Under Paintings

Last weekend I continued with the sketching and manipulations (the first 3 below) that  I had began last week. I think they have been very helpful and given me a direction to go in as a I move into paint. I think this transition will help me figure out exactly how I want to use the source information.

These are the beginnings of under paintings that will be inspired by some of the sketches and manipulations. They are in the beginning stages and I hope to have a better foundation on each in the next couple of days.

Sketching and manipulations - 10 hours

Building and stretching canvas - 4 hours

Under paintings - 4 hours

Week 7

The first part of this week I spent at my parent’s house in Texas. It was nice to see them and it also gave me the opportunity to go through lots of old photographs. Anything in our countless albums that reminded me of home or just sparked some sort of emotion was scanned. Looking at the earlier happy photos made me think that maybe just because I am dealing with the idea of dislocation doesn’t mean that all of my images need to be negative or sad. I do have positive memories of home as well as negative and that maybe through happy memories works with a “lacking” of a true sense of home will be given something to be compared to to enhance their feelings of loss.

I also began sketching based of some of my findings, in hopes of finding how I want to ultimately visually represent these ideas. I worked with sharpie markers again, but not quite as abstractly as before. Although I felt like I was working looser, this week I want to push the boundary of abstraction. I also worked with layering photos on the computer. (The last of the four images) I struggled with this some and came up with many ideas that were just not working but I did come out with one image that I want to explore further. This week I want to continue these sorts of sketches and add paint to the material I explore in. Also I got the book Color Image Scale from the library and I want to start reading what different color combinations make people feel.

Finding and Scanning photographs—8 hours

Sketching both by hand and on the computer—10 hours

Week 6

This week I did a lot of thinking and planning about how everything I have been exploring will come together. I decided that I want each piece I ultimately do to be a series of sort of landscape of places or memories that I associate with an aspect of my own personal home. Each of these places will be based on how a word that will be the title of that individual piece relates to this personal experience. The words I have thought about including are:

            -Family

            -Loss

            -Separation

            -Loneliness

            -Hope

            -Future

            -Traffic

            -Rebuild/Rebirth

            -Struggle

            -Play

            -Laugh

            -Cry

            -Displacement

            -Belonging

I think it is very interesting how just one word can change ones perception on how a work is perceived by a viewer. Especially since I do want the landscapes or places to be abstracted to some degree, the title will give the viewer a direction to go in when thinking about the pieces, but since they are wide-open words it still allows them to make connections on their own. I still have a bit of fine tuning and planning on how the image and the word will relate but I think it is a step forward.

I have been journaling a lot this week to help figure out how to answer these questions. I read Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans this week, which is book of essay collection from both before and after Hurricane Katrina on the power of place, loss, culture, etc. It was very interesting and sad too, but it definitely gave me a lot to think about in where I fit into New Orleans.

Today I am going “home” to my parents house in Texas. Not only am I excited to see my parents but also I am also excited to gather source material especially by scanning photos from the hundreds we have in photo albums. I think they will be very helpful in determining what the actually landscapes of my different feelings of home will ultimately be. I want to sketch and plan based on my findings this weekend.

Reading—6 hours

Project Proposal—1.5 hours

Journaling—5.5 hours

Week 5

This week I made a third abstract landscape painting (14 hours) using the dot system I had done on the previous two. (New one in the middle and new one from last week on the right) I think I have learned a lot using this technique of putting down color and I am starting to think about how I can make alterations and changes to have the same effect using other ways of applying paint. I want to not only very the size of the shapes but the shapes themselves. 

This (unfinished) painting (8 hours) is the beginning of this exploration of different ways of applying paint still using the idea of a landscape but this time one from New Orleans. Looking at this image makes me think of all the long hours we spent in the car  and in traffic going over the Mississippi River Bridge on the way to school.

I like the way these styles have a bit of mystery about them but you can also make guesses about what you are looking about. I think they could be very important in expressing emotion for my final work. In the three landscapes, the new one this week is most recognizable as a landscape, creating less mystery. These differences of subtle between the middle painting and the two that surround it are very important to what I am telling the viewer. The one in the middle definitely tells more and gives the viewer less room to make decisions for themselves. I also think that there are certain colors I need to be more careful about mixing more carefully like blue. I want to continue to explore these ideas in sketches and paintings this week.

These paintings also lead me to a lot of research on Neo- and Post Impressionist artist, especially those who used the style of pointillism. The artists I looked at included: Paul Sagnac, Henry-Edmond Cross, Georges Seurat, Theo Van Rysselberghe, Giovanni Battista Segantini, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent Van Gogh.

This way of working with paint really applies to me not only because of the brokenness it creates but also because it really is two different viewing experiences from up close and from far away. They also create a sense of emotion and mystery in their work with this paint application. Color choice also plays apart in their work and this week I want to do some research about the meanings of different colors because I feel that will be a very important part to my final work and the emotions I want to convey.

I also finished 1 Dead and the Attic and Coming Back Stronger this week and I hope to start new books this week. I also want to continue to journal entry, trying to find answers to the big questions I started asking myself this last week.  

Week 4 (Can you believe that it is already October???)

This week began with continuing to ask more questions about what home and displacement mean to me. I finished Home by Alison Blunt and Robyn Dowling and upon skimming through my notes I realized I have raised more questions then I have answered.  So I am beginning to go through and try and answer these questions.

Some important questions that I am trying to answer are:

            -How do you represent displacement visually?

            -How does displacement change your sense of belonging or home?

            -What is home—is it remembered from the past, existing in the present,                           or something yet to be created?

            -Can we have more than one home?

            -Home as a landscape? What is this relationship and how can it be                                represented visually?

            -What is the relationship between leaving home and the imagining of home?

            -When does a place of residence become a home?

            -How does our home shape the people we are and who we are going to be?

I also did a lot of making this week. I drawn to landscapes (another question I am trying to answer) so I did another abstract Turkish landscape built up of dots. Its not quite finished but I hope to complete it today. (Image to come--my computer is not currently recognizing my camera)

I looked a lot at the pictures of all of the houses in my life. In my mind there were three big ones: the one I lived in New Orleans from birth until second grade, the one in New Orleans from second grade until college, and the new foreign one in Texas. I began fooling around, trying to find interesting ways to combine these images in Photoshop to possibly paint later. To me they represent the brokenness I feel in relation to these houses and home. I think the first one is the most successful and I want to play with the others to have three successful outcomes each representing one of my "houses".

I also began sketching about how to visually represent all of these ideas about home and displacement. These sketches are an abstract family portrait done in permanent marker representing my feeling of separation from them and their new life that I am not really apart of. Both sketches address the same idea but use slightly different shapes.

I found an artist who I am really excited about named Marie Thibeault. The following examples are part of a series called "When Worlds Collide: Recent Paintings” based on ideas of destruction: in nature and of homes. They really appear to be about the “morning after” and in fact some of her inspiration came from Hurricane Katrina. I really enjoy the brokenness of her work and how you can find bits and pieces of understanding by looking closely and carefully. I also enjoy how suggestive a title can be and how that really makes you look for certain content and make certain conclusions.

I am starting to see a connection between my work in the brokenness of shapes and is something I want to continue to explore this week. Also this week I want to continue sketching and finish up 1 Dead In The Attic and Coming Back Stronger with hopes of starting new material at the end of the week.