Well, I figure it's about time this Blog started earning it's name. Let's read about what Austin's painting!
To begin with, I'm trying to express some semi-Taoist ideas in my paintings these days, an idea that's been percolating in my tiny one-track mind ever since I began taking classes in Taijiquan a few years ago. For those of you totally unfamiliar with the ideas of Taoism, here's my own largely ignorant interpretation of this many-thousands of years old philosophical tradition. Essentially, all existence is the result of the interaction of conflicting forces, and as a result, we perceive the universe in terms of complementary opposites. male/female, hard/soft, up/down, alive/dead, randomness/order, creation/destruction etc. These are summarized by the famous yin-yang symbol, which is more properly called the Taiji, or "grand ultimate" because it contains both sides in equal measure and perfect symmetry.
Now, this is only the most fundamental basis of Taoism, and not Taoism itself (Tao translates to "way" or "path" not "yin and yang" or "philosophy of dualistic complements.") Taoism per se endorses an effortless approach to harmonizing with the grand ultimate in both it's halves, and striking a balance of these forces within oneself to blend in invisibly with the universe and be a part of it as simply and completely as possible. Or that's what I THINK it is, anyway. As I've said elsewhere, I'm just a dumb greasy hick.
So, returning to painting, I've decided that the best way to express this idea or philosophy or whatever the hell it is in art is to work in an abstract expressionist mode. I've chosen abstraction because, it removes the possibility of pretense since the paint doesn't attempt to be anything other than what it is, pigment suspended in medium. No illusion is possible or even attempted, only a simple statement of facts. Calling what I do "expressionist" is perhaps a harder sell, but the way that I handle paint and create compositions and imagery is definitely inspired by (and imitated from) folks like Hoffman, Kline, Mitchell, De Kooning and all those fuckers. So, ab-ex it is.
The twist that I'm putting on it, is I'm working on panels that I shape in advance of painting them. Right now, they're all basic easel sizes - about two feet square, but irregular within those dimensions because I saw the edges (sometimes I saw out the interior as well.) The idea here is to expand on another gimmick that I came up with a couple of years ago, which is masking the canvas - or now, panel - then working the paint on top of the tape and finally removing the tape to expose the bare canvas beneath it. I found that this gave me a reference to emptiness that contrasted -in my opinion, effectively- against the fullness on top of it. And of course, there are other contrasting forces at work here as well. Painting is an additive process, but removing the tape is subtractive, and so is sawing the panel. The paint has the evidence of my hand and can be said to have character - the bare portions do not. And so on. So I was unsatisfied with the canvas showing through because visually it was simply white - it might as well have been paint. This was part of the impetus to switch to painting on plywood panels, because I could then mask the wood itself before priming the surface with acrylic gesso, and then mask it again on top of the gesso and then finally paint on top of all that. Furthermore, wooden panels permit an easy way to shape the surface, ie: the aforementioned sawing. And so that's where I am now, cutting up plywood, taping it, gessoing it, taping it again, then painting it and finally removing all the goddamn tape. I've experimented with other masking techniques, specifically brushing and dripping rubber cement, but it doesn't remove easily - which sometimes results in interesting unintentional marking, but right now I'm attempting to develop more control over my media, so I'm setting that aside for the nonce.
The result of all this preparation is the panel engages the space beyond the edge of the painting in a way that traditional square or rectangular works don't do. I want the viewer to be acutely aware that he or she is looking not only at the painting but also around and sometimes through it as well. To make this as unavoidable to the viewer as I can, I'm not hanging them flat against the wall, but instead placing them in a way that leaves a couple of inches away from the wall.
to be continued, probably with pictures.
To begin with, I'm trying to express some semi-Taoist ideas in my paintings these days, an idea that's been percolating in my tiny one-track mind ever since I began taking classes in Taijiquan a few years ago. For those of you totally unfamiliar with the ideas of Taoism, here's my own largely ignorant interpretation of this many-thousands of years old philosophical tradition. Essentially, all existence is the result of the interaction of conflicting forces, and as a result, we perceive the universe in terms of complementary opposites. male/female, hard/soft, up/down, alive/dead, randomness/order, creation/destruction etc. These are summarized by the famous yin-yang symbol, which is more properly called the Taiji, or "grand ultimate" because it contains both sides in equal measure and perfect symmetry.
Now, this is only the most fundamental basis of Taoism, and not Taoism itself (Tao translates to "way" or "path" not "yin and yang" or "philosophy of dualistic complements.") Taoism per se endorses an effortless approach to harmonizing with the grand ultimate in both it's halves, and striking a balance of these forces within oneself to blend in invisibly with the universe and be a part of it as simply and completely as possible. Or that's what I THINK it is, anyway. As I've said elsewhere, I'm just a dumb greasy hick.
So, returning to painting, I've decided that the best way to express this idea or philosophy or whatever the hell it is in art is to work in an abstract expressionist mode. I've chosen abstraction because, it removes the possibility of pretense since the paint doesn't attempt to be anything other than what it is, pigment suspended in medium. No illusion is possible or even attempted, only a simple statement of facts. Calling what I do "expressionist" is perhaps a harder sell, but the way that I handle paint and create compositions and imagery is definitely inspired by (and imitated from) folks like Hoffman, Kline, Mitchell, De Kooning and all those fuckers. So, ab-ex it is.
The twist that I'm putting on it, is I'm working on panels that I shape in advance of painting them. Right now, they're all basic easel sizes - about two feet square, but irregular within those dimensions because I saw the edges (sometimes I saw out the interior as well.) The idea here is to expand on another gimmick that I came up with a couple of years ago, which is masking the canvas - or now, panel - then working the paint on top of the tape and finally removing the tape to expose the bare canvas beneath it. I found that this gave me a reference to emptiness that contrasted -in my opinion, effectively- against the fullness on top of it. And of course, there are other contrasting forces at work here as well. Painting is an additive process, but removing the tape is subtractive, and so is sawing the panel. The paint has the evidence of my hand and can be said to have character - the bare portions do not. And so on. So I was unsatisfied with the canvas showing through because visually it was simply white - it might as well have been paint. This was part of the impetus to switch to painting on plywood panels, because I could then mask the wood itself before priming the surface with acrylic gesso, and then mask it again on top of the gesso and then finally paint on top of all that. Furthermore, wooden panels permit an easy way to shape the surface, ie: the aforementioned sawing. And so that's where I am now, cutting up plywood, taping it, gessoing it, taping it again, then painting it and finally removing all the goddamn tape. I've experimented with other masking techniques, specifically brushing and dripping rubber cement, but it doesn't remove easily - which sometimes results in interesting unintentional marking, but right now I'm attempting to develop more control over my media, so I'm setting that aside for the nonce.
The result of all this preparation is the panel engages the space beyond the edge of the painting in a way that traditional square or rectangular works don't do. I want the viewer to be acutely aware that he or she is looking not only at the painting but also around and sometimes through it as well. To make this as unavoidable to the viewer as I can, I'm not hanging them flat against the wall, but instead placing them in a way that leaves a couple of inches away from the wall.
to be continued, probably with pictures.
posted by Austin at 2:07 PM
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