Jenn Bakalar: Poor little Fierce Girl

new music

2012-01-23T08:23:00.000-08:00

My latest find is MusParade: a site to buy cheap mp3s:

http://www.musparade.com

A super easy way to expand your music library on a budget. You can prelisten to every song before you buy it for only about .10 a piece. I dont know how they make it possible to sell the songs that cheap, its kindve feels like the artists are still getting totally ripped of but nonetheless, Do the right thing and pay for your music, pirating is never a good look.
You wont be able to find every song you want but they actually have a pretty good selection of electronic and indie music from the early 2000s on. Enjoy!

From Summer 2010, Idyllwild, CA

2012-01-03T14:10:00.000-08:00

"Jupiter Receiving the Head of Argus"

oil on canvas, 48" x 36"

House for the Holidays

2011-11-28T13:46:00.000-08:00

A fun way to raise money for a good cause this holiday season:
"House for the Holidays," is a benefit for the Coalition for the Homeless of NYC.
For three Thursday nights in December we are gathering our favorite house music DJs to show off their skills and raise money for a good cause.
The three parties will only get better as t...he season goes on...
The EPIC lineup:

Dec 1: La Zarza Lounge

Deuce Stenstrom
DJ Duckhunter
AB Logic & Chris Patrick - Stranjjur, SOUP - NYC

Dec 15: location TBA

Marv 212
SR Serge
Samsara

Dec 29: location TBA

Simon Heyliger
Deejay Lev

We are excited to spread our love of house music to more people, give our up-and-coming DJ friends the opportunity to spin together along with more established artists, and of course to have fun! This will be an epic house music event at a beautiful Manhattan venue amongst friends, and a great way to help out those in need.
Check back for more info on drink specials. donations at the door to benefit NYC Coalition for the Homeless.
Expect the unexpected...

http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/107518662697185/

blog/interview

2011-10-28T06:09:00.001-07:00

The photos and interview are up!

www.introducingnyc.com

Upcoming Shows

2011-10-25T06:35:00.000-07:00

This November is going to be a busy one fore me with two shows coming up! Always good to be busy...
A link to one of the two:

http://theartinquirer.blogspot.com/2011/10/2011-contemporary-art-fair-nyc-american.html

Studio Visit

2011-10-18T13:10:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was visited in my apt/studio in Brooklyn by the talented photo-blogger Jeffrey Michael Walcott. He took shots of me stretching a new canvas and working on other things...
He will be publishing a new post dedicated to the shots of me on his blog:
http://blog.jeffreymwalcott.com/
There will also be a short interview with myself : )

A few of my favorite pics of me being prductive:

Greenpoint Gallery Show

2011-09-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

I will have a piece up this weekend at the Greenpoint Gallery. Just one of the pinatas will be in the salon style show:

http://thegreenpointgallery.com/

Traces in NYC

2011-09-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of seeing 7 Fingers circus troupe here in New York. Their show "Traces" will be at the Union Square Theater until January.
I'm normally not the circus-going type, but my good friend Mason is one of the seven members of the performance group so I had to go. The 90-minute performance included great music, awesome acrobatics and stunts and some theatrical drama. All in all, it was a more accessible version or Cirque de Soleil without the ginormous crowds. You can find more info and tickets here: http://tracesusa.com/
Enjoy!

Art-Rats Interview

2011-09-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Check out this short interview with me for the blog Art Rats:

jennifer bakalar
Posted on 2011/09/03 by emmahazen
new york

materials?

I usually have multiple projects going on in different mediums but more often than not i am doing some form of painting in either oil or acrylic. I use spray enamel and 3-dimensional fabric paint as well as cut and collaged papers. The piñatas are made with traditional paper mache: newspapers and flour paste. they are decorated with colored tissue paper.

influences?

My influences range from music and fashion to philosophy and religion. I really like house music and the culture of electronic music. the fashion world also influences my palette and textures. as a female artist i like to embrace the decorative and visually seductive as a statement about gender roles.

what inspires you to make art?

