Sunday, April 17, 2011

Tag Drawings

Playing with some forms for some paintings about urban space.
Tag letterforms found online and then manipulated in Illustrator, then projected onto paper, and traced. An interesting process . . . instead of fretting about getting the proportions right etc, my attention can turn to other things like picking out which shapes go ontop of what, colour schemes, etc. Basically, it speeds up the process of composition and translating it from a thumbnail to a larger format. I have some other ideas for the ol' Tracer Jr.! :)
felt marker on paper

Friday, April 8, 2011

Meandering

Now that school is finished until September and my solo show is done, I thought I'd take some time to do some creative meandering. I want to explore some of the ideas that were touched on in my contemporary drawing/painting class this last semester. What is a painting? What does a painting represent in a digital culture? How do I intergrate concept with my intuitive approach to artmaking?
I have some unresolved issues with the "Beyond the canvas" project I did with the tupperware. I'd like to explore that a little more because not only does it lend itself to infinite variations but also pushes my awareness of paint. If painting is using paint, then what is painted sculpture? Also, I would like to explore the idea of the everyday, functional object as non-functional art piece. I like the associations that are inherent in making a mundane utility object into something use-less. (I actually think that was part of the point of the first assignment I had in my sculpture class in September but didn't really explore that any further.)
Because I'm itching to paint, I want to do a couple of canvases on the subject of abstracted urban landscape. I find the public, semi-public, and private space definitions intriguing. What makes it a public space and what makes it private? The subject of my painting I did for class was taking a public space and making it private (in a sense), but what happens when you take a private space and take away the walls? What does the representation of space mean in painting today? How does the use of acrylics affect my work? (I want to avoid my "traditional" mediums for awhile.)
Some other topics I'd like to explore are ones from my drawing book. Measurement, Nature, City, Dreams, and the Body. I'm going to save the Body for last because that would mean figures . . . and I want to discover new themes and forms.
But it's Friday . . . time for a cheese pizza and some snuggin'!