Friday, August 28, 2015

First Week/Last Year

For the past year I've had two bodies of work running parallel to each other - representational depictions of nature and wildlife and abstracted architectural structures.  (I've felt split in half.) Last semester I made the decision to focus mostly on the architectural work - it is a new way of working for me so there is a lot to explore and experiment with.  

Here I am now - midway through the first week of my final year in grad school which means…THESIS SHOW!  Eh-ghads!  Translation:  I need to start making a cohesive group of work to show in May.  So what do I do?  I complete two paintings…one meteorite and one geometric-fied cube.  At first I felt like I was back to square one, completely torn between which path to take - organic vs. manmade, but then I hung them side by side and realized they were pretty much the same form.  What does this mean?  I have no fucking idea.  But it's taking me somewhere so I'm just going to buckle up and move along.

Meteorite, oil, 31"x23"

Cube (until I come up with a better name), oil, 22"x16"

The cube painting above had an interesting morphing process….

At one point last semester I considered this a finished painting.

But then I decided to flip it upside down and add some yellow.

Next I just sanded the hell out of the whole thing and blocked in some super dark purple.
Added some finishing details and ta-duh!…painting conversion complete.

Hey, you know what helps when you're trying to decide between two paths?  Add a third path.  Just kidding, it doesn't help at all but it's a nice distraction from having to choose from the previously discussed paths.

Vitrine I, flashe and gesso, 13"-ishx11"-ish

Vitrine II, flashe and gesso, 13"-ishx11"-ish