My family friends and experiences inspire me to make art. My personal life has had its ups and downs and i know those emotions are relatable to others. I like to make art as a way to connect to other people and show without words that i’ve been there, i know how it feels and that good or bad you can make something out of it.

what do you do when you aren’t making art?

When I’m not in my studio I am usually at work. I work as a fit model for a clothing import company in the garment district. i like to run and do yoga. i also cook and do community dinners with recovered food and the group In Our Hearts. and somehow i find time to go out dancing on the weekends!

favorite film?

A scary one: its called Ravenous and is a thriller that came out in the late 90s.

You can see the blog here: http://artrats.wordpress.com/

Recent Work: "Floating Clusters" at Sapphire Lounge, NYC

2011-08-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

The installation “Floating Clusters” is an installation/performance piece comprised of a dozen or more multi-colored piñatas which I will create myself and destroy in front of an audience. The concept originated as I searched for a project that I would be able to immerse myself in as I coped with the extreme personal disillusionment caused by a failed marriage.
I was also forced to take time off from large-scale oil painting when I moved into a small room without windows and paper mache proved a much less-toxic alternative to oils.

Also important to me is the idea of creating something out of nothing. Each piñata is crafted from paper mache made from found newspapers and flour glue. As the pieces are made to ultimately be destroyed, I am mindful of using recycled materials to create the works so I am not producing more waste, and instead making something out of what was once considered waste.
By using a cheap and accessible medium I am able to make as many pieces as possible without restrictions posed by cost of materials.

I begin each piñata with the idea that they are abstract, amoeba-like forms. Their structure is organic and so is the overall composition of the installation, always leaving room for more. In making the piñatas I usually listen to music and allow myself to surrender to the physical process of layering paper and glue over balloons, then layering cup forms over that which create uniform protrusions from the balloon form. The final step to creating the piñatas is to cut and layer different colors of tissue paper that I find in the 99 cent stores close to my Brooklyn apartment.
The bright, saturated color combinations vary in unpredictable ways and when the piñatas are grouped together in clusters it is hard to distinguish where one begins and another ends. This visual phenomenon is the effect I aim for and represents a sense of cohesion that I strive for in my paintings.

The piece has been previewed, but still will not be complete until the piñatas are smashed open and destroyed. The ideal space to complete the project would be a large, white room. The forms are still empty as filling them with candy or anything else would make them too heavy to transport, but I wish them to be filled with candy as well as more colored tissue, mini lighters, condoms, glow-sticks, etc.
I hope for the audience and participants of this work to share in my cathartic release of months of work and coming to terms with life, love and ultimately the notion that we are all alone together, and why not make a party of it?

Mixes

2011-07-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

Hey there... dont know if anyone still knows about this blog but I thought it was about time I pick it back up. Updates from my srudio will be posted as soon as i find my camera, which is lost somewhere in my apartment.
I guess i can fill yo uall in for now on some of the changes that have happened over the past year in my personal life. I moved back from europe, and now live in Brooklyn, NY. Bratislava was amazing and i was sad to leave but all good things must come to an end and i have found myself a great life here in nyc! I jsut recently found a job as a fit model for a clothing import company based out of manhattan. who'd of thought that this dream job even existed? i literally try on clothes all day and pose for buyers in the showroom. awesome.
this new job pays my bills as well as affords me enough free time to be working on my many projects. i have been teaching myself to spin and mix and have come up with my own DJ style which you can see on soundcloud uner the name of "DJ Bombshell."
more mixes will get posted soon : )
and in terms of painting... well i have occupied with an installation project that is made of mutliple units, rather time consuming. so i have just started some new work on paintings and hope to have both of these projects finished and ready to go for
August 25th
Sapphire Loungs, NYC
7pm-10pm

my first ny opening!
this show will only be up for a few days, but the opening night will be a super fun party. i have some surprises already in the works so i know it will be special... hope to see everyone there!

2010-08-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

2010-08-21T20:50:00.001-07:00

work from 2009:

latest 2/13/10

2010-03-07T03:38:00.000-08:00

This show was a fun warehouse party hosted by Lost in Sound. It was lots of fun, a good way for me to say goodbye to the states before I headed off to Europe. On that note I will try to keep up this blog a little more often with news from Slovakia, etc.

