I'm getting a better sense of picking up where I left off. That is a miraculous thing.
My eyes shifted and I remembered. Any piece of paper has artistic value. I'll be picking up anything including discarded newspapers from now on. Dumpster diving has its charms as well. My M.F.A. show was 70% recycled materials from dumpster diving and going to the scrap metal yard. When I start building canvases, it'll make a differenece in me and in the work again.
I'm getting a better sense of picking up where I left off. That is a miraculous thing. I've decided to dig more into my psyche to pull out a theme for a series. I've already started generating objects for symbolism and the pepper plant definitely comes into play. Mostly this comes form a good time painting and sewing. I feel life has meaning again more than 9 to 6 drudgery. And being honest about oneself goes a long way to success and interests. Although we all have common experiences, its the uncommon circumstances that make a difference in our stories. I'm daunted by illustrators approaches with a panoply of characters, so I may rely on metaphysical approaches and archetypes. Maybe to paint for the love of painting can be enough.
To make a piece that surmises my state and life. A guernica if you will, must be on the list of achievements to make as an artist. With the time I have, maybe make more than one. I had someone look at one of the plant studies, She preferred the weakest most representational stuff. I should have known better. The study was incomplete, but may have has too much local coloration. I was showing it in dim light. I was shocked she could not see how much color was in the piece in value range. Maybe that's it. Glazing. I'm taking the best shot possible at maturing my oil paint techniques. So I am letting them dry. I'll work into them again before the week is over. I've got to be able to do these things for myself in evaluating. I can, but I think I needed to show of an accomplishment in oil painting. New techniques for me,
The young collard green are initially boring. Well, I was wrong about that. The layer of what seem film over the leaf, is the leaf. Its a grey color that is intensively blended in crayola crayon with the grey and green. I can't remember what painter said grey and green are basically the same thing when painting trees and fauna. Grey is usually used to convey distance in a painting. Unique to use a atmospheric device for as a device for a specific object. I got it together and bought paint thinner. I have to weigh and rediscover the effects difference as compared to mineral spirits. Scent? maybe? Archivality is my question and which will work better when I get more embroiled in making my own paints.
In my ignorance and wonder I was trying to thin crayon and pull some of the pigment by using linseed oil. There was a thin colored film if I remember, but not enough to make a difference. Oil crayons produce the best result. The best bet is to go back to my days with encaustic. My best breakthrough was using beeswax and oil paint quickly on an collaged surface. I am making headway and feeling better about lost materials. I am slowly finding ways to collect and sort from common throw aways like newspapers. I've lost it all twice due to circumstances beyond my control, but I have not lost the ability. Any gain I make artisticly is a significant one, whether or not I have colleagues to comiserate and cajole with. Ultimately, art is a solo activity. Famous visual art collaborators are rare. I can think of two. They are both male pairs and one pair of collaborators are life partners. Articulating a vision is a delicate and viceral process. I need to find something to thin linseed oil. I've gone back to my old recipe for black paint. On a whim I used white vinegar to thin things out and got a rough grey out of the brush, laid pigment, and the linseed oil. My top concern was working on top of unprepared paper and the vinegar being acidic. Always, always, always think in term of archivality. I'm just going to have to break down and buy thinner. Or go really green and find environmental methods of painting like BIll Traylor did. His mom taught him how to use berries out of the forest.
Also I've got to develop amore refined edge, and it has come out. Maybe its a matter to be settled in froming. Certain clarities of distinctin and risk can be taken during an MFA show and when you have made a name for yourself in the *real* world. Then again maybe to develop series side by side and they each have their own vein of accomplishments. I keep looking in the newspaper and watching the news for a bit of inspiration . The transplanted pepper plant has given me much to love about the colors green and blue. Also remembering never to paint black with black, but with a mix of colors.
I've set my mind on tracing leaf shapes into fabric and committingg to reverse applica and embroidery. I've made 3 stencil so far from large samples collected in the yard. Dried and decaying leaves are starting to look good as subjects as well. I can not completely get into the vein of drawing people except for detailed studies face to face. I appreciate those who work with the figure on a consistent basis. The paintings I've seen at fairs are wonderful. Others run the gambit of focused and streamlined graphic arts. Anything that can be put on a t-shirt seems to be the forte. All others fall the way of perceptual garbage for some viewers. One day I'll get in, with the same loves and styles I had before. When I am able to amass the fodder I used years before in collage and assemblage, the difference in my work will be obvious. I'll have found the voice I lost and learned to flesh it out more thoroughly Herbalism gives ideas that are endless. I found a new solution to a garden/herbal series. Using calligrapy to round out the pictures with essays on each herb/plant and personal signifacance and occasion.
I see humanity more and life revolves around the kitchen table. |
N.A. JonesVisual Artist; Independent Researcher; Librarian; Cook; Amateur Astronomer; Gardener - the hard way, Writer; Explorer Archives
November 2015
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