Labor Interests: Stop Motion Project One words
"When you start working, everybody is in your studio-the past, your friends, enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas-all are there. But as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you're lucky, even you leave."-
John Cage
This blog is called "labor interests" because it's goal is to highlight the amount of energy that the creative process, in both a macro and a personal context, requires.
As an artist I am in a continual flux between being very proud and honored by my work and being frustrated and even despondent over my shortcomings. To me, the dedication and sacrifice required for creative expression are an important locus for generating content and meaning in the work. Specifically, the movement and manipulation of material, the intense, focused hours of actually working in the studio, and the struggle against ever present doubt whether or not it (art) is actually a valid form of living are what I feel give my work much of it's weight, character, and meaning.
In this project, I began by carefully preparing nine identical square panels, 30 x 30 x 4.5 inches, in itself no small amount of labor. After investing so much energy into just the preparatory stage of the project, and feeling the importance and power of rhythmic, concise and focused movement, I decided to follow a somewhat esoteric course for the production of images on these panels, referencing the pseudo-mystical idea of self-less-ness according to the above quote by John Cage.
The pieces have been created sequentially, in sessions documented in part by stop motion photography. In an intense struggle to be both meditative and performative, I begin with graphite and charcoal and move in with white acrylic gesso, then back to charcoal, back and forth, focusing on the rhythmic gestures and resisting the impulse to intentionally develop illusions, figures, or didactic imagery in any way. If they emerge, it must be the result of the internal necessity of the picture, it's composition and surface and balance, and nothing can become precious or sacred: I must be willing to continually sacrifice the picture to the process, the image to the object, the self to the ideal.
I begin with two specific prompts: "forget your self" and "find the center". I like to listen to music, and am usually trying to stop thinking about girls, when I paint.
I am finished when I forget myself and have found the center--at that point it feels as if the image/object's rhythm and logic is established and there is an organic vitality to it, and I must step out of it's way.
The work will be on exhibition at Mission Workshop 40 Rondel St.
San Francisco, CA 94103 next month. Opening reception Thursday, Oct 7th, 6-10pm.
John Cage
This blog is called "labor interests" because it's goal is to highlight the amount of energy that the creative process, in both a macro and a personal context, requires.
As an artist I am in a continual flux between being very proud and honored by my work and being frustrated and even despondent over my shortcomings. To me, the dedication and sacrifice required for creative expression are an important locus for generating content and meaning in the work. Specifically, the movement and manipulation of material, the intense, focused hours of actually working in the studio, and the struggle against ever present doubt whether or not it (art) is actually a valid form of living are what I feel give my work much of it's weight, character, and meaning.
In this project, I began by carefully preparing nine identical square panels, 30 x 30 x 4.5 inches, in itself no small amount of labor. After investing so much energy into just the preparatory stage of the project, and feeling the importance and power of rhythmic, concise and focused movement, I decided to follow a somewhat esoteric course for the production of images on these panels, referencing the pseudo-mystical idea of self-less-ness according to the above quote by John Cage.
The pieces have been created sequentially, in sessions documented in part by stop motion photography. In an intense struggle to be both meditative and performative, I begin with graphite and charcoal and move in with white acrylic gesso, then back to charcoal, back and forth, focusing on the rhythmic gestures and resisting the impulse to intentionally develop illusions, figures, or didactic imagery in any way. If they emerge, it must be the result of the internal necessity of the picture, it's composition and surface and balance, and nothing can become precious or sacred: I must be willing to continually sacrifice the picture to the process, the image to the object, the self to the ideal.
I begin with two specific prompts: "forget your self" and "find the center". I like to listen to music, and am usually trying to stop thinking about girls, when I paint.
I am finished when I forget myself and have found the center--at that point it feels as if the image/object's rhythm and logic is established and there is an organic vitality to it, and I must step out of it's way.
The work will be on exhibition at Mission Workshop 40 Rondel St.
San Francisco, CA 94103 next month. Opening reception Thursday, Oct 7th, 6-10pm.
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