ART PARTY ON THE 30TH

2009-08-19T22:37:00.000-07:00

When: August 30th, 7-10 PM
Where: The Talking Stick: 1411 Lincoln blvd, Venice, CA
Price: $5
Community Pool is BACK!

What is Community Pool?
Community Pool is an art party put on every month by the Ahimsa Collective- a performing arts organization devoted to spreading non-violence through art. Musicians, visual artists, dancers, clowns, poets, dj's, performance artists, circus acts, and more come together under one roof to create one awesome, crazy night. Come party.

WHO IS GOING TO BE THERE:
The Voodoo Fix (music)
Emma Harris (Dance)
Younger Statesmen (Improv)
Everybody Nose Clowns
Andrew Heringer (Music)
Magza C. Creature (music)
Carly Nykanen (Stand up)
Darcy Prevost (circus act),
BaulPointPen (music/comedy),
Benefit Friends (DJ)
Vince Mckelvie (Visual installation Game)

Visual Artists showing/Creating LIVE at the event:
Jenn Bakalar (FEATURED), Dane Svenningson, Sasha Harris, Cassandra Cohen, Alyssa York, Carlos Flores, Brianna Johnson, Star Foreman, Michael Rivera, 3, and more!

ALSO!
Live interactive screenprinting, Tarot Card readings, Energy consultations, interactive art making, Trivia Challenges, Massages, Lego's, AND SO MUCH MORE.

ALL FOR FIVE DOLLARS? YOU MUST BE KIDDING. YOU'RE NOT KIDDING? THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

Be there. it is your support that helps us continue this community of new, boundary-pushing, rock-your-shirt-off art.

THIS EVENT WILL SELL OUT. GET THERE EARLY.

WWW.AHIMSACOLLECTIVE.COM

Staff show number 2

2009-08-12T01:01:00.000-07:00

Parks Exhibition Center Staff Show

2009-07-29T01:46:00.000-07:00

Idyllwild Arts Academy Staff show at Parks Exhibition Center

AHIMSA COLLECTIVE Community Pool

2009-07-29T01:40:00.000-07:00

These are some pics of the work I did this past weekend at Ahimsa Collective's Community Pool, a house party with live performances, music, and visual art. Lots of fun...

Pretty Crazy

2009-03-03T21:01:00.000-08:00

An artist should not be allowed to speak about their own work it should speak for itself. I completely adhere to the view that a work should be self-defining, explanations should be included with the piece. For example. a typed essay could accompany a piece but it must be presented as a part of the work. This is the job of the artist, to prepare his/her statement and leave it up for interpretation. It is not their job to wait around for the viewer's reaction and argue points after-the-fact.

2008-10-12T01:48:00.000-07:00

"Horse and Hattock"

an urban distaste for the concrete

2008-09-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

Sketches can be preserved as legends to stories, and paintings serve as a code with which to read the meaning behind an artist's work.
Within my interests is a specific concern with language. what could be the possibility of a common language of the subconscious? Misinterpretations abound within the language of visual symbols. In the end, words "mean" nothing, they have no value in terms of material worth. Beyond matters of currency, however, I would say most people today have developed "an urban distaste for the concrete" (a line from the Great Gatsby).

Self-organizing

2008-08-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

Art is: the opposite of carelessness. This piece could be described as a series of pigment application moving towards cohesion. The horizon is at once distance and boundary. The obvious conclusion is that if you believe the whole painting, then the whole thing is true. The act of imagining a good story is a way to make someone, including oneself, feel safe forever. Gravity can paint a picture, through time and natural processes. Like fear, gravity is a common denominator; it is also a connected to natural phenomena and creation. Decay, cultural and social decay is the same as oversimplification on such a grand scale that the basics of life have become abstract "concepts". Art is a circular idea process of formation and deterioration. Self-organizing matter is the secret.

