a multi-disciplinary dialog
I just returned from a short trip that, as it turned out, provided the opportunity to revisit some previous locations and subjects. It was interesting to notice what I found interesting this time around, what I did differently, and whether there is any direction apparent. Today I’ll focus on the color abstracts in my ongoing Patina project, which is based on surfaces of junkyard vehicles and weathered rocks.
From The art of looking sideways, by Alan Fletcher. Quotes are by the author, unless otherwise noted.
Gold mining consists of sifting three tons of rubbish for each ounce of gold extracted.
It’s always better to be looked over than overlooked.
-Mae West
The man who can’t visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot.
-Andre Breton
Thinking is drawing in your head.
Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere.
-G. K. Chesterton
Succulus by Robert Pepperell
Robert Pepperell, the Head of Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art & Design, is interested in the phenomenon he calls visual indeterminacy: you see the scene before you clearly, but you don’t know what it is. His article Seeing without Objects: Visual Indeterminacy and Art has helped me put together another piece of the puzzle of what is compelling to me about abstraction and what I mean by abstraction in my own work. Pepperell comes at the question through art history, psychology/neuroscience, and his own drawings and paintings. For example, his painting Succulus is very evocative for me of the figures, draped clothing, and sky on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, yet I can’t actually recognize any of that in the picture. As described on his web page:
We have been discussing the correction of distortions that can arise when photographing paintings, doorways and such. One solution is found in Photoshop where a mode in the cropping tool can be used to square up images taken from oblique angles.
This mode, meant primarily to rectify, can also be used to distort. That which is already head-on can be given an oblique perspective.
This is an example using one of Tree’s houses. Here we see the image as she posted it.
Predictability is fine in its place, but it can be overdone. This post is for the halibut. An open thread for anything that comes to mind. Your comments are all.
Last week, on my way to somewhere else, I spent a little time wandering in a park and happened on the scene you see above. As you may guess, it is a reflection of trees in a slow-moving stream, which I inverted to present to you as a painterly dreamscape.
A moment later, from the same position, I made the following photograph of the same subject. If the first conjures a dreamy impression, the second may make you rather think nightmare. Why are they so different?
I’ve been working on a series of photographs of the homes in my neighborhood. This project started after about three years of walks with my dog at different times of the day and encompasses a whole gamut of thoughts and feelings that I’ve had towards my home.
The more I saw the same things every day, the more meaning all of it took on for me until I had to get my camera and take photos. I suppose there’s a lot I could write about but I want to focus on two ideas regarding this project:
