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| she remembered the sun,12'x5',mixed on canvas,informed by the book....... between shades of gray by Ruta Sepetys,about Stalin's ethnic cleansing of Lithuania.Not finished..message implied I hope..This is the first showing of it,so makes me anxious..oh well here goes |
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
My Art with a Message,she remembered the sun
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Are you referring to our book? If so how?
ReplyDeleteNo, I am sorry, I did not know the art needed to have a message with reference to the text book,I simply thought it had to have a message,this art is informed by a book called ...between shades of gray...I will try again.
ReplyDeleteSusan are you portraying an abstraction of something physical here or is this more along the lines of automatic painting?
ReplyDeleteThis painting is my emotional response to the story.I am trying to paint my feelings.I prepare my "subconscious for painting" by trying to put the words that are triggers for me,that give me that lump in my throat, that make me want to express what I am feeling,into my mind by writing them over and over in the book,on the walls etc , and then ..the most difficult part is to let go of it all and try not to think..to simply PAINT... that is the beginning.. then it is hours of looking from far away,close up,editing,re-defining,and painting more and more..taking out adding in at the same time trying to make a painting that is emotive...I am a romantic and I guess think that Tolstoy';s theory that by touching the canvas,I transfer my emotion and by osmosis the viewer may feel what I feel..oh well.. I hope this answers a bit..I am not great with writing...better with dancing and talking with my paintings...
ReplyDeleteSusan, I would love to watch your art performance "dance" while you paint.
ReplyDeleteThanks..maybe I should say more about the content...it is a story about a young 15 year old girl seized in the middle of the night with her mother and brother and put in a cattle car for 8 days.,it is about a genocide of the worst kind..sent to Siberia ...need I say More?She gets to look through a tiny hole in the cattle car and guess what she sees and smells the air,the sun....thus the title....sorry not good with explaining what I do...it is strange I know
ReplyDeleteI did not understand this was in response to the extra question, thought you were referring to your final project. So the message is your response to a reading or an event, not a message as in a story or a warning but filtered through you?
ReplyDeleteYes, this is in response to the extra question about whether our work involves spititual,humor or a message and this is involving a message.This work involves a message....well the message is...in the middle of all of the darkest of dark happenings, a young girl can ..and is still able to remember ..even if it is for one minute....that there is a sun...so she sticks her head out of a tiny hole in the train ,the cattle car that she has been on for 8 days...in conditions you could not imagine...and of course if I could use words to expand on the message,my feelings about her feelings in that moment... I surely would ...but my strength is not in words... it is in making art..this is the catalyst that moved me to make this painting ..but you,the viewer ,may take a feeling from this pairing..what you feel and relate it to your own life....I usually hate to verbalize ..I rather hope someone gets some kind of emotional feeling from the work...ugh...this is hard..like I said I cannot express in words what I am trying to do..it really is very complicated .....painting such complex issues as feelings..hope someone out there understand what I am trying to say...oh well..
ReplyDeletemaybe it would be better explained if I analyzed the painting formaly abit...abit..do you see the brilliant yellow smeared all over?the sun,think what it feels like to be in the dark for 8 days,in conditions,in smells,no food,alone an d then for one moment you find a tiny dark hole(see the black holes in the picture?)..look at the red drips,maybe think blood,throwing dead babies and dead children out of the cattle cars daily,hourly.. and this 15 year old girl endures...try to look at the painting as a whole and not think.... see if you now feel anything from it?is is disturbing?and if so why?Is it calming?if so why?this may help you understand...thanks guys..I am tired .sorry .good night
ReplyDeleteTry condensing your message. I know the book/the story is powerful and moving for you and has inspired your art making but for a message to be heard or seen or accepted it needs to be concise and to the point. It is one aspect of art making to share your motivation it is another to believe the viewer will get the story. Look at Terry Allen's ten years of work on Youth In Asia series.
ReplyDeleteThe message might be for this painting, simply (not in a dismissive way but in a clear way) To Find The Sunshine.
There are times in history, both the worlds history and our own personal history that we are overwhelmed with emotion, to try and capture that intensity with one work is hard if not impossible.
ok,thanks
DeleteSo the colors are an abstraction of something physical. Yellow as sunlight, red as blood. Why are there two sections of darkness?
ReplyDeletethe darkness represents the cattle cars and the people are inside of them,but try not to look at this literally, try to just look and get some kind of feeling..for example when you look at it,simply how do you feel?happy?sad?nothing?etc...
