Group Critique - Friday, Sept 23rd, 2011

The visit to my studio to critique my work went very well. My shaped canvases seem to be captivating, drawing people in, forcing them to ask: "What is it?" I felt I received some great ideas and direction from our group, which consisted of Chip, Emily, Gabby, and Chris. Chris made the suggestion that I make the organic appearance of my work more "gross". Gabby seemed to think that I needed to make them less textured, maybe smoother somehow. Alex thought the idea of me painting 2D canvas with the same type of image as the forms I am making (spines, ridges, etc.) was a great idea, and they all felt that adding this to the collection would be an interesting way to augment the shaped canvases. Chip seemed to like the idea that I was including evolution into my work, not biological evolution, but the way the work will change over time. Emily seemed to think the ball could lead to controversy, and that I should be careful about overusing it. Overall, they seemed to think I was heading in the right direction, and looked forward to seeing what the future would turn these things into.

The Uncle Ted Experiment

"Uncle Ted's" Visit to my studio My Uncle Ted was a guy I'd never met before, but whom had been commenting on my art on AnythingArts.com. He used to be an artist, and painted on the street in Key West for some years, painting Manatees and ducks for tourists. Although he had no formal education in art, he seemed to think I was on to something with the shaped canvases, and the evolution thereof. He also really loved the way I'd painted the edges darker, saying that it made them "pop", gave them mystery. He was very enthusiastic about the work, and felt that I was in the right vein, and should continue to explore the possibilities. This man was full of energy, and seemed very curious as to how I was making the forms. I showed him some pieces of the next work that I had laying around, and he just couldn't believe I was getting those shapes out of foamcore. He also wanted to know how large I planned on working, and I explained that I needed to keep the size small enough to get into my car, since the larger pieces always make it more difficult to transport, but that I had the option of using several smaller pieces to create one larger piece, and that seemed to placate his desire to see the work in a very large format. He suggested that I take the pieces to the beach, and perch them atop a set of poles, and display in front of the tourists and beach goers. This is something I might consider in the future, if I ever have time to go to the beach!  I tried to explain how my work connected with Dadaism and the contemporary art movement, but I think, frankly, this was lost, as he wasn't so much interested in the history, or how my work fit into the history. Rather, he was more interested in my process. Therefore it became difficult to explain, since I feel you need to know at least a little about Dada in order to appreciate contemporary art. Without realizing it, I did sort of bring him into the ideas of contemporary art in a round about way. He seemed surprised to find out that art can be made with ideas as simple as automatic drawing, channelling a person who has died, or even using intuition as a guide; He was also interested to hear that random drops of paint, or splatters of paint, a la Pollock, could be made into something beautiful. I also explained what an important role that chance, random acts of mark making, had on modern art, and he seemed interested in this. Which sort of brought him up to date on my methods: although the creation of the shapes is somewhat random, the surface is not a exactly a random act, yet the painting of them is. I make no preconceived notions about where I will put paint, or how I will place it onto the surface. If I make a mistake, I work with it, rather than try to correct it. This brought him joy, saying that, in his work, many times he has to re-gesso the canvas, paint over the bad image, in order to start over. I further explained how he could use such accidents to his advantage, and the many reasons it's abad idea to paint over a previous painting. He and I talked for about 45 minutes. All in all, I think that he was very interested and somewhat enlightened when he left. It was a good interview, and it helped me to try to see my work through the eyes of a novice, and get a fresh perspective about the direction I am going.