Jill Christian

James Siena, "Demystification" at Tamarind Gallery

2011-12-09T18:10:00.004-07:00

James Siena, Sawtoothed Angry Form, 2010, enamel on aluminum panel.

Last night, Dec. 8, I attended a talk by James Siena, titled "Demystification" at Tamarind Institute (Siena is currently at Tamarind creating lithographs in their workshop).

I of course don't know him, but as a member of the audience I found him to be smart, modest, engaging, and sincere. I quite liked him and I like his work.

Siena started off engaging us by associating the landscape of New Mexico with his work. He talked about his interest in phenomenology and details emerging from material. Similarly, how forms emerge from the landscape, like the strata of mountains and valleys in New Mexico formed from millennia of sea wearing on rock. I loved the way in which he related his early involvement with performance art to his two-dimensional work: the performance had rules for how it was to be carried out and it was created and made by hand in a very material way.

He touched upon his "philosophy" a bit when he talked about how there is an aspect (or quality) to an artwork that can't be intellectualized. He emphasized the activity of an artist in the studio, not thinking about or addressing the work from a curator's or collector's perspective -- the artist as a person experiencing their own work. He mentioned an anecdote of repeating a painting in a larger format and then feeling apologetic about it during a studio visit with Terry Winters. Winters said something along the lines of, "maybe you just wanted to experience doing it again." Any artist should be free to not only experience doing it again, but doing a lot of different things, letting one thing lead to another.

One beautiful lithograph on the wall behind Siena was created on a broken stone with a jagged edge on one side. It demonstrated a couple of his interests: the idea of compression and the pressure of the edge, the organic, and rule-based procedures. As the pattern approached the wavy edge, he had to shrink the motifs in order to not violate his rule about completing a row and column. The result was an undulating, illusionistic space that had an organic feeling.

Siena's wife, Katia Santibañez, was also at the talk. With a brief online search, I discovered she paints beautiful paintings that address repetition and mark-making. In 2008, Phong Bui at The Brooklyn Rail wrote about her then new paintings in Katia Santibanez New Work. Also see "Journey of a Solitary Painter" at Morgan Lehman, Oct. 20-Dec. 10, 2011.

Katia Santibañez, "Between the Waves" (2008). Acrylic on wood. 24 × 24 inches.
Image from Katia Santibañez at Danese Gallery.

Here are some links for James Siena:

New Art TV video (2010) of James Siena in his studio: http://www.newarttv.com/James+Siena.
James Kalm, James Siena at PaceWildenstein (2008).
James Kalm, James Siena, March 2011.
John Yau, James Siena at Pace Gallery, March 25-April 30, 2011.

Studio work December

2011-12-02T21:43:00.002-07:00

The written thesis finally submitted, I am back in the studio.

Completed another 43"x43" oil on panel for the thesis show. For this painting, I used an oil ground, an underpainting in a flesh tone, and then a white with Naples yellow and a tiny bit of burnt sienna. I wanted the underpainting to show through in some areas when I applied the final white brushstrokes over the surface. Not sure yet if this one gets to go to Boston.

From December 2011

Also messing around with colors and mediums on 12"x12" panels.

From December 2011

From

Studio work November

2011-10-27T19:39:00.001-06:00

From November 2011

Untitled, oil on panel, 43"x43"

From November 2011

Untitled, oil on paper on panel, 36"x36"

Abstracts 2011 Exhibition Oct 17-Dec 16, 2011

2011-10-07T21:44:00.002-06:00

I will be participating in a group show, Abstracts 2011, at the artspace at Creative Albuquerque, October 17 to December 16.

Opening reception will be Friday, November 18, 5-8pm.

Note that the gallery is open Monday through Friday, 8-5pm (except for the night of the reception).

Other artists in the show are: Kristine Brockel, Jessica Kennedy, Stephen Ausherman, Paula Scott, Annie Marie Abbott, Rachel Zollinger, Christian Gallegos, and Annie Nash.

