FIne Tuning

Meditation Map  12 x 12 oil on board  2012

It seems like opportunities arise all the the time to fine tune and examine what  I think about art making and my own work. I am not talking about the official write your statement, write a grant kind of moment, but the kind that sneak up and surprise you.

Recently at an opening of mine, during a casual interview, a reporter asked me this question, " How does your art tell your world view?"  I started answering and then said I would get back to her.  It was a tough question for me to answer off the cuff so I gave it a few days and tweaked my statement.


I focus on fragments in my work, just as our culture is fragmented and disconnected but my worldview is one of interconnection. I try to reveal elements that many people have lost sight of, elements that communicate to a place deeper than words. My work is rooted in a sense of play and discovery, an intuitive dialogue between the random and the deliberate that allows a relationship between intent and accident to develop. I try to create in the place of “not knowing” and exploration. My paintings invite a deep, visceral response that evolves over time; they have a life of their own. 

When I refer to fragments I also think about my photographs as being clues to how I see the world. My photos focus on fragments, close ups, shadows, light, texture, line and pattern not unlike my vision when I take my eyeglasses off. Astigmatism makes my world a blur so that details drop off. More about that here.

Below is a picture I took in Tuscany about 2 years ago and underneath is a painting that I am working on in the studio. I had forgotten that this photo was hanging around. I find it interesting the way things get synthesized and regenerate in the work.

Tuscan Wall, photo, 2011

Tuscan View 30 x 30 oil and encaustic on board 2013

From the Train, 2013

Drawing  12 x 11 mixed media on Mylar 2013

 One of the other opportunities I have had to look at my work was  responding to artist  Valerie Brennen's interview for her blog Studio Critical.

                      Heading In  20 x 20 oil on board 2012



Here is an excerpt from that interview:

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.

 My working routine and process are pretty close. I am at a point in my art making where I feel I have my tool belt pretty well stocked with a vocabulary, ideas, materials, and inspirations. I try to trust that and stay out of my own way. Work begins as play, play with great freedom and without judgment. Evolution comes from looking and paying careful, intuitive attention to what is happening in the work. If I am listening, my work tells me my story. My visual memory and interpretation of the world are more perceptive and in tune than my intellect. I believe in the idea of the spiral. Images and ideas that I have investigated in the past reappear again and again in a different form at different times. I have found my photographs to be very helpful, not as something to work from, but as an indicator of how I see the world. The most important part of my process is looking, editing and of course, deciding when a painting is done. One of my favorite times is coming back to the studio after a day of working to see the work again in a new light.

Read more at Studio Critical

Appearance 30 x 30 encaustic 2013

Alyson Pou: Wherein Fury Takes Flight… the time of our silence is over

I saw Alyson Pou's installation at Aljira a few months ago. I was there to see another show and her install caught my eye. Wonderfully crafted women's dresses on poles whirring around within a dream-like room with animated stuffed rabbits lurking around. Dreams, twilight, bewitching hour, ghosts and spirits are stirred up by this installation. The sounds, shadows, and wonderful light are captivating. I love this work. The show is up until March and it well worth the visit.

Here is Alyson's recent newsletter with upcoming events:

My installation Wherein Fury Takes Flight… the time of our silence is over remains on view at Aljira a Center for Contemporary Art in Newark, NJ through March 30th 2013. Read more about the project and see recent press here... I have organized two very special events for February and March, in conjunction with my show, to bring together a wide range of artist’s to share our work and explore the use of storytelling, autobiography, matrilineal heritage and women’s decorative arts and crafts as part of the artistic process. All events are FREE and open to the public. Saturday February 9, 2013   1-4pm Concept and Craft - Hand Made in the 21st Century Moderated by: Alyson Pou Special Guest: Judith Brodsky, Institute for Women and Art Rutgers University Presenters: Melissa Potter, Lacey Jane Roberts, Andrew Salamone, Nathan Vincent, Bisa Washington, Noelle Williams In the 1960s and 70s in the wake of the Women’s Liberation Movement, feminist artists sought to resurrect women’s craft and decorative arts as a viable artistic means to express female experience, thereby pointing to its political and subversive potential.  Since then artists of all gender identities have embraced the use of domestic craft in their work. How has the meaning and politics of using these crafts changed in the last 30 years? How has globalization through new technologies and the internet affected the use of domestic crafts? How is a new generation of artists making use of these age-old crafts? I hope you can join me, Judith Brodsky, and this panel of six dynamic artists to be part of a lively presentation and discussion about Concept and Craft in the 21st Century! All best, Alyson Preview: COMING UP in MARCH Two-Part Women's History Month Event March 2, 2013 1-6pm Narrative Threads: Tapping the Motherline  This two-part women’s history month event will feature visual artists and writer/performers who use the oral tradition of storytelling, and tap into matrilineal and cultural roots for their inspiration. Artists include: Janet Henry, Daniel Alexander Jones, Ivivia Olenick, Alyson Pou and Christina Springer.  FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THESE EVENTS VISIT alysonpou.com or contact ALJIRA at 973-622-1600

