Painting 3 Proposal

Over the course of this semester, my work will follow a similar path as the work I completed during this summers' Undergraduate Research Program. The project was an exploration of the materiality of paint coupled with ideas such as Daoism, string theory, and the interconnectivity of the natural world through line, form, and color. I made the project as experimental and process based as possible. Each step in a painting a reaction to the one before it and was documented during the process as it happened. This is work I plan to continue during the course of the year in my Senior Thesis, as well as in this Painting class.

While still continuing the study Daoism philosophy and string theory, I plan to focus more on elements of the natural world. In many of my paintings and drawings, line is a very prominent element as well as a tool for expressing the flow of the Dao and the fundamentality of string theory. These line formations have been very abstract in the past, however I am interested in creating more realistic landscapes of nature to serve as a basis. These representations will still be somewhat abstract, but clearly mimic tangible things: clouds, tree branches, water ripples, etc.

As I would like to tie my Senior Thesis work and my work for this course together, I plan on using my course work as an opportunity to experiment with some more mixed medium techniques. Specifically, I am interested in bringing painting together with photography, sculpture, and/or printmaking techniques. As my work is largely abstract, using a Holga camera has been of interest to me as it provides a way to create unevenly exposed and/or overlapping images within the film. This will provide a link to the tangible world, while still remaining open and abstract. The use of film also allows for an extension of the process, which is a very important aspect of my work. I am also interested in the use of silkscreen, collographs, and rubber stamps as a way to print an image or pattern onto the canvas and proceed to paint into it. Considering that the work is concerned with movement of space, in some respect, sculptural elements may become very important. In many past pieces, I used thick paint as a way to transgress into the three dimensional realm; however, I feel that creating an object/space that the viewer can become a part of would also be an interesting way of expressing my ideas.

Of the works I plan on completing this semester, at least one will be based in photography/painting and one will be based in photography/sculpture. I also plan on completely at least two large-scale paintings (3'x4' or larger). In between/during larger projects, I will be working on several smaller pieces and drawings as a supplement to/in preparation for larger works.


This is the proposal I wrote for this semester's painting 3 course. I am not really sure how to feel about it; I am just unsure if I am really getting at anything....anything more than the things I have already explored. Still getting used to having a schedule, plus Friday's bike/car door crash, my head is just spinning and spinning and spinning...
And now to write a paper for Fox's class...the spinning continues...