Inspirations

"Life is a gift, that is why it is called the present"

This week was a difficult week for me, in that I lost my focus and my inspiration. As artists we come to this space from time to time, and there is no definite way out of it. My way out, materialized in the Monk Tenzin Yignyen, who has been creating a sand mandala at MassArt for the past week. He creates a beautiful Mandala completely out of sand, using metal instruments that he rubs together to carefully distribute the sand. This richly colored Mandala contains symbolism and spiritual meaning for all who come upon it.

It is then wiped away and the sand is ceremoniously taken to the river, where it disperses. While some are dismayed in the "destroying" of the artwork, the art is really in the process, the creation. We all live life, and we all die. How we are living it is what matters. Our process. Our days and what we make of them are our art.

For Further Inspiration:

At MassArt right now there is an exhibit on the artist William Kentridge.

William Kentridge is a South African Artist who is best known for his animated films that are based on charcoal drawings. He also works in prints, books, collage, sculpture, drawing and performing arts.

Seeing his work in person is a whole experience in itself. The work up close is masterfully designed, composed and executed. His prints carry a gritty, handworked quality that can only be appreciated in a personal way.

His subject matter revolves around social and political issues while illustrating them in beautiful, graceful and even poetic ways.

Some images that particular struck me were:

Three Shadows in a Landscape, 2003

Sugar Lift and Drypoint

Reeds, 1996

Etching, aquatint, drypoint on handmade paper

General, 1993-1998

Drypoint with hand coloring on handmade paper

Blue Head, 1993-1998

Drypoint and two hand-colored plates

What I appreciate about his work, are all the scratches, the handmade elements that extend over the entire surface. You can see his arm in the work, you can see his hand. I love that the whole surface is worked on, and it is raw, just like his imagery. He is not afraid to cut and to slice. The work is not precious, it represents struggle but also strength through the hard times that we all must go through.

Experiments and Critique

In order to grow as an artist, there is the need to experiment.

Lately i've been exploring watercolor in relation to my pattern work. I've found that watercolor gives a even flat texture, without showing the brush-marks. This is what I aim for, and why I have used Ink in the past. I enjoy watercolor more then using an inkwell because it is easier to mix and manipulate.

I also am able to experiment with color layering and the effects that has on my patterns. Layering my stencils is something I have experimented with in these studies I have recently created. I enjoy the interplay that is created between the hands as well as the effects the colors have on each other.

In this piece, I worked with overlapping colors in my patterns. I enjoyed the layering of colors and the new shapes and colors created by overlapping the yellow and the red, But I feel it would have been more successful if the colors were of the same value. The yellow is less noticeable and less distinguishable. Therefore the red becomes more prominent. I would like to try this again with two colors of equal value, yet different hue. Also I tend to stick to the primary colors, which gives the work a very "Pop art" look. I dislike this and would like to start using mixed colors and/or colors that are more natural.

In this piece I treated the negative shapes as positive ones by filling them in with the black. The shapes created are interesting and unique. By highlighting them, you tend to notice them first, and then focus on the negative shape if the hands. When looking at this piece from afar it is very effective in the tricks it plays on your eyes. The spiney shapes are very distinguishable and give alternate reactions to the work.

This piece for me was not finished. During my critique, my classmates expressed that they liked it this way because it simplified the forms even more and abstracted the image. New shapes are formed and again when looking at it from afar your eye makes different connections.

My critique gave me many things to think about:

In terms of study and process-

It was expressed that although these are beautiful they are time consuming. Because they are just studies for other works of art, xeroxing the pattern in different colors or onto different backgrounds would be a way of experimenting with different colors.

In terms of where to go from here-

Bigger Bigger Bigger. Time to create larger scales of these.

Also experiment with fabric, Try to translate onto fabric. This may be more difficult and take time to figure out, but I think it is worth investigating.