Diary 2006-2007

I have kept written diaries in the past. I have never looked back at them. perhaps their value is more in solidifying ideas that become integrated into one's gestalt. It occurred to me tonight that I should start one.

April

20070413. The Robert Irwin biography has had a significant effect on me. I realize I have been moving in this direction for a while and it has now come together.

I am concerned about what an edge is - its inherent non-existence. This relates to "Null Hypothesis" and its non existence. I can see an extensive exploration of the idea. I see 8 foot square canvases with a large central circle. Later it can be moved off center and off (canvas) edge. I see air brushed colour fields. I'm thinking of one solid colour on the canvas as a ground and a transparent circle of another colour sprayed over. The thickness of the transparent layer can be adjusted from barely perceptible (including transparent medium so we have only reflectivity difference) to a hue-altering optical mix. The circle can have a gradient center to edge. Explore different hues - I like closely analogous colours - special effect pigments and luminosity.
Then I can explore planes - transparent with linear edges.
Next - are there other visual properties that have a philosophical non-existence?
I see none around either asking these questions, interested in them or interested in this disciplined type of exploration of a topic.
I realize my studio space is too small. Nor do I care if i am forced out since the work of my studio mates s in many cases banal. I am ambivalent about participating in the open studio this month.

200704110. Bought some Jello packages tonight. One of my earliest childhood memories is playing with then in my mother's kitchen. The colour of the packages was such a wonderful experience. Reading the life of Robert Irwin, I realized certain things:

He was as completely consumed by his art as anyone could be. I have the opportunity of deciding the measure of my response to art. Whatever I decide is perfectly valid. the issue is how open is the decision?
My studio group has been the source of considerable agitation. I realize that none of them have anything to speak into my work. They scramble for commercial and social validation while producing crap.

20070410. Reading Lawrence Weschler's book on Robert Irwin.

Irwin with his "less is more challenge" was trying to "maximize the energy, the physicality of the painting, and to minimize the imagery." (p.61). He has this idea of the energy field of a painting (p.60), and how an element may provide a nexus of energy.
He has a deliberate approach in that an element either adds to or subtracts from the energy of a work. There is no thing as a neutral element.
"At this point, I began to recognize the difference between imagery and physicality." (p.61).
His striving towards minimalism resonates with me. I am unsatisfied with where my work is at. I have no sense of where I want to take or whore it wants to go - the two sides of the descriptive coin.

20070406. It is interesting how developing this mentoring program has sharpened my focus and understanding on various topics.
20070405. Mentor meeting. we have been asked to each do a presentation on our work as an artist. We should cover (with examples):

Background material:

Early interest and work.
Evolution of personal style.
Current content.

On content:

What are we trying to convey?
How do we decide on content?
How to know what to do next?

On process:

How to get into the "zone"?
How do we decide what it needs now?
How do you know what to do next?
Use of journaling and photos - "can't remember what I did".

How to be an artist?

March

20070327. Idea: scrape pattern into a BMP layer with reflective smooth layer of interference colour underneath.
20070323. The parameters to explore in my work are:

edges: hard, soft, broken, gradient.
surface (texture): smooth, glossy, fine, course.
materials: interference colour, interference film, holographic film, integration of these with Plexiglass.
structure: wall mounted, free standing, curved, composite, architectural.
application: base colours, top colours, interference layers, order of layers, masking.
shape: planes, bands, spaces, geometric forms, organic forms, architectural forms, indeterminate forms, geometry.
orientation: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, complex, compositional, shaped support.
issues: control of consistency in application (resolution may be air brush), control of surface texture, particularly smoothness.

20070322. This week has been with Alex Powers and probably the most instructive week I have spent here. He's as perceptive as Catherine but his explanations are much more in depth, personal and helpful

He sees my work as minimalism and said I'm the only student he has had whose work belongs in Art Focus.
I told him the real value of last week, but particularly this week, has been to validate my content (the week has focused on discovering and expressing personal content).

20070321. Largely finished Chromatic Space No. 7. Alex feels the central band's strength detracts from the interference effect. I think it is a valid statement as it is. The intent was to have the transition between the green side passages and the green flop of the central passage to be invisible. Technicalities make this impossible on this piece. Alex says I should use an air brush so my "hand" is not visible in it. I agree that is a desirable goal. He recommends looking at:

James Turrell uses light.
Robert Irwin (and his book) uses light.
Ellsworth Kelly for shape.
Donald Judd
Paul Klee for line.

20070320. Alex Powers. The week is about content. He describes my work as about interference colour and light and void of shape, line, colour and pattern - the four elements used to create images. I would understand content as subject matter as the minor component and personal expressiveness in rendering it as the major component.

He said my work tends toward minimalism, that I'm avoiding shape, pattern, texture and line. He said I should be looking for galleries that carry minimalist work.
My content (in his terms) is about the colour changes that occur as one moves.

