Most of the work of my art is done in my head. I am not sure that is the best way to go about doing it but for now it is working. Of late I have focused on two things in my ruminations: a particular quality of the street art aesthetic I find so appealing and an artist’s book I chanced upon recently.
All street art, no matter the style, has one quality in common; it is put up on public walls over existing art, signage or paint job. As I have reused canvases and boards (because I have limited funds for acquiring new ones) I have thought about the similarity between what I am doing in reusing a canvas and what the graffiti artist does in appropriating a wall for his public art. What I love most about this is that it reveals something of the artist’s process. I have begun to incorporate this into my portraiture; let the incompleteness of the base coats reveal what was marked over, while reworking the canvas allow parts of the original “draft” to show through and contribute to the finished whole.
As I looked at the artist’s work in the book I realized he was using something I had always loved and used myself, only he was doing it in a much more fluid way. In order to better focus the viewer’s eyes on the figure or portrait there needs to be a certain flatness to the background. Clothing and drapery need not be realized in exact detail but rather the suggestion of the model’s clothing should suffice.
These two qualities together have helped me realize what I want to accomplish in my portraiture. Hopefully now the work can go from the theoretical into the actual.
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2 comments:
hey man, i really like the use of chance to enhance the art. it is a sign of humility that states that the circumstances the artist finds himself in are just as vital, if not moreso, than any particular 'vision'. i've had some thoughts that parallel yours in that i've been wanting to create a collection of poetry, but cannot envision it to be 'published' in any standard format. so i recently picked up a book on how to make my own paper using all sorts of organic and found material. the resulting textures would serve as a backdrop for some form of text, and i'd bind it with either twine or use a sewing machine or something. it reminds me or auguste renoir: "It is not enough for a painter to be a clever craftsman; he must love to caress his canvas, too."
I'd like to see that when it's done and perhaps read some of it before.
And, I think the chance part of my painting is also a way of saying I'm not perfect, I'm not in total control. But I didn't think of that til I read your comment.
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