just like a photo

2008-07-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

Images have become disposable. Possibly because of this we often seem to have trouble investing in our decisions or anything at all that we may choose. In a rather victimizing way our societal convention is to take what's given to us. I don't mean to condemn all connections to vain behavior, they're merely symptoms of a larger disorder, but I do wish to find the means to make stronger statements. Without being overly critical, I believe there is much to be learned by objectification. So many people would rather choose a private struggle than a public humiliation as we search for that fortune, nirvana, or revolution always just out of reach. But to be afraid of what you might "look like" while doing it seems to me an irrational fear. In the same way people shy away from the camera len,s many of us shy away from taking the "harder route". However, fear is the ultimate teacher, a natural state and a tool. We all fear the unknown; fear is our common denominator.
In this way I believe that people often fear the abstract, the borderline or the hard to understand. In my own works, what is veiled may or may not have meaning in the first place, the veiwer will never know. Is that not-knowing feeling a form of fear? It is at least uneasiness.
Through comforting familarity the photograph remains to most the purest visual record of a concrete moment in time.

To leave a mark

2008-05-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

Affecting a surface is essentially the subject of the act of painting. Presence and absence are binaries; represented as equally oppositional forces. On any surface the discovery of a mark is the dicovery of difference. Some may say the result of this marking is to be "condemned to an eternal desire for the non-relationship." In other words, zero; where identity is meaningless.

avoidance

2008-04-14T23:35:00.000-07:00

As a society we instinctively avoid many things during the course of the day. Somtimes we are aware of it, but most of the time we do not know how automatic our daily behaviors have become. On studying social reactions to different versions of the human figure, an uncanny appetite for irony can be revealed. We like to see things that we have already seen before. Our tendency towards the familiar is in complete combat with exploration in an urban situation.

The New Abstract School

2008-03-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

Student Center Mural application, project description: Jenn Bakalar and Bret Slater (we didn't get the job)

The mural Bret and I plan to paint for the student center will be a large-scale version of the work that he has been exploring this semester in the study of painting. Research on Alber’s color theory as well as the mechanics of figure/field relationships has developed into a design aesthetic with an overall balance through the arrangement of forms. A limited color palette allows for delicate harmonies between shades and a “hard-edge” painting technique showcases color and placement relationships. The nature of the work is based on precision and champions many historical art concepts, such as those realized during Futurism and Minimalism. We will work with the entire area of the canvas, addressing the horizontality of the field by approaching the composition in three linear sections.
Each of these three sections will subtly interact and connect with each other, maintaining cohesiveness. The resulting image will symbolize the complicated duality of life as well as the natural relationships between positive and negative, or yin and yang.
The three sections will be arranged in two symmetrical pieces on opposite ends. The remaining space in the middle will be a transitional area between the two. The two bookend panels will be balanced areas, and explore the play of flat color on a painted surface. Each square will be a complete and stable composition on its own, but they will reflect each other like mirror copies. The middle section will be a stable and transitional location between the two “opposite” ends. The ambiguous space that exists between opposites is representative of the abstract synapse in which intuition and creativity resides.
The figures within the painting will be reminiscent of the Purchase campus architecture, or geometrical formations in a void. Through their shape, position and color, the forms will relate to one another and interact according to an invented system of order within the world of the painting. In the same way that the law of attraction is present in all things, they will attract and repel from each other like the poles of a magnet.
Color will be a predominant feature of the work as per its ability to universally evoke feelings, emotions and the majority of a visual “mood.” Flat paint will be used, as shine causes glare and takes away from the consistency and quality of color. Intuitive color choices will symbolize emotions like anger, love and loneliness. The piece will serve the Purchase College community as a visual meditation on spirituality and the thought process, as communicated through the very personal tools of painting: color, shape, proportion, position and scale.

