7' x 2.5'
Oil and Acrylic on Burlap and Collaged Paper.

Back to the rectangle

After the conversation i had with Mike Glier I decided that it would be in the best interest of my work to move back to the rectangle. I feel this decision was very important because i am not going back to something with a ton of knowledge that i gained from working away from it.

Some Portaits

These are just a couple of one to two sitting paintings that I did in order get a break from the rest of my work. They are both oil on primed paper and 15'' x 11''.

Reflection.

As i continued to work on these oddly shaped works I began to like them less and less.
In every critique i had, weather it be group or personnel, it seemed that then only thing that is positive that comes up is the unusual shapes of these works. People say "oh cool i like the stitching and the weird shape," but when it comes to the actual painting it seems that there is nothing there.

I had been working on a painting of stripped pieces that was about ten feet wide and 2 feet tall that resembled something like a dessert, as well as a vertically separated piece that was about 5 and a half feet tall, only this painting broke the third dimension and continued onto the floor into the direction of the viewer. All of these ideas seemed interesting, new and fresh, but they were still missing something.

Just about that time i could not work on these paintings anymore out of frustration, we had a visiting artist named Mike Glier come and visit and give individual crits with some of the seniors. This would normally be an awesome experience, but i was so frustrated that the thought of haveing to discuss my work with a famous artist was nauseating. As we talked about my work it became obvious that the only piece he was interested in was the first one that i had done. The one that was a rectangle. Imagine that.

What i drew from the conversation was quite helpful, as frustrating as it was at the same time. When a person looks at a rectangular painting on the wall it is understood that they are supposed to be looking into a window of sorts, and strive to view this as reality. When the rectangle gets broken it confuses the viewer, they become so focused on the odd shape that it starts to seem impossible to look at the painting that is on the shape, and it turns into just a shape on the wall.

After this conversation I just started to dissect my work and make a lot of studies to try and figure what to do next. This is the result.

Further exploration of non-rectangular paintings, and geometric forms in regards to the citycape.

Upon finishing my previous painting, the only logical thing to do was to continue with the exploration of the non-rectangular painting.

I was unsure of the shape that i wanted this canvas to take, so i began looking at some painters and paintings that could provide me a little bit of inspiration. I settled upon Marcel Duchamp's Nude descending a staircase. The painting was of interest to me because of the strong ability that it was to draw the viewers eye in a certain direction through brushwork. The fact that we as westerners read from left to right is another observation that stuck wtih me as i was creating this piece.



This piece was another exploration of material that involved house paint, as well as oil Paint. It is about seven feet tall when hung on the wall and is on unstretched canvas.

Experimantal Piece

I decided to continue working with the idea of sewing canvas together, but in this scenario i decided to break out of the standard rectangular plane that most painting is done in. Another goal that i was striving for in making this piece was an attempt to play even more with material and technique in regards to applying paint. It is about three feet tall and is made of thread, canvas, house paint, oil paint, and charcoal.

This is the first full painting that i did this semester. I tore the canvas into separate strips, then using needle and thread i sewed the pieces back together in order to create a riff that could possibly interrupt or work hormoniously with the image that i was going to place upon it.

The medium used for this was some very old Latex house paint that i found in the basement of my house when i was moving out this summer. this thought of using something that most people would disregard opens up an interesting conversation between the mat, old, expired paint and the big abandoned factory type building that is portrayed in the image. Although i Painted this on an unstretched canvas, i do plan to stretch it in the coming days, in order to give the piece a bigger presence when it is displayed.

This is just a series of studies that i was working on at the beginning of the semester in order to get myself warmed up to, as well as used to the idea of my own studio work. I initially started to work off of a series of photos that i took this summer and mainly worked with different mediums and the physicality of the process. These pieces are combination of latex paint, gesso, primer, different types of paper, chalk pastel, oil pastel, and charcoal.