ReplyDeleteOkay, I was just wondering if you were painting as a stream of subconscious emotion or if this was more along the lines of an abstract derivative of the physical, with a desired emotional response.
ReplyDeleteWhat Artist do you pull influence from?
I do not pull influences from artists at least not consciously but as of this week Cy Twombly is my favorite.....especially his work in the Menil in Houston..when I am there it is like I am in painting heaven....lol...thanks for having an interest,today apparently a group of art students viewed this painting and really got some strong emotional responses so that is cool,I wasn't there but was told...thanks
ReplyDeleteI agree, the Cy Twombly gallery as well as the whole Menil Collection / Rothko chapel complex is a real gem here in Houston.
ReplyDeleteYou don't feel like you are influenced from other Artist? This is pretty solidly in the realm of Abstract Expressionism. You don't think this has strong idealistic, conceptual, and stylistic connections to the work of that movement?
Have you ever looked at Kazuo Shiraga & Sadamasa Motonaga? I thought of them last week when you talked about the show you would curate, just couldn't remember their name.
The DMA had a show of their work last year, it was interesting.
https://www.dma.org/art/exhibitions/between-action-and-unknown-art-kazuo-shiraga-and-sadamasa-motonaga
Shiraga's work feels more like action painting or automatic painting in line with what you are doing, and arose out of ideas set forth by the work of Pollock and other Ab Ex painters during the time immediately after the World War 2.
To my eye, Motonag's work looks like 2-D versions of Ron Nagles cups and sculptures.
Now I can't say for sure Nagle's work is influenced by Motonaga's or the other way around, but I am just using both of these Artist ( Motonaga & Shiraga) as an example to illustrate that no one makes Art in a bubble, and everyone draws influence from something that came before them.
Thanks Daniel...it has been an interesting discussion I think it is one I wish we could have in person,I do not "pull influences" in other words that is implied that I consciously look at... as you suggest.. say a Pollock and then copy parts of it..I do not do this. I feel my words get misunderstood in this online environment...My husband and I have been recently invited showing our work at Sul Ross University during TASA next year and lecturing about it so that may enlighten you more.I think we cannot help but be inspired by artists we have studied in the past but we strive to use our original personal voice.I do travel quite alot to New York and other cities and visit quite alot of museums so there is no way other artist work does not seep into mine but as I said it is not on the conscious level...I want to end this discussion with a quote from Guston that is in my studio...Studio Ghosts: When you're in the studio painting, there are a lot of people in there with you - your teachers, friends, painters from history, critics... and one by one if you're really painting, they walk out. And if you're really painting YOU walk out.
DeletePhilip Guston
I have enjoyed this lively exchange. I ask you all to view the work of Helen Klebesadel at www.theflowersareburning.com to see an exhibition with a message. If this is too realistic for you try looking up the work of Jaune Quick To See Smith or John Hitchock. For me if the viewer can not read or somehow have hints of the message then it is an inspiration for the artist but not a message. There is nothing wrong with this approach nor is it necessary to have a message or humor or spirituality in your work. The intent of my question was to get everyone to think/think again about their work and how they work.
ReplyDeleteHey thanks Future, I know the work of those artists....I wanted to end with this thought..I had a show recently at University of Mary Hardin Baylor, and many of my students from Art Appreciation at Fort hood campus and at Lampasas campus of Central Texas College,one of the schools where I teach, came to the opening.I did not say anything about the work,no lecture, and at the opening... one student's words stayed with me,he told me that a certain painting moved him greatly;he said it felt like his life when he was so depressed and could not find a way out and all of a sudden he saw hope,just like in the painting...and then another student came up to me to say she felt like a certain painting in the show reminded her of her migraines ..exactly how she felt ...she even went on to do a presentation about it in class....this is the message of the work.
DeleteFinding hope in desperate situations...this is the message....I just did not think I needed to spell it out..oh well...as I said I do not use words well..that is why I am a painter.
DeleteSusan, art does not require a message. That your students felt comfortable expressing their reaction to your work is a testament to your teaching. As seen in the work of the artists I mentioned above, messages do not require words. For the most part they do use images or references to symbols. In your work your title is a hint as to the motivation for you to paint this particular piece.
ReplyDeleteThink of it this way: Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, or Bob Marley's music hold a message. Bob Dyan or Leonard Cohen and Mumford &Sons have messages hidden within stories upon stories. Jazz on the other hand is a response by the artist to a feeling or a subject or an event. Your work is like jazz.
hmmm....interesting
ReplyDelete