Materials needed:
Gesso
Rulers, pencils and erasers
Outdoor enamel spray paint with a matte finish
Masking tape

Tommy Hartung

2008-02-25T20:19:00.000-08:00

Tommy Hartung at Moti Hasson Gallery
535 West 25th St New York, NY www.motihasson.com

February14-March16, 2008

Purchase Alumni Tommy Hartung is exhibiting a successful multi-media show at Moti Hasson Gallery in Chelsea. With an MFA from Columbia and showcased as part of Moti Hasson Gallery's inaugural Chelsea exhibition, Hartung is proving he can do a little bit of everything in terms of art-making and storytelling. Through his work in painting, digital video and sculpture, he tells a fictional tale featuring the mysterious settlement of the “New World” in the late 1400s by a Christopher Columbus-esque character and his ill-fated crew. In keeping with this theme, Hartung creates an exhibition in which everything has the feeling of something “found”, and the viewer is free to explore.
Entering the gallery space a video is shown for about 15 minutes. Behind the wall on which it is projected are presented an old-school projector, and a sculpture. In an adjacent alcove one can also enjoy two figurative paintings and sculpture, offered almost sarcastically as the last pieces to an interdisciplinary “puzzle” which spans the triad of video, sculpture and painting.

(Image stills)

Tommy Hartung

The Story of Edward Holmes, 2007

edition of 5000

still from color video on DVD

15 minutes

courtesy of the artist and Moti Hasson Gallery, New York

The movie consists of scenes comprised of animation, made out of small figurines and bits of toys, painted and glued together to create “characters”. He also films a miniature ship as well as busts of familiar-looking dignitaries, which recall portraits of our founding fathers. The myth Hartung weaves tells the story of one “Edward Holmes.” His journey at sea is narrated it as he had recorded it in a journal. The viewer is visually dictated the conditions of a storm, which causes the model ship manned by the crew of sculptural busts to crash on the shores of a mysterious land inhabited by strange animals and Natives. An overall sentiment of paranoia and anxiety can be felt in the spaces between the figures as they float and dance across the miniature stage. This is fitting as one could think of no story more relevant or obsolete than the “discovery” of the Americas. At some points you feel as though it is expected that you laugh, uncomfortable, as it would seem. This is especially true during the last scene, when Edward Holmes gets lucky with a young Native girl. The video, as the primary element, sets the stage for the rest of the show and is by far the most interesting piece Hartung presents. His main character is effective in that he plays into the myth of the early American explorers with an abstract dialogue between Fate and Edward Holmes.

The sculpture pieces behind the projection wall consist of the projector emitting an image of a blackbird. Pencil sketches of the model busts used in the video lay on the table next to the projector. Hartung plays with the idea of the artist’s studio being a work of art in itself, however this arrangement of tools reads very literally within the context of the rest of the work. The parallel between the worlds of video and real life is one of the most interesting concepts in the show. However, the sculptures, with their incidental compositions and scale shifts, seem negatively residual of the video-making process.

The last room of the exhibit contains two paintings and a sculpture. The paintings are large and colorful despite their limited palettes. The representational scenes depict a cottage in the woods with a bridge crossing a river or ravine, and a picnic at an RV in a forest. Abstraction is achieved through veiling the scenes with drippy, atmospheric paint, as well as obsessive patterning in the foliage of the trees, which also serves to camouflage the subject. The paintings seem to depict the magic of isolation found in the woods, with elements reminiscent of northern lights and other light phenomena such as shadows and silhouettes.

The sculpture in the corner of the room is a to-scale model of two cocks fighting, made of masking tape and wire, de-lineated with charcoal. The motif of animalistic aggression is possibly in reference to the outdoors, and the wild becoming tame through familiarization.

The whole show could be explained as a metaphor for the fear and confusion of the unknown. Hartung brilliantly parallels the anxiety of exploration and the thrill of a “Manifest Destiny” in Edward Holmes’s discovery of a new species of black bird. The animal’s strange behavior includes eating its surrogate mother upon hatching. Tommy Hartung will be at Moti Hasson from February 14 thru March 16, 2008.