Studio work September

2011-09-15T20:39:00.000-06:00

From September 2011

Most of my time has been spent researching and working on my written thesis, and prepping large panels. In the meantime, between sanding and gessoing, I completed this oil on canvas. I'm switching from acrylic to oils, and before I started on the panels, I wanted to see how different the oil would feel. It's lovely.

studio work May 8

2011-05-08T07:15:00.001-06:00

From 2011 May

Studio work May 6

2011-05-06T18:49:00.000-06:00

From 2011 May

Studio work April 8

2011-04-08T16:46:00.001-06:00

I've been working on different ways to explore the repetitive strokes, and it is leading me in two directions: work that is more minimal, and an urge to return to my gestural work. In my opinion, my gestural work is much stronger for the more disciplined kind of painting I've been doing. Perhaps it is simply a matter of how many times your brush hits the surface and what you learn from that. Thinking about this reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour concept in "Outliers". I certainly have far to go, but I am indebted to my mentor, who wisely charged me to return with 20-30 paintings for each of our meetings, without going into any long explanation as to why. And it has shown me that many days will feel like nothing is happening (or lots of not so pretty things are happening), but showing up and sticking my brush into the paint will eventually lead me to somewhere.

From 2011 April

Studio Work April 1-3

2011-04-03T21:53:00.000-06:00

Experimenting with whites:

From 2011 April

New arrangements

2011-03-29T22:10:00.000-06:00

From 2011 March

Diptychs and Triptychs

2011-03-26T15:51:00.001-06:00

I've been working on multiple pieces of the same size, continuing to explore the strokes. Running the strokes into lines. I've been thinking about how two or three pieces can function in conversation with each other. How they might be simultaneously about sameness and difference. The spaces in between, not only the strokes but the pieces of paper, have emerged as important...how things meet, pull apart, go together...how edges respond to each other.

From 2011 March

Here is work that I haven't arranged yet:

From 2011 March

Studio Work Feb. 18

2011-02-18T19:05:00.002-07:00

From 2011 February

Studio work for February

2011-02-11T21:00:00.000-07:00

From 2011 February

Studio work for Jan. 30

2011-01-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

From 2011 January

Studio work for Jan. 16

2011-01-18T13:30:00.004-07:00

acrylic on canvas, 16"x20"

From 2011 January

1/16/2001, acrylic on canvas, 42"x44"

From 2011 January

Studio work for Jan. 14

2011-01-14T19:15:00.003-07:00

acrylic on canvas, 16"x20"

From 2011 January

acrylic on canvas, 16"x20"

From 2011 January

Studio work for Jan. 7-8

2011-01-09T10:57:00.001-07:00

My advisor suggested that I consider constructing paintings using modules, with rules I set up for each particular painting. I am experimenting with using one size brush (my favorite round). I want to maintain the unique quality of each stroke and let each one be slightly different (to let each stroke comprise the shape, rather than use a stencil or actually paint in the shapes (like Alma Thomas, for example). For this painting, I decided to use quinachridone magenta and vermillion mixed with white. It's hard to see on screen, but the first three layers are very light and ghosty, almost the color of the gessoed canvas. I'm working from the lightest tints, to fully saturated colors. I may then put lighter tints overlaying, or I may leave it and move on to another.

Acrylic on canvas, 42"x44" (Jan. 8 2011)

From 2011 January

Studio work for Jan. 4

2011-01-05T18:40:00.003-07:00

acrylic on paper, 22"x30"

From 2011 January

Final Work for Semester 3

2010-12-30T11:51:00.001-07:00

From 2010 December

New Work

2010-12-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

acrylic on canvas, 42"x34"

From 2010 December

acrylic on board 8"x8"

From 2010 December

acrylic on canvas 32"x32"

From 2010 December

Mary Weatherford, PNC MFA Lecture

2010-11-12T18:19:00.000-07:00

Tonight listened to Mary Weatherford's February 2010 lecture at Pacific Northwest College:

http://untitled.pnca.edu/multimedia/show/875/

She talks about Emerson, P. Adams Sitney, Agnes Pelton...

Art Lab 9 painting

2010-11-12T10:22:00.001-07:00

Sent this off to Jeffrey Ebeling's Art Lab 9 event. (Nov. 30: Yeah! It sold. I'm so glad the sale went to a good cause).

I've been looking at a lot of geometric stuff lately and decided to shamelessly borrow and see what would happen.

"Something Borrowed", acrylic on paper, 7"x5"

From 2010 November