerning his use of "nocturne" painting.  One part reads, "The over-coded subject of the scenic overlook at night, and its iconic teenage make-out potential, provides a link between the dazzling opticality of vision and the other senses; there is a physical perceptual and sensate dimension to the work for what otherwise might come off as purely retinal"(pg. 10).  I found this particularly interesting because of the underlying narrative night paintings posses.  Since I am trying to convey certain emotional ties with my own paintings, choosing night scenes might be the better choice.  Day light leaves little room for mystery and obstruction of view.  In the dark, visual information is taken away or obscured.  For myself and most, darkness is terrifying.  It deems once familiar places and items unfamiliar.  In utilizing this "nocturnal" technique, paintings can become something more than "purely retinal".    

GOALS FOR THIS WEEK:
PRODUCE, PRODUCE, PRODUCE.  Search for nocturne photos involving boats.  Develop a style that is unique.  My process has a large part to do with the finished product of my paintings.  Try and make this process more evident to my viewers.  Try and use a consistent color palette throughout my paintings.  I need to work on creating a more cohesive group of work.  WRITE CONSTANTLY.  Any ideas that come to mind can be developed into something that can be explored.    

Interview: Jenny Hang

     I interviewed Jenny Hang from Mason Gross who has a concentration in Graphic Design.  I looked over her digital and mixed-media works and asked a few questions concerning her inspiration, subject matter and possible ideas for thesis.  She has created art in numerous mediums and hopes to continue and further her mixed-media approach to art.

Linley: What is your concentration at Mason Gross?

Jenny: Graphic Design.

Linley: Has your concentration always been this? If not, what was it before?

Jenny: Yup!

Linley: You seem to have a good feel for a medium I am not at all familiar with- Computer/Digital art.  How did this become your artistic niche?

Jenny: Ever since I was young I always looked at things from a design perspective.  Every time I go shopping, I see things that catch my eye and I always wonder, "How did they make that"?  So when I was exposed to the computer/digital world, I really fell in love with creating fun and cute images and personal websites around my middle school year.

Linley: What kind of classes have you taken outside of the digital realm ie: painting/drawing?

Jenny: I took almost every kind of art possible either at Mason Gross or during High School, such as ceramics, sculpture, paper making, graphic design, drawing, painting, photography and currently video.  I feel like art should be versatile so in order to see what is your strongest and weakest points.

Linley: Did these classes help further develop or change your more digital pieces?

Jenny: Sure, I think it definitely helps me develop a versatile eye for design.  By experiencing so many different mediums I can get an idea of how to incorporate and display different styles and mediums together.

Linley: What artists do you look at most?  To what degree do these artists influence the outcome of your pieces?

Jenny: I know it sounds bad but I don't have a specific artist that I look at.  Since I didn't have a strong art history background when I was younger, my inspirations came off of other designers in forums.  I taught myself through the internet and tutorials to learn different programs.  I would say that pop culture influences my work the most.

Linley: Have you ever thought to deviate from your attention to exactness in order to create a piece not like anything you have ever produced before?

Jenny: No, not really.  I like to attract viewers by visual appeal first.  If it doesn't look pretty or interesting then people wouldn't look at it.  The design world is competitive so in order to attract the audience I feel like I have to make it coherent.  I'm not sure how to "let go" and make something that's totally not "in control" but I know I should.

Linley: Do any of your previous pieces point you in a direction for what you would like to do with thesis this year?  If so, what underlying theme or idea would your idea be based upon?

Jenny: I want to make a progress book of my work but with a twist in the end?  I'm not completely sure but I do want to keep it in a digital/print realm.  Maybe add some other mediums in there as well.

Linley: You seem really immersed in the "commercial" aspect of art.  Are you interested in sending a message to your viewers?  Is it something you find important?

Jenny: Graphic Design, to me, is about commercial advertising- I do want to send a message to viewers through visual art by conveying the information of subject through words and pictures.

Linley: Would you ever consider creating more figurative work?

Jenny: I do some abstract work but not for school.  I have paintings and other craft projects I do in my free time outside of Mason Gross.

Linley: I noticed you say in your "artist statement" that you like to work fast.  Have you ever tried to challenge yourself and work at a slower pace to see what the outcome would be?

Jenny: I'm not sure how "slow" you are talking about but the more time I spend drawing, the more detailed my work gets.

Linley: It seems you have a passion for vibrant colors.  Does this have a lot to do with catching the eye of your viewer or is it more of a personal preference?  Is it a fusion of both?

Jenny: Both.  I like the bright colors and they make me happy.  Color is extremely important in my work.

My Thoughts: As a painter, I found it very interesting and eye opening to interview someone with a concentration so opposite of mine.  During this interview, I was able to get raw details about Jenny's art that she may not have been previously aware of. Jenny's serious approach to mixed-media, bright color and attention to detail is something I could even consider utilizing in my own work.