(Installation shot)

Tommy Hartung
Raw File Dump #2, 2007
found objects and materials
dimensions variable

courtesy of the artist and Moti Hasson Gallery, New York

Amira Mednick

2008-02-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

Amira Mednick

Manna is proud to present eleven pieces by painter Amira Mednick on display now through mid April. Mednick’s work represents a trend in contemporary art addressing issues born out of the 1960’s art historical movement known as “Minimalism”. Mednick’s colorful, energetic sci-fi landscapes put a new spin on the simple and concept-based aesthetics of this section in art history. Taking her cues from minimalist artists such as Frank Stella and Sol LeWitt, she explores painting through a body of work focused on color play and spatial representation. Mednick utilizes a precision-based technique while still maintaining a traditional approach to painting.
She works in acrylic on canvas. A plastic-based paint, acrylics come in many “artificial” colors and can be manipulated with mediums (paint additives) and water until it dries flat, without visible brushstrokes. Impeccable craftsmanship is also another element of minimalism with which Mednick infuses her paintings. One must view the work in person to see the perfectly straight lines and edges, which separate colors of almost imperceptible shifts in hue and value.
This is truly the magic of original artwork. With every view one is reminded of the immense care taken in paint application and color selection. Some pieces seem to explode off the canvas in an expressive composition, while others represent figures suspended, motionless in an atmosphere of color.

Amira Mednick was born in Manhattan and grew up in Fairfield County, Connecticut - Westport and Stamford areas. Her mother is from Switzerland and is also a visual artist.
Mednick studied architecture for 2 years at the University of Miami and recently graduated summa cum laude from Purchase College in 2007. She know lives in CT, and works as a Specialty Art Project coordinator/instructor at Congregation Shir Ami, Stamford. Her past exhibtion includes: “Obviously Four Believers”/Senior Thesis Show/Purchase College/State University of New York/2007,"The Best of SUNY"/ State University Plaza Gallery, Albany, New York/ 2007 – awarded Critic’s Choice Award,"Downtown Cabaret"/ Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center, New York City, New York/ 2007,"Art of the Northeast"/ Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, Connecticut/2006,"25th Annual Photography Exhibition"/ Betty Barker Gallery, New Canaan, Connecticut/2005, "Spectrum 2004"/ Betty Barker Gallery, New Canaan, Connecticut /2004,"Alpan International 2004"/ Alpan Gallery, Huntington, New York/2003.

John Torreano critique

2008-02-09T21:43:00.000-08:00

Visiting artist John Torreano took a look at my work last semster and I finally found the notes from this discussion. He started out by metioning a method of drawing "by seeing." The piece I offered for critique is titled "red portrait."He explained his belief that painting and drawing particularizes the artist's point of view. Interest in perception and ideas of space, the galaxy often provide the catalyst for many events in painting. All art is contemporary art for an artist working today. An painter must be open to any influences; start from the inside and go out, returning to the inside. Fracture images, appropriate cross-cultural references and multiple points of view. Look for surprises in the particular. Let the intuition lead the production. You do need to intellectualize the background. Schizophrenic, simultaneous desires become choices in a vacuum. There is a tyranny of choices. The choices of a particular culture can reflect particular responses; more personalized. A person's identity is defined by the choices she makes. There is a sense of loss, void, space and multiplicity. The choices you make chart your personality and character. It is a process-oriented work.

A guide to "Myko"

2008-02-04T20:57:00.000-08:00

The work of artist myko gave me reason to believe again in the job I do even though managing comes naturally to me, and I feel that providing public art is my life mission. In many ways it also restored my faith in painting; even my own. Maybe in a way I loved his paintings so much because they invoked in me an anxious feeling. I felt the urge to continue simply looking.
The painting that first caught my eye was the eerily abstract piece entitled "Nursey".
For some reason the horror I felt when I first saw it left me uneasy for the rest of the night. The mangled form of a diapered person stretches backwards into the depth of the painting. The viewer is not sure if the figure is in motion, or the image is simply being distorted. There is an unsettling ambiguity that is consistently provided as a main theme of the work.
As I would wish to see them,
"7 days of the week" then presents to the viewer an ultimately bizarre experience. There are fragments of cabaret identifiable in the high heel the figure tip-toes on. It might make the entire discussion easier to call out the blatant allusions to sexism, but there is a more complex language at work here.

