Introduction

In my large abstract paintings, I express the construction of thought visually in a way that language cannot. Through an inventive and improvisational process, I change the paintings over time while merging influences from Abstract Expressionism and the Pattern and Decoration movement with crafting ideology, as well as modern day commercial art forms of advertising and design graphics. This intuitive and reactionary painting process results in a visual dialogue on the canvas between expression and precision. Initially, the pictorial spaces I develop allow expressive action, which cannot be anticipated in advance and which I later commingle with the premeditated qualities seen in the overlaid lyrical, decorative lines. These two aspects are developed through the interactions of bold colors, varied brushstrokes, and a mix of geometric and organic lines.

The dialogue I direct through my work is not only visual; it originates from ineffable thoughts, feelings and emotions. Memory, time and space are connected through numerous layers of paint and ideas until the piece is resolved, in some cases by reworking paintings that are years old. My paintings go through a multiple stage process: for example, Memories-a-Slippin’,I’ll Tie the Knot…Not, and Does this Make Me Look Pretty? are pieces that I had previously considered finished, while paintings such as If Plato and I Had A Baby, Cello Boys and Mom Loves Hates My Tattoo have gone through a fluid, uninterrupted process of completion. 

My process of painting

Memories-a-Slippin’ began as a study of synesthesia with quick, expressive painting to music represented by sound through color, lines and shapes. This project was carried out while listening to Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah, a musical piece I chose because of its historical, personal and religious significance. The initial Jeremiah painting was first created in the spring of 2011, then reworked into a new state a year later. While one can still see the free-form, looped and blended brushstrokes of the past Jeremiah painting, specifically in the red, blue and yellow of the deep space, I bring it into visual conflict with Minimalist-inspired lines anchoring the bottom of the picture plane. The diagonal rays coming from the upper-left corner and ornate design influences transform the piece into a newly energized state.

In a similar fashion to Memories-a-Slippin’, the larger piece I’ll Tie the Knot…Notbrings stereotypically feminine objects together onto one canvas: Barbie and Ken, red lipstick, and high-heeled shoes among other tropes of the “feminine.” Throughout the painting process, I eradicate parts of these iconic forms with thick, overlaid lines, yet they still emerge from below the surface as though they are flashes of memory both cultural and personal. The act of improvisational painting allows one to seize momentary opportunities to express ephemeral thoughts through an intensely reactionary process, even while paying close attention to detail. While the subject matter of I’ll Tie the Knot…Not maintains its feminist origins, my artistic influence comes from an intersection of past artists such as Piet Mondrian, Frank Stella and Lee Krasner, coupled with inspiration from modern day textiles and commercial design. These different aspects create an exchange between past art movements and present artwork and design.

My process plays with the aesthetic intersection of pre-meditative decisions and impulsive expression; my strategy is not merely to deposit paint on a surface but consciously to apply and develop spaces through a continually evolving progression. Art critic Barry Schwabsky describes the ontological problem with painting to be: first, that for there to be an ontology of painting, “… there would need to be something particular about painting - and nothing else but painting - with regard to being” (Schwabsky 69). Second, there must be a distinction between the project and the object–the project being the idea and the action that puts the painting into a new perspective, and the object being what has been created; the project differs from the object in that it is “…incomplete and unfolding, and above all…subject to revision” (Schwabsky 78). In considering the origins of what constitutes the identity of a painting, I pay special attention to every stage of creative development as each layer that I create is a unique and personal experience as well as a constant subject for change. 

I employ a layered production of abstraction that has infinite possibilities in its conclusion to propose that painting can exist outside the initial experience of painting. This can further be seen in Does This Make Me Look Pretty?, in which the horizontal and zig-zag lines that cut diagonally through the picture plane interact with the textured forms that follow the bold lines (a development from the previous flower-like details of I’ll Tie the Knot…Not). The bright colors, whose light forms lie next to the glossy, outlying dark sections, directly interact with the implied deep space: the initial painting of a figure. While one cannot find the woman beneath the newer, thickly-layered pigment, I manipulate the painting beneath as the groundwork for what I develop over it, directing influences from an unlikely source: the Paint-by-Numbers painting craft, which I loved as a child. Throughout my painting process, I appropriate the color-coding ideology of Paint-by-Numbers into a problem-solving method, to use the lines and form of the previous painting as contours to fill with an interaction of geometric and organic lines. 

While the previous three paintings are the result of a multi-stage procedure of working over finished paintings, the pieces If Plato and I Had a Baby, Cello Boys and Mom Loves Hates My Tattoo are also examples of a layered development, but starting with a blank canvas and working intermittently over a shorter but still extended time. Instead of eliminating segments and then working back in with newly invigorated brushstrokes, I focused on carefully adding in the graphic lines and deliberately mixing saturated colors, both on and off the canvas.  

Similar in process to my previous paintings, I began the piece The Fine Line: Object as Painting or Painting as Object with a table and lamp that I purchased at a thrift store, which I then painted with an abstract image. This ontological investigation into the action of painting and its nature of being utilizes the same techniques and multiple stage process of my paintings on canvas coupled with the intention to challenge the assumed functionality of utilitarian objects. The result conclusively alters the identity of a commonly used item into a piece of art, specifically paintings, rather than colorful sculptures or decorative utilitarian objects. In doing this, I discovered that the identity of these painted objects is equivalent to painting on a shaped, non-rectangular canvas, and by taking away these objects’ usable function and making them viewable from a single, front view (as a painting would typically be hung), they are transformed into art pieces and are no longer furniture. Although one may be tempted to use these utilitarian items for their original purpose, museum protocol and cultural taboos deem it inappropriate to touch the artwork directly; therefore, my act of painting these objects simultaneously makes them non-functional. By interpreting abstraction onto a tangible and readily available household object, I hope for this piece to alter the viewer’s experience and to subvert traditional expectations by making paintings on furniture that can be perceived as works of art rather than decoration.

Conclusion
Throughout this body of work, I strive to attract the attention of a wide range of viewers by integrating elements of popular culture with its vibrant colors and elements of design. This interest drives me to look to modern day graphics promoted by Internet culture, as well as other forms of art such as tattoos, graffiti, advertising and poster design. It is important that my paintings become visually appealing while easily and widely accessible, yet to impress upon the viewer a possibility for a deeper meaning like the ideas inherent in Abstract Expressionist art. Through my actions, I formulate the identity of painting as a progressive idea or project, rather than a singular object, and in the process consider its ontological meaning.

Works Cited
Schwabsky, Barry. “Object or Project? A Critic’s Reflections on the Ontology of Painting.” Contemporary Painting in Context. Ed. Anne Ring. Petersen, Mikkel Bogh, Hans Dam Christensen, and Peter Nørgaard. Larsen. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, University of Copenhagen, 2010. 69-80.

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