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
THIS WEEKS GOALS:
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!
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