"Alexa and Taylor dancing" is an incredible figure painting for all of the reasons you can think of for knowing who Matisse is. The negative space surrounding the figures is reminiscent of Matisse's large work hanging in MoMa entitled: "Music"

Link to Surrealism

2008-01-11T12:49:00.000-08:00

Freud's "On Dreams" changed not only ideas of the subconcious, but also perception.
Why do people go mad? become obsessive? Images function as signs. Not in terms of iconography; latent and manifest content are a way to access the subconcious.
The return of the repressed can be romantic, dangerous and mysteriously intriguing.
Andre Breton wanted us to escape from order- be hysterical and criminal.
As the main goal of the surrealists was to liberate the subconcious, there is no one surrealist "style".
The images communicate more than what they appear to be. Metaphor is taken to the next level as the idea of image becomes more abstract.
In my own work, colors vibrate and say "I'm okay, you're okay". The paint looks good enough to eat.
The models in my work are just that: they are indifferent and vapid. They represent the stereotype of a "girl". They can be at once vulnerable and predatory, alluring and repulsive.
The goal is to take a relatively insignificant, or confusing act or object and reduce it to a clear, precise notation that contains a dramatic carrying power beyond its own physical existence.
In terms of a connection to the audience, I wish to successfully portray a world of solely formal devices, void of psychic dimensions and symbolic associations.
What you see is what you get. Anything more than that is derived by the viewer, is what the viewer brings from his or her own experience.
The prime compositional concern is the perceptual analysis of known quantities against austere conditions (blank background). This in turn stirs the debate over specificity, generality, linear time and timelessness.
There is no beginning; no end.
The viewer should vicariously participate in the present decision; the process of creation or destruction, and the act that took place in the past. "tableau vivant"
The potential of the stage affords space for adjusted intervals between objects. Also, there exist options for views from extreme, elevated angles, or views on level with the floor plane.

Abstraction:

2008-01-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

To me an abstract idea used to be a normal thought processed and re-worked until it was unrecognizable. However, I know now that it is in fact more like a seed, inspired to grow from the deepest, most inaccessible part of the unconscious.

It is what is known as a "visualization", or imagery in "the mind's eye". These acts of abstraction are impossible to communicate to others without the vehicle of media.

As intangible as it may be, an abstraction need not lose its ambiguity once it is fully conceived and produced in the form of "art". This form is simply a translation of the artist's idea represented for the purpose of observation. However, no matter how accurately executed, or how apporpriate the choice of materials may be, the work of art will never be exactly as the abstract thought.

Abstraction occurs in time. It is intangible and subjective.

My own experiences with abstraction began as early as I recognized the similarity between aural structures and visual images. This link is a completely abstract idea; there is no literal connection bewteen music and art besides written musical notation being visual in nature.

Many people argue that jazz is closest to the abstract expressionist movement in terms of style.

Great Expectations

2007-10-19T22:18:00.000-07:00

"The Cerynian Hind" 2006

"the Cerynian HInd" 2006

Response to "The Wyndham Sisters"

2007-10-19T21:43:00.001-07:00

The painting is "The Wyndham Sisters", by Jonathon Singer Sargent.
Three young ladies pose in a sitting room surrounded by flowers. They themselves wear white and two even wear pearl necklaces. As a "painting within a painting" , a portrait of what appears to be the girls' mother hangs on the dark wall behind them. The gold frames of the four paintings glimmer in the dimly lit space and add interest to the scene. The girls appear in a stage-like setting where the background and foreground are clearly separated into scenery and players.

Effective brushwork creates the vloumes of the girls' dresses. Included in the composition is an arrangement of white flowers which provide a metaphor for the transcient beauty of the girls, and also act as compositional aids balancing light across the canvas. The way the skin is painted is in complete contrast to the energetic brushwork describing the texture of the satin and lace. Instead, the features of the figures are carefully rendered, and Sargent expertly employs the techniques of chiaroscuro, modulation, and sfumato.

Two of the women gaze from the painting out at the viewer and the third looks over her shoulder at something or someone positioned behind the viewer, outside of the space of the painting. The youngest in appearance sits in the middle, in the most protected seat on the couch. Flanked by her two older sisters, she stares provocatively out of the painting almost naively seducing the viewer. She is the most attactive, and does not seem aware of her innate beauty.