20070317. Check out Art Basel as a major show.
20070316.

Feeling lost and up against a wall. Feel pressure to produce something by day's end, for the show.
I feel the pressure of working with so many good artists, many whose work I would be happy if I could produce.
Catherine has been very strong about being faithful to your own muse. I feel I could be ready to move on but she keeps focusing back on interference colour and effects with suggestions where i might take it. One suggestion is free standing panels. Another is to follow Mondrian and Diebenkorn (Ocean Park Series) but using interference colour and an organic division of space.

20070315. Finishing a Chromatic Space No. 6. I add writing to resolve what Katherine felt was a problem - I think the organic edge shapes. Alex later says he didn't think it was necessary and I feel it's a bit of a gimmick since text is not a natural part of my work at this time.
20070314. Working with unstretched canvas:

I like the feel of being able to walk on it and kneel on it. On the other hand, the lack of tension works against the interference effect because the surface has a pucker.

20070313. In looking at material she curated for a show, I realized that there was a strong component of shapes with explicit edges, lines, and some figurative content.

Thinking on the importance of value transitions - edges -in visual processing, these are all pictorial elements that contain information = stimulate interest. So information content is an important aspect in creating art that will engage th observer. This is hard-wired response. This suggests we may map the surface of a piece of art object in terms of information density.
One might infer that an even distribution of information becomes uninteresting. It also suggests that areas of low information density will enhance the impact of areas of high information density.
I dislike, very much, closed organic shapes.
Edge to edge lines not only create a division of space but create the possibility of a horizon line and an abstract landscape interpretation.

20070312. At Springmaid in Catherine Liu's class. Thoughts:

A line connected to an edge creates a division of space, as long as it has no closed segments. It is akin to tearing a paper surface and the line represents the tear. Starting a line at the center invokes the bias of the center.
This suggests it might be useful to identify biases associated with configuration and orientation.

January

20070108. Not using this diary as much as I should.

I realize that it is important to me to strive for simplicity. Having mastered the simple I can then make it complex. In this regard a primary issue, one that I recognized when I started painting in 2001, is that of space. An exploration of visual and colour space is what I am currently focused on. The issue of content - what inhabits a space - is the second primary theme and I pursue it in parallel although not with the same intensity.
I was reading in "Color in Contemporary Painting" and discovered a reference to "kineticism" and in particular, Vasarely's "Yellow Manifesto" written in 1955. I couldn't find a reference to an English translation in a quick search. I would very much like to read it.
Other quick checks on kineticism on the web reveal some uncertainty. Does it refer exclusively to dynamic sculpture? Does it include Op Art? The latter induces a sense of movement through optical illusion or the engagement of certain properties of our optical processing systems. It would appear that kinechromaticism might be included under kineticism but is a separate phenomenon from dynamic and optical movement.

20061202. I forget this is here.

When I borrowed the Buschlen-Mowatt Gallery catalogue on Jules Olitsky, I leafed through it with an actual sense of fear. As I saw those images unfolding, I thought that he'd done it all - there was nothing left for me. This has forced me to begin to clarify my own vision and conceptual basis. The essay "On Space and Colour" is the first piece and the essay "On Paint and Painting" the second.
Mary and I have been talking again about the desire for a group of peers to discuss issues of art. With our mentor program, we are partly addressing the need for others but it is a temporary fix.. I wonder if there are ongoing or sustainable alternatives for serious artists.

November, 2006

20061121. Greenberg says of Duchamp, he "alone ... worked out, as it now looks, every implication of that [futurist] vision and locked ... art into what has amounted to hardly more than elaborations, variations on, and recapitulations of his original ideas". This is what I need to avoid or at least recognize in defining my own vision.
20061121. I watched "high stakes" for the second time, this time with Mary. It was exciting in that it clarified or spawned a number of ideas:

Light has two properties, spectral composition and intensity (frequency and amplitude). These correspond to to the properties as artists would use, of colour and luminosity.
My work is about both.
Paint is in its reductive formulation, a pigment and a binder.
Paint has two properties, colour and body or viscosity. Plasticity is I think a synonymous term.
Traditional pigments exhibit colour by absorption.
Special effect pigments exhibit colour by reflection and may or may not exhibit specular reflection.
New New (NN) painters seem to require the use of paint and colour. In particular, the plasticity or body of the paint is important and chromatic as opposed to achromatic colour is important. It is unclear to me what they would think of a textureless black or white gessoed canvas. It is unclear what they think of surface reflectivity.
Since I have hypothesized that all areas and elements of the image space must have colour, either chromatic or achromatic, if all other properties of the image space are removed such as form and texture, leaving only colour, we may talk in terms of the colour space of the image. This would be a subspace of a perceptual space.
Another space to consider is conceptual space. Whereas perceptual space is a product of the physiology of an organism, conceptual space is the product of the organism's world of concepts. Relationships between conceptual elements are arbitrary. Cubist space would be an example.
Abstraction then is the process of removing information present in a representation of a particular space.
The Maunsell colour sphere may be topologically converted to a torus if the polar positions of white and black are made to coalesce. Both positions are arguably informationless.