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Framing (or People, Places, Things)

 Studio journal, 1/29/14.

Things or references cropping up in paintings lately:

   Comics

   The body

   The landscape

   The studio

   Past tendency of exposing painting panel at edges.

Spacey

 

This work from late summer into early fall 2013, shifts between the painterly poles of establishing pictorial space versus the "paint- as- paint" grit of the actual surface.



 

The silhouetted forms at once both assign and deny a certain spatial depth.
 

  

   

Now, late-fall,  a "surround" or framing

device  has developed that establishes another level to the fore-mid-background distances. It's a sort of fore-foreground.

 

 

 And most recently, not only is the cropping/editing coming from

the framing device, but is apparent in the imagery itself--how much (or how little) information is needed?

 

 

 (And I guess the idea of working with silhouetted forms is yet another form of editing/decision -making.)

What It Is And What It Isn't

Describing Geometry

I recently had a studio visit from two painters, each of whose work I really respect. A comment during the visit has stayed with me. It was about how the radiating marks in my newest paintings,"describe the dimensions of the panel."

I've been aware of this as a recurring tendency for a while, but it is helpful to hear someone else find a way to articulate it.

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I later thought that this sort of modular formation (pictured above) begins to describe the dimensions and geometry of the space.

Apflebaum, floor piece (at top), Morris, felt piece (at bottom).

Above is a shot of my studio wall  where two images of work by artists I admire that have hung longer than any other of the handful I have up. For a long time I couldn't make a connection between these works and mine.  But now that I see the theme of describing dimensions, or geometry, as central to the work itself (and importantly, how it dictates outcome) I am beginning to see a link.

detail, Polly Apfelbaum, floor piece

detail, Robert Morris, felt piece.

Modular Considerations--Minimalist/ Maximalist

                             
                              
 Open Studios at my building offers a chance to curate--studio as gallery space. This time the exercise led to these modular compositions. And with paints, brushes, and source materials still stowed away, I've been playing with the formations ever since.

 

 

  The groupings satisfy a long- held desire to meld  painting with a sculptural presentation. In other words, paintings where the panels on which they are painted do not "disappear" in service to the imagery, but are present and accounted for.
 

                                                             

              

                                      
                                                                        Long Cross

                                                                    

 

L 

 

                                                Stacks at human scale---5'6" on left  6"1 on right.

 

                                        

Groupings/The Space Between

 

 

 I've been thinking for a while about how the installation of paintings--specifically grouping work at close proximity-- activates otherwise autonomous pieces in a way to create something new. Above, paintings are stacked with a small space between them.

 Below,  four paintings butted up next to one another.

 

 

 The same grouping with a bit of space between each.

 

 

 

 I prefer the first version of this quartet--there is a tension created by the forms in each discrete work seemingly pushing up against each other. It's also somewhat awkward, which I like.

 I've "framed" the four paintings with a background of reddish- brown painted on the wall. A somewhat random choice, as I was working with a selection of  latex paints from a give-away pile of an artist leaving our building. Ideally I was thinking of a sort of sap green (or hot pink?), but this works, for now.

 

This pairing  makes me think of mirror images and repeat patterns. When grouped as multiples the presentation becomes somewhat sculptural-- I am more aware of the dimensions of the panels-- and not just the images alone--which is what I want to have happen with these.

 

Then again,  not all pairings work out. Above, the top painting is quite articulated. The bottom piece--the direction I want to go in--is less so. It's a stand-alone piece, at least for now, and my favorite of the summer. (It is also the same painting, different incarnation, as the top one in the "mirror image/repeat pattern" photo above.)

 

Fall Update: Here's the next phase of pairs--something kaleidoscopic occurring in latest work--and not just because this is a blurry pic. But that helps!