Artist’s statement:

Wherein Fury Takes Flight…the time of our silence is over.

Years ago I had a vivid dream of a large room filled with black dresses twirling, hovering, flying, and colliding.  I was outside looking in, then standing in the midst of the storm of dresses.  The next morning I got news of my grandmother’s death.   After her funeral, I continued to have thoughts and dreams of this room full of black dresses silently twirling, dancing, and hovering around the ceiling like ghosts.  It became the inspirations for a performance/installation titled “To Us At Twilight…”

Now, more than 20 years later I revisit that room. I feel the presence of all the women in my family who have since died and the presence of many more women stretching back into the deepest past.  This time they are whipping up a mighty wind making a decision to move, to leave behind the desires, secrets, hardships of the past.

Wherein Fury takes Flight… consists of seven dresses constructed from thrift store finds that I have taken apart, sometimes dyed or embellished and then reassembled.  The resulting garments are contemporary but at the same time evoke another era. 

“The rabbits symbolize transition and transformation. They come out at dawn and dusk, the witching hour, the most vulnerable time of day, when things slip from life to death, from evil to good. They’re gathering to bear witness, and support the movement from stasis to change.

“They also represent the underlying secret world in my family that I learned about as a child and visited through observing the women around me.  In unspoken ways they instructed me and gave me glimpses into the depth of their experiences.  Through them my imagination was drawn to the past and a desire to understand the women who came before me.

“In my work I seek to create a place open to curiosity and wonderment, a place for viewers to enter and conjure their own memories and stories, and perhaps visit their own secret world.”

Alyson Pou

---

View from the studio: Connie Goldman and Milisa Galazzi

Happy New Year!! I have been busy painting, gearing up for workshops and  updating my website.

More Studio Views:

Connie Goldman, Petaluma, CA 

eddy XX, Connie Goldman

Milisa Galazzi, Providence, RI

Asymptote Study in Blue, 8"x8", Encaustic and Paint Stick, Milisa Galazzi, 2013

Outside/Inside: View from the Studio,Tracey Adams and Rebecca Crowell

Here are two wonderful painters that are clearly inspired by nature. Check out their websites for more work and news.

Tracey Adams  

Lumenis  7

Cedar in Garden

Rebecca Crowell

Rose Veil 

     

Outside/Inside: Tamar Zinn

I have a continued interest in the connection of the view from an artist's window and their own work. Here is Tamar Zinn's window and view with one of her paintings.

Studio Window

Beyond the Curtain

  

Broadway 109

Tamar's fifth solo show opens in January at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, NYC.

January 3 - February 2, 2013

Artist Reception, Friday, January 4, 2013, 6:00-­‐8:00pm

For future blog posts and possibly another project@, I invite you to email me 2 jpegs (72 dpi): one of the view outside your window and the other an image of your work. Please include your website url. Here is another Outside/Inside post.

Small Work

                                                      10  8" x 6" each oil on board

Somehow I have ended up with numerous small works in progress in my studio. All paintings are hard to make but small paintings present big challenges. The other day I realized how much time, energy, consideration, materials, blood (literally sometimes I say with a sliced finger as I type) sweat and tears  are involved. There is a preciseness and economy of formal elements, along with the decision whether the piece is going to deliver a big punch or a quiet whisper. It is a challenge.

                                Small Gem 4/12  6" x 6"  encaustic

      Small Gem   5/12  6" x 6"  encaustic

      Small Gem  3/12  6" x 6"  encaustic

Small Gem 1/12  6" x 6"  encaustic

                                  Small Gem 2/12  6" x 6"  encaustic

    Small Gem   6/12  6" x 6"  encaustic

New Work in the Studio

Emerging 8' x 6" oil on board

Are You Listening 8" x 6" oil on board

                                  Untitled 1  8" x 6" oil  on board

Holdings 2 12 x 12 oil on board

The Light Again 24 x 24 oil on board