Artist Statement 2
As a rule my artwork originates in my experience of the 21st Century urban world in which I live. For example, his past Spring semester I focused on the experience of urban light, especially nocturnal and underground (subway) light, but also that of digital advertising with its flashy hues. The intense contrasts of light and dark, color and its absence, in the urban night, are to me an analogy for the extremes I perceive in the City–in terms of architectural scale, as the “pencil” buildings reach ever higher, and in terms of wealth, as the social differences between rich and poor increase. If my message is acknowledgement of, but also ambiguity about, dazzling visual extremes, it is through the formal qualities of art that I convey my meaning. I’ve committed to abstraction, because it encourages open and divergent interpretations on the part of the viewer.
Although each artwork is different and based on things I see and experience in the world, I am attempting to develop a visual language that displays consistency, some aspects of which I’ve explored in printmaking this summer. In addition to stark contrasts of value and color, and use of fluorescent hues, I have a continued interest in the diagonal line and the broken diagonal, which may not appear so much in the city, but indicate a spirit of energy and liveliness in mark-making and composition. The grid as organizational underlay is ubiquitous in the city. Other patterned matrices abound in urban visual culture, from subway tiles to building facades to street grates, and I know I will include references to more of these. Virtual space also dominates our lives: I am interested in a matrix of binary 0s and 1s, as well as horizontal lines that are parallel and evoke graphs or charts or digital fields. In terms of my composition, I am looking for ways to layer more of these motifs I have explored this summer, in order to add complexity to my work. I still want to retain a large field, adjacent to which or into which some kind of figure or cluster, is set. Adding more texture may important and printmaking is a perfect vehicle to experiment with surface. I have a wish to combine the minimal and the complex, and I don’t know if it is possible!
On another level, printmaking processes open particular psychological and philosophical resonances which I will continue to investigate. In monotypes especially, the interaction of paper, press, and plate invite the effects of chance to enter the artwork. These aleatory moments are more aesthetically interesting to me than the defined brushstroke now. And embossing, the record of the way the paper and plate meet, is an especially rich kind of mark, an index registering the design being transferred to the paper. In trace monotypes there is the mutual interaction of paper, drawing tool, pressure, the hand, as well as the mirroring of linear and spatial–positive and negative versions–of the print, when the plate is put through the press. The complexity of this doubling and the presence of the hand, as well as the pushback of the paper seem especially mysterious. In screenprinting, the repetition and variation possible through the use of a matrix permits the artist to show the viewer variable outcomes and a range of interpretations of one event. Screenprinting connects fine art to the commercial and everyday world of popular culture. This lineage resonates with a non-hierarchical, more open-ended kinds connections between things and events.
In terms of vocabulary, I am interested in factors which seem to be ubiquitous our 21st Century urban lives, like grids and matrices, in both the physical and virtual worlds. I am just as intrigued by all the artistic strategies which resist the control they exert, and printmaking processes especially court the effects of both agency and chance.
Artist Statement 1
As a rule my artwork originates in my experience of the 21st Century urban world in which I live. This past semester I focused on the experience of urban light, especially nocturnal and underground (subway) light, but also that of digital advertising with its flashy hues. The intense contrasts of light and dark, color and its absence, in the urban night, are to me an analogy for the extremes I perceive in the City–in terms of architectural scale, as the “pencil” buildings reach ever higher, and in terms of wealth, as the social differences between rich and poor increase. If my message is acknowledgement of, but also ambiguity about, dazzling visual extremes, it is through the formal qualities of art that I convey my meaning. Printmaking will be a significant and addition to my repertory of means and I think, essential to my message. These aesthetic considerations below have been important:
- Abstraction. I’ve committed to abstraction, because it encourages open and divergent interpretations on the part of the viewer. I intend multiple readings for my artwork: as blocks of color, streetscapes, mediascapes, or ideascapes. I want to continue veiling, collaging and layering my subject matter to suggest imaginative reordering, even as I respond to the visual signifiers of the world around me.
- Color Tensions. I aim for strong optical impact for the viewer through various coloristic means: contemporary fluorescent hues; “social color” (Mary Heilmann) to resonate with the cacophony of computer screens, digital games and the street; abrupt contrasts between complementaries, optical shifts and other psychophysical effects. I want to push towards more intense effects with color. This involves exploring new materials–paints, pigments, supports, and methods of color application like printmaking.
3. Composition and structure: My recent abstract painting has been quite focused on shallow space. I’ve also intentionally reduced the brushstroke with its myriad, attendant meanings. My painting looks more graphic than it ever has, and I’ve made and used devices like stencils. I now hope to integrate printmaking aesthetically by creating layers and adding complexity to my work in this way. The “chance” effects of printmaking’s mechanical means are more aesthetically interesting and resonant to me than the hand and the brushstroke now. I am attracted to the layering that Albert Oehlen and others deploy. To this end I want to learn to print on canvas. In general the cacophony of the urban world I think can be represented by a combination of materials and methods and I want to integrate printmaking into my painting as part of this plethora.
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