d’Arte Board

I finished this a couple of days ago and managed to get some decent photos during one of the lovely sunny mornings we had this week. This is number 8 in the series.

ramblings and detail shots after the jump

detail photos

Why Saccharine?
Well, just take a gander at those colors. It’s like someone slipped in a pool of saliva and candy. The works in this series tend to incorporate all kinds of sweet colors–iridescent lavender, bubblegum pink, baby blue. After years of intentionally making art that wasn’t pretty, I decided to see if I could make art that was pretty but didn’t make me feel self-conscious. Why did i spend years making art that wasn’t pretty? And why would making pretty art make me feel self-conscious? Welll…

I am a relatively shy woman of slight build and small stature who often finds it difficult to assert myself with people I don’t really know. People tend to assume (incorrectly) upon first meeting me, that I’m quiet, sweet and reserved. In my freshman or sophomore year of college, I got really sick of being fed dismissive, patronizing, “book by it’s cover” comments like, “Oh, of course this is your painting! That makes so much sense. It’s lovely.” Damnit, I’M NOT LOVELY! I curse like a sailor. (sorry, Mom. guess you shouldn’t have let Dad talk like that in front of the kids. heheh) Worse, the responses I was getting gave me the distinct impression that I was being perceived as simple and vapid. I was tired of being judged instantly and incorrectly by my then pretty artwork. I decided that if my art was going to represent me, then it would do so more accurately.

Why Cartography?
Remember the post where Jason talked about matrixing or finding objects in otherwise nonrepresentational images? Yeah, it’s partly that these finished paintings look like maps to me, but it’s not exactly as random as a simple visual association made after the fact. It’s also related to the comments about concept and process you’ll find underneath Jason’s post. Each painting begins with a gesture or gestures. The gestures are intended to establish relationships–either the relationship of an object to it’s space or the relationship between multiple objects. Along with being of formal interest to me, the making of a gesture is also of conceptual interest. When interacting with others, we use gestures to convey meaning. If I greet you with wide open arms, it indicates a warm welcome with the promise of a hug. If you recoil, it means you don’t want a hug. If I bake you cookies, you may assume it’s my way of showing you I care. If the cookies make you sick, you may have been too quick to assume. The point is, we interpret gestures in order to understand our place in an interaction or a relationship much like we read maps to orient ourselves in regard to location.

I’m hoping this “explanation” doesn’t come off as insincere, oblique or intentionally cryptic. I find it quite a challenge to translate what abstract art is “about” into words. Of course, I could just avoid that entirely by opting into the “art doesn’t need explaining” school of thought. I certainly don’t begrudge anyone who lives by that creed. For me, writing about the stuff I make is good cerebral exercise. It helps me understand more thoroughly what I’m doing which in turn leads to new ideas and new work.