New to Blogger...though I have other blogs and have pretty much tried them all (my reason behind having not started yet another blog after like, 4 others hehe...) But, eh. I caved.
So, I'll start off with artist statements of mine. Seems like a good way of introducing myself in a professional manner before completely dashing it through the no doubt overly opinionated posts to come from yours truly in the future....
Yeah.
::Midnight Sonata - Artistic Process and Anti-process::
An impulse. Surging through my being like some addictive substance from within the farthest reaches of my mind. Unavoidable and stubborn in its progression, it overwhelms and never fails to propel me towards the fresh opportunity ready and waiting at the easel...
Middle of the night, the world around me at quiet slumber, 75 watt overhead bulb illuminates the studio and glares in blood shot eyes. Maybe mix just a bit more cerulean in. No, prussian and just a dab of white....
Addiction? Obsession....
The process is conscious yet subconscious -- an image is rarely preconceived, but rather it materializes through each oil laden swipe of the knife. It's rather chaotic in its conception in that traditional sketches and research are not only abandoned but ignored entirely. Spontaneity dominates the so-called creative "process", yet the formula remains constant -- atleast as constant as a spontaneous creative "process" will allow....
Ground and foreground interact with the spark and exhaustive release of a night spent. Melting together and separating at the shift of a hue, only to melt back into one another moments later. Pigments are chosen as a reflection of emotion as the contemplation evolves into being. Continued from corner to edge to corner and between, the white of the once fresh opportunity is devoured piece by piece, moment by moment. Window into a new dimension unveiled upon completion, its inhabitants emerging only after the scene has been set.
They journey through the contemplation, melting and resurfacing like the atmosphere in which they reside. Stepping further into the canvas, they entice their audience to do the same. Walk the path and consider the possibilities of the unknown. Consider the notions set forth by their seemingly blind journey toward an end undepicted. Consider something more....
Methodical yet frenzied, the creation comes to fruition in one continuous sitting, no matter how long that may take. Just as a thought lingers in the recesses of the mind until acknowledged or confronted, such is the character of the muse within. That impulse that craves satiation. So it shall be satiated...until tomorrow.
Palette knife comes to rest, mind slows to but a comfortable crawl. Eyes gaze upon the piece of my soul plucked from my subconscious like a Polaroid into my imagination. The silence of the early morning reminds me of my exhaustion. 75 watt bulb a mere memory. Sleep may now embrace me....
::Artist Statement 5/2004::
Contemplations of an existence beyond the flesh. I think most artistic creations convey a personal expression parallel to the living and breathing reality we inhabit, creating an alternate universe in essence, living and breathing in the minds of those who choose to visit.
My work is born from that alternate reality, living out its existence within the confines of the four synthetic walls of the canvas. The canvas is a window -- four panes opening one world to another. I invite the onlooker to peer into this new world, a realm built on pure human emotion. I am but a projector, extracting the images deep inside my soul, thrusting them forth into this space we call ours. Through spontaneous creation this realm is forged, its female inhabitants personifying human curiosity, vulnerability, inner strength, and devotion. Emotions flood the atmosphere in the broad spectrum of hues realized from palette to application. Their creation is a profoundly personal pit stop on the journey toward understanding.
The crusade ventures forth, through oil laden valleys and imagined forests saturated with pure pigments and textural nuances in the great expanse that is the new frontier. The vision is that of unspoken honesty, corrupted only by the eyes of the jaded and doubtful. This place is free from plaguing inhibition and manipulation. Obvious female perfection destined not to deceive but to entice. Entice an otherwise unchained audience to journey as well. To make the pit stop in this realm beyond the flesh, and maybe, just maybe, join the crusade...
If only for a little while....
::Artist Statement 10/2003::
Woman. A remarkable entity embodying a thousand different characters. She is the mother, the diva, the slut, the crone. From her womb emerges the first breath of life. The weight of the world rests on her shoulders. Without her there would be nothing. She holds the power to create and destroy - after all, wasn't it Eve who tasted the forbidden fruit sacrifycing a utopian forever all to satisfy her personal desires? No wonder she's got so much on her mind. On my mind, for that matter.
My paintings reflect all this weighty stuff in sort of a driveby blur of pure, undiluted pigment. Just as contemplations have a tendency to aggressively fight their way to the surface of consciousness even after what had been assumed to be resolved. And through residual fingerprints of contemplation after contemplation she emerges. Venus, the every woman. She inhabits our subconscious in anonymity. Void of recognizable features we know her none the less. She exists within that contemplative residue and represents that tiny voice in that back of our minds that speaks to us without saying a word.
I see my intuition, conscience, inhibitions, and personality in my maidens. They represent everything that is honest and sincere because that is how I create them. They are born from somewhere deep inside. That unexplainable, unarticulated place within us all. They are that other side of us - like in those cartoons where an angel whispers morality and goodness on one side and on the other a demon screams evil and darkness. I haven't quite figured out just which side they call home. I think both.
Max Beckman wrote in Letters to a Woman Painter, "The visible world in combination with our inner selves provides the realm where we may seek infinately for the individuality of our own souls." For me, that search manifests through juicy, vibrant swirls of smeared oil forming a hand here, a back there in a contemplative response to my personal version of reality.
As human beings we are inherently narcissistic. It is in our nature. From the idealized feminine icons of Titian's Venus of Urbino and Ingres'Large Odalisque to today's artistic erotica, the female vision is one of objectification. Sort of a two-dimensional "cheap thrill". In a fast paced society built on buzz words and what sells, it's no secret that the body has become seperated from the person. Cattle shuffle through everyday life thinking "feelings...emotion...who's got time for that?" That time is the stuff of my work. Through it's creation, I hope that when one gazes apon it for a single second, they then have made the time
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