A friend of mine here, an acuaintance, a friend, on that border where you aren't sure where you are.....anyway, he's a professional artist and was the one who invited me to join the exhibition and who I helped hang the show on the weekend.
Woah, lost the train of that sentence. Anyway, while we were hanging the show he was commenting on some of my work, very diplomatically, but mentioned that I was going here there and everywhere in style, which is typical of those starting out. I didn't mention that I already have some series of works underway, but what is relevant to this post was his comment that I would find one style, message, medium and go deeper. Anirè més profundament in Catalan. I love how they use the word profound for depth.
It has left me pondering. I have been skipping around styles a lot, partially cause it is fun, cause I can paint the way I want when I want without feeling constrained by a particular manner, but I have also been skating over the surface to some extent.
The comment left me feeling like a swimmer, or diver, knowing that the next step is to duck under and have a look around, and while I don't feel fearful in anyway, I am not sure what I'm going to find down there, nor exactly what the route should be. I suspect that everyone has to find their own way down.
Should be a fun ride anyway.
The other question that comes to mind, there is an interesting line between going deeper into a style and manner and being in a rut.
no?
9 comments:
Very interesting.
Seems like a conversation that could go on for a while...
I really think your own style is very personal, and sometimes diversity is what people need to keep the creativity going like your very cool mathematical blog, Vi Hart whom I adore btw, if you really want to be even move wowed check out her Dad's blog, but I digress.
I think the united front in fact can come more from the way the work is selected and shown if anything. I really find personally that different styles and mediums on an ongoing basis really inform one another and keep things fresh, and free and yes... avoiding that rut.
I must confess wondering though how it would be for you if you did take more time to delve more deeply into each piece of work, taking more time to develop and resolve. Would not be a canvas a day, and I know that was not the point. Any way just thought.
Nomad
Nothing wrong with digging deeper, but some of the masters definately dabbled and did things their own way. Dig deeper but don't let it question your talents. I love your art.
Even Picasso switched styles quite a number of times during his life. I'd take that as a compliment. Means your talent has been acknowledged, hasn't it?
Nomad, I do have some pieces I take further and deeper, they are larger, but often they get left unfinished somehow or morph into another project. I'm giving it another shot though right now. I am taking more than a day to finish many of the current pieces, it would be impossible to do them in one shot. So what is happening is that there is a series of work at a variety of levels of completion, my promise to myself was to finish one every day, and now that I have space to have more going on at once, there are several in progress at a time as well as a bunch on the back burner. I don't think I could really do a rut, I'd just walk away.
I am thinking of going bigger again, I used to prefer it by far, but then got small because of space-time-money constraints. See what happens anyway. Merry Christmas to all of you.
Hula, thank you. I will dig deeper, and keep floating, and having fun and struggling. Thanks.
ElP, if you're going to compare me to Picasso it cannot be anything but a compliment, the man was a machine! Most of them changed styles over time indeed. It would be mighty boring if they didn't.
This is a whole new vocabulary for me; if you were talking about writing, I would understand, but with painting? More explanation would be needed, for me. Nice that he recognizes there is the potential for more there, though.
Seems like the opposite of the canvas-a-day quest though. Or can there be both volume and profundity? Worth pondering.
JG, I am not sure there is that much difference. Whether one is writing or painting, there is a difference in depth between some works and others. Toni Morrison's stories contain considerably more than the superficial stream of words that create the story, and it is not just the function of clever plot and explanation construction. Other writers, such as Barbara Kingsolver for example have comparatively more straightforward stories in conjunction with considerable depth, or meat. There is something to chew on that other work does not contain. It seems more tenuous in painting, especially more modern painting because it can be structurally difficult to enter the piece in a way that a novel, outside of Finnegan's Wake doesn't necessary create, but I do think that there are parallels between writers and painters who are aiming to go deeper with their works. No?
There is definately a possible contradiction with the canvas a day project. It was motivated to get me to show up every day and get the muscles all toned up, though there is something to be said for simply showing up every day, it is vital. I am not yet sure that the two are opposed though. Some writers/artists/painters/scupters are more prolific than others, no? The importance is realising that not everything is going to be brilliant, and that things can be reworked. Indeed some of the canvases from the canvas a day project are reworked from previous pieces in the project. This has turned into a blog post, I'll continue there.
Again a very interesting discussion. I have also read todays post, and am pondering. What has just struck me again while rereading the post from today about the idea of diving in, it made me realize that your format of a painting a day, has in a sense become the framework and structure for you to make work - sounds obvious, but in the sense of not diving or developing mentally work further, and I can understand your feelings of uncertainty about what will happen next... very interesting...thanks for sharing!!!
Anytime anon...I assume Nomad!
yes Of course! :-)
Post a Comment