Crit #2 + Wall Disaster + Baby Vomit = Awesome

Here are 2 of the 3 paintings I put into crit this week, with m write up about them.

The third 8’x4’ canvas (on horribly warped stretchers) is continuing this idea of flow, emotion, and spontaneity in a more compositionally focused way. Starting out with a thick layer of modeling paste, the vertical composition formed to represent a sort of emergence from flowing, linear waves to explosion, voluminous clouds. Starting with the red, blue, yellow still seemed like a simple starting point and easier knowing I would soon cover it. The use of thin, liquid paint and allowing it to drip lends to the free form idea of the Dao I was considering in the last painting. As far as color goes, I am working on dark on the bottom to light at the top transition however my color choices are not completely resolved yet. This painting is not yet complete.

The second painting (roughly 4’x4’ on canvas, stapled to the wall) represents process of both paint and mind. Bringing the element of thick paint into this allow for a more three dimensional experience with the painting. Starting out with the usual red, blue, yellow I quickly became sick of the ‘pretty colors’ and the lack of focal point in the painting. Thinking about Daoism and grapping with the general concept of existence, new things began to emerge. According to Daoist thought, the world is made of an infinite number of events that are constantly interfering with each other to make up the world; each process cannot be perfect due to this constant interference, however it can come as close to perfection as possible. In order to achieve this, one must basically ‘go with the flow’ such that they can almost effortlessly move through the world with minimum interference. Feelings of frustration lead to each step of the painting feeling contrived and forced, so I established myself a center in the painting (possibly both compositionally and ontologically) and flowed from there. It became more important to do what felt right in terms of moving paint around then to think about color, application, and composition choice. By doing this, I found that those choices became easier to make or practically made themselves. The use of thinner paint allowed for a loose, freer feeling as the painting reacted with itself more than with my hand/brush. The tighter, more controlled lines that I cannot seem to let go of help the viewer in finding a path through out the painting.

And while taking that one off the wall, I discovered it stuck to the wall. I had to peel it off and take some dry wall with it: