Mentor meeting with Harmony Hammond

Today's meeting began with an incredible slide show of Joan Snyder's work spanning her very early (maybe even college) work to more mature work. Harmony accurately guessed that what we miss in this program is the opportunity to view work with an advisor/teacher and discuss it. We're told to go "look up" this or that artist. But we don't then get to have a conversation.

Harmony wanted me to see how personal iconography develops over an artist's career. How it's not a linear thing, but rather these things come in and out, and resurface. It was wonderful listening to Harmony just describe what was in the work. The way particular marks are laid down. Do the horizontal marks appear to start from the outside and move to the inside? Or do they go back and forth. To see from the beginning the interest in the materiality of painting (including bringing in non-paint materials, like gauze) and the body. How personal events and states of being and relationship appear. In the early work, the "pimples" (my word) of paint foreshadowing the eventual cuts in the surface, the sutures, and the poultice of paint filling the cuts. I never thought about Snyder's use of the grid, and it was so interesting to see the way she used it and broke it and how it changed in function and form over the years.



No Skeleton for Evsa, 1971. oil, acrylic, and spray enamel on canvas, 78" x 108" (http://www.joansnyder.net/paintings.php?image=36) (c) Joan Snyder 2010




Altar Painting III, 2009. oil, acrylic, cloth, on linen, 48" x 48"(http://www.joansnyder.net/paintings.php?image=335) (c) Joan Snyder 2010










I feel I brought in two successful paintings that I feel excited about:

From 2010 August

From 2010 July

These a have a boldness and freshness that I am drawn to. There's this idea of the direction of the stroke and coming in from the edges toward the center. There is layering and you can see through to the layers below. I like the idea of looking through something (a screen, a fence) and both of the source photos did this. In one the "screen was flower petals" in the other, it was a gate with a landscape behind it. The paint has a substance and surface. At the same time the color is working (Harmony noted that I am using the source as a reference for my palette, and it's coming from the landscape). I also didn't bother will all the cropping of the source images. I just began, and only used the source very, very loosely. Harmony picked up on this and suggested allowing the palette to come from the source, and not so much the composition. That is where I can be inventive.

Then, tough love.

Surface Surface Surface

The absolute biggest issue I need to address is the surface: the flatness of the material (separate from pictorial flatness). The challenge is learning how to create a surface that is alive and interesting. Right now my paintings -- in general, and specifically on canvas and panel -- don't have a painting presence -- they are flat. And it is about the surface and materiality and their readability as a paint object and art object. Some of them read okay online. We talked about how this is a dilemma of the times -- not that my painting dilemma is of the times, but that so much art is seen on-line and it's a flat way of seeing things, and it can mask a lot of deficiencies of surface (Barry Schwabsky alluded to this in his talk at AIB/BU, "What Not To Paint and How Not To Paint It". I completely agree with this and I remember talking to Deborah about this my second residency. I'd done a couple of larger paintings, and I just felt there was this surface issue that I couldn't figure out -- and I remember talking about the rest areas being plasticy and flat and just not working for me. I couldn't figure out why and what I was doing (or not doing) that was making it look unsatisfying to me.

So, how to I work through this?

Above all, Harmony said just do a lot of painting. There is no thinking my way out of this. I have to paint and paint and paint.

Load up the brush. Harmony noted my tendency to "scruff in". In my notes I drew a big circle with a line through it. She mentioned this last time. So far my successes have been on paper. Moving to canvas requires a lot more material.

Look at a lot of paintings. Observe the surface and how paint becomes material. Harmony gave me a list of galleries to regularly visit. (I still don't know if I can get to NYC or LA).

Learn to go back into a painting. This has been an ongoing issue for me. Harmony suggested approaching the painting as if each time I work on it was going to be it (forgetting about this idea of building up in a more traditional way with an underpainting, etc.). Again, I need to just do this a lot -- discover how I go back in.

I brought the issue of oil paint up again. I just think I should be painting in oil.

Believe

I have really worked to de-personalize critiques of my work in this program. And I decided that I would be open to suggestions and be willing to take advice. Harmony acknowledged this as a positive thing. At the same time, she encouraged me to begin drawing some lines: just because something is observed, I don't have to take the advice. I can accept it as an observation; nothing more. It's important to develop my own choices and my own judgment. I'm beyond the point of needing "assignments".

Bring it up to the present

Harmony's suggestion for research was to bring it up to the present. Her feeling is that it's great to look at history (the Baroque period, the AbEx period, etc.), but that it would be more relevant to look at what is happening today. I interpreted this specifically to mean to challenge myself in developing the skill of visual analysis. One suggestion was to do a visual analysis of work by somebody like Joan Snyder (who is both "historic" and contemporary) and Tomory Dodge or Benjamin Butler. I'm excited by this idea.

So, Harmony felt (and I completely agree) that the primary task for me is to tackle this surface challenge. My goal is to paint a lot and consider all the possible ways that I can build the surface, whether that's preparing the support, using acrylic thick out of the tube, using oils... I need to figure out whatever that needs to be or works for me. In the studio, pull down everything except my "successes" and let those be my guide. I've got six weeks until our next meeting and two papers mixed in there.

On the one hand I feel a small let down that I'm not where I would like to be. On the other, I feel completely energized and excited.

Things to go see

Milton Avery at Riva Yares (through Sept. 26, 2010)

Georgia O'Keeffe, Abstraction (through Sept. 12 2010)

Wayne Thiebaud: Mountains, GP Gallery (through Sept. 25 2010)

Squeak Carnwath: A Little Light, Turner Carroll (through Sept. 13)

Jay De Feo at Dwight Hackett

Alfred Leslie - Who Knew?

Alfred Leslie Texas Baby 1959 oil on linen, 60-1/4 by 72-1/4 inches
(Allan Stone)





Alfred Leslie. The Rabbit Says Yes, 1961 Oil on linen 96 1/4 X 72 1/8 IN. (244.4 X 183.2 CM.) Hirshhorn.






In the Tepee at Leverett, (1973-1974)/COPYRIGHT 1975 Oil on canvas 72 1/8 X 108 1/4 IN. Hirshhorn

Met with Gerry Snyder, my mentor today. He mentioned Alfred Leslie's abstract paintings. His WHAT? Somehow I just missed out on knowing that Leslie was a fantastic abstract painter -- I only knew his figurative work.


I'm really excited about this. I don't know why yet.

My only goals this week are to figure out a paper topic that I can push out as quickly as possibly (without being awful) so that I can paint. I also want to run since I have signed up for a 5K that happens next weekend.

Painting over other paintings...

From 2010 April

acrylic on paper, 22"x25", work in progress

Other artists to look at:
Karin Davie
Gary Stephan
Gregory Amenoff
Roberta Smith, "Painting-Still Liveley" The New York Times
Carroll Dunham
Lee Kelly
Paul Georges

Mentor meeting 9/11/09

This morning I had a very productive meeting with my mentor.

Here are some of the main points (paraphrased into my words):

(1) Wooden Cow Gallery. Consider not exhibiting. I'm not ready. Think about (a) whether I want work out there that's not quite ready for prime-time? (b) is it a distraction from my work as a student? My time is still very limited. Can I afford the distraction?

(2) Develop a better understanding of the fundamentals: color, space, light and dark. Widen my palette and reach further into the colors. Do basic color theory exercises/color mixing.

(3) Simplify my sources. Get away from the art historical references for now. Grab a handful of stuff, throw it on the floor, paint it. Get back to nature. Rendering. My work is abstraction, and refers to the figure and to nature. By working from pictures of pictures, I may not be connecting to the energy I feel when working directly from the source. Combining images right now might be biting off too much. Get back to the basics.

(4) Explore other painting surfaces and materials -- paper, cardboard, burlap. Use different tools -- scratch things out -- use knives, forks, twigs...experiment.

(5) Work smaller. The larger scale takes a long time to develop, and I may be tackling too many things at once. Work with the small 12"x12", work on smaller paper, try the 34"x34" size.

Regarding the paintings I am working on:

From 30 Day Painting #1 (June/July 2009)

Colors not working very well. Page suggested that purple is a difficult color -- it kills everything. There's an all over quality. Similar brush strokes, sizes of shapes. There are a few areas that just aren't visually interesting. I had gone back in yesterday and started adding more structure and some linear elements. I'm going back in and getting rid of the purple, looking at making a more atmospheric background that references sky and landscape. Look at color wheel--stick in the green,blue-green, blue+complement(red-orange).

From Radha Inviting Rubens to her Pavillion

In the Rahda painting, I am not going to do much more. I think I've learned a lot from this painting and it's almost done. It is working better color-wise than the other painting -- probably because I stuck with primary complements. I want to go back in and break up some of the fleshy color blobs in the middle, and bring more blue, as Page suggested, into the bottom right and work on the blue in the top left.

From Painting 8/17/09

This is an example of the size painting I want to do more off.

From September

Page suggested getting rid of the peach color -- that it doesn't work with the blues and greens. Maybe flip it upside down so that the sky is on the bottom. Really work on creating space. Keep staying away from white.

Page let me borrow two issues of "Studio Visit" magazine.

Here are links to some artists (well, lots of artists, but I want to document them so that I'll have the reference when I give the books back):

Derek Buckner
Kylie Heidenheimer
Leslie Hirst
Ebenezer Archer Kling
Janet Lage
Marlene DiFiori Locke
Debbie Likley Pacheco
Sarah Bliss
Diane Hoffman
Carianne Mack
Bobbi Meier
Beatricia Sagar
Helen Sherry

Outside my style, but I also like:
Marie Van Elder
Deborah Hamon
Freya Grand

First in-studio meeting with my mentor, Page Coleman

Last Friday Page came to my house (my studio).

The main thing she notice was that the paintings are screaming for more: more depth, more layering AND more simplifying. She suggested that I think about making marks look far away and closer (smaller to larger?). To think about warm and cool. Could I enhance the dimensional qualities of the brushstrokes (Brice Marden, Richard Hogan, Raymond Jonson). Even the dry brush (think how Lichtenstein actually painted the brushstroke).

She suggested that I might think about how some of the strokes occupy space and whether there could be casting of shadows. Is there a light source? Could you play with distorting the light source.

Color came up. She suggested using my color wheel. Trying out admix colors (maybe start with phthalo blue, red napthol, yellow cad medium -- I'm thinking about the Golden website exercises, which I haven't done yet). How about starting dark to light, using an admix black or gray as the underpainting? How about black and white?

I have got to force myself to keep going back in. Really push myself and not be afraid to mess things up. [She also suggested I relax a little; I've got a bit of performance anxiety (my words)].

Page asked me why I am painting. Could I see myself doing something else? This is a complicated and loaded question for me. For some reason, and I haven't figured out the personal source, it's been ingrained in me that being a painter is not a legitimate occupation. Perhaps for other people, but not for me. My answer was that no, I cannot see myself doing anything else, except perhaps also writing. And teaching. I see myself as a painter who also teaches and writes.

So, from there we talked about my "job". And whether I could cut back my hours. She is concerned that in juggling so much and having so little time to actually paint, let alone read, research, and go look at art, that I am cutting myself short. That the two years will go by quickly, and I might not be positioned where I want to be to take the next step. She also expressed concern if I keep up this schedule that I might get sick and the whole thing will fall apart.

But, the money...for my daughter, for school, for travel, for supplies...

Dave said something on Sunday that I've been chewing on. He said that when he chose to be a chiropractor, he didn't say he'd try it out and if it didn't work, he'd be an electrician. That if you are a doctor, you're not a doctor because of your training. The core of who you are is oriented toward healing, diagnostics, everything that is a "doctor". You gain knowledge and training and skills in school -- but it's not the training that compels you.

Page and I are meeting again on Friday, Sept. 11. My goal is to have a minimum of 4 paintings to show her, including more work on both of the paintings are started last month. [oh, and no titanium white].