Response to Death and a Funeral

2007-10-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

The painting is by David Alfaro Siqueros, and is called "Death and Funeral of Cain" c 1947. What initially attracted me to the painting was the color. I was in search of a palette which I could adapt to fit my next composition, another nude portrait of a friend. I specifically needed colors which would allow me to paint flesh in a compelling way.

I was surprised to come across a piece which seemed to me to includ every color I had anticipated needing in my next painting. More startling, however, were the similarities and contrasts in the content of "Death and Funeral", and the ideas I have of my own work.
The painting depicts a surreal scene in which a crowd gathers on a barren cliff to worship a monumental dead chicken. The mix of reality and fantasy lends the painting an eerie authenticity. Siqueros paints freely, using chalky whites and dry-brush techniques. The shapes are well-defined by glimmers of dark contours and areas of flat color which create strongly solid forms. The dark, green-black shadows cast on the ground reverberate my own interest in manipulating shadow and light in a composition.
The entire painting emits a feeling of anticipation. The gathered crowd seems to be awaiting the experience of a miraculous religious vision. The chicken could be some sort of sacrifice. Slumped awkwardly over the cliff, it somehow demands veneration. As an icon of worship, it recalls images of a Christ-figure.

The way the dead chicken is painted also sparks a connection in my own content. The flesh of the bird takes center stage and becomes the field on which the most sensual display of painting and color is presented. The sun seems to be beating down on the scene. It reflects off the plucked skin of the chicken and casts inky, opaque shadows onto the rocks behind. I originally got the idea of dramatic lighting and shadow from the interest I have in the paintings of Wayne Thiebaud. I have been experimenting with lighting subjects and using shadow as a figurative element itself in the composition.

The idea of idol worship and the pagan aspects of revering a dead animal are also echoed in my next sketch. I want to return to iconic, confronting poses. There is something disturbing about the way the chicken's head flops down and hangs over the cliff. My painting "The Cerynian Hind" comes close to this same creepiness. Death is universal and therefore transcends contemporaneity.
The people form geometric masses, each wearing different colors and some waving red flags. Are they participating in some form of worship or prayer? The painting could possibly be a metaphor for contemporary society's tendencies towards hero-worhip and celebrity.
I think the piece will not only give me ideas for color and content, but even the paint-handling offers new ways of working. The "push-pull" technique visible in the work of Hans Hoffman can be seen here, as well as the idea of "cross-pollination" of color. I have found that as I am working from photos I often isolate and localise colors as opposed to allowing hues to mix and interact on the canvas in ways which are unexpected and spontaneous.

I've decided that the big development of this next painting will be to darken the background behind the figure. Like in "Death and Funeral of Cain", and in my last paintings, the flesh will maintain its own vibrancy and lush paint application. This aspect will only be made more apparent in contrast to the bland and austere neutral tone of the background. I also want to utilize the "push-pull" technique, implying an osmosis of sorts, like the background is literally sucking the life out of the figure.

Free-Sketch

2007-10-16T22:12:00.000-07:00

The only thing I was thinking when I was drawing was how to manipulate the original idea of the painting I saw into a new version, different from the last one I just did. I didn't think about what I would be drawing next, or even what my next move would be. Color was the only variable.
Visibly, however, the direction of my sketches was entirely circular. There was no exciting metamorphosis between points "A" and "B". Instead, I was just focused on experimentation. My convention (learned?) was to abandon representational drawing. I just wanted to get the color down onto the paper in a different way than the last sketch. I had never drawn like that before, it appeared to be completely automatic.
I had to limit myself to no more than a few colors at a time, otherwise all the drawings would have turned out the same. Variables only existed in the arrangement of colors and shapes of colors. You could say the compositions were "abstract". To me it felt like gesture drawings, or warm-up exercises. I drew with the same energy I have when doing figure studies.
I didn't have much of a problem with the time constraint. I could have kept drawing, and often a minute felt like insufficient time for the sketch.
Even though they weren't realistic, and I didn't show any development from figurative to abstraction, I still think the sketches show an important progression. Even just the changes in color were enough of an evolution for me. Composition is not only dependent on figure/ground relationships, but color lends weight to the lines and shapes. Experimenting with those weights and placements is enough for me to work with.