progression

Definition. still no where near pleasing me. I started the raw umber underpainting and worked it completely out on the canvas three times. Every attempt I would wipe out and start over with the intention of rendering the figures smaller in their space. I feel limited on this canvas and wish I could work as large as I am on a much larger surface.
letting it flow
first color after underpainting, kind of garbage
bleach out
Canvas prep

Sutro Island

Hung Liu Has inspired my work. The way in which she applies the paint in a very drippy manner and yet still achieves detail and form is rather fascinating.Her subject matter almost always incorporates figure and a made up space.
I know there is a point in which we must stray from the mainstream uber famous artists like Klimt but there is a part of me that will never let go of his work. That and I am also influenced by Egon Schiele who was mentored by Klimt. Again the focus on the figure and the interaction with a made up space is very key.
David Choe's work has a lot of the same elements as mine. layering is rather apparent and shape scribbling often adorns his background. something about lines that aren't too straight or too rendered gets me going.
Gail introduced me to Zak Smith. His work is similar and influential to mine in that he works from photos of friends and images he has taken. Because he leaves the figures black and white, the background acts more as a design and intricate shape work than just the documentation of their space.

All of these artists capture emotional expression in their own way, all of which are unique and all of which are effective. I failed to mention Jenny Saville, Robert Bechtle, Lautrec, Cassatt, and most importantly the artists I encounter everyday, my roommate is a huge influence as well as some artist I practice collaborative pieces with. I am also influenced by the books I read. More often than not, the passages from a Haruki Murakami book will inspire me to paint.

some poor shots of some of the stuff at the Greenhouse in West portal. Mr. Love has stuff there too so check it (that just bought me a slap in the face). It is only up for another week so hurry

Three Studies

Some of my studies frustrated me, I used the same methods of production for all of them, spending what now seems like far too long on the initial pencil sketches that drive the washes. Towards the end the washes became more transparent and far less layered.

I should have used multimedia to envision some of my ideas rather than the same process over and over.

I hope to take these studies and produce works that are loosely driven by the background and more so by the subject matter. I hope to keep the recurring space with in space idea and evoke a multitude of potential emotions and ideas about the space within.

Space Within A Space

The initial idea behind the thirty studies we have been working on in studio has evolved as I progressed through the series. As I started the series I originally intended to deal with human emotion and the spacial relation to the figures and how surroundings can evoke different emotion and connotation. I was initially searching for vulnerability, but as I have moved forward the idea of personality as a defense mechanism drove my ideas. Who are these people, what is the importance of their settings? how are their physical expressions and placement perceived? all the photos I work from are my own. The subjects are friends or myself. I know these people and I know when their guards are up. It is quite lovely to be able to capture those vulnerable or fraudulent moments in expression. I love experiencing the moments in which the people I am close to are lost in thought, sad, depressed, stressed, anxious, secretive, inquisitive, angry, tough, weak.... the list continues. I also found that my organic nature in producing these layered abstract backgrounds really lends a whole other dimension to my idea. their emotions are suspended in an intangible world of thought and writing, shapes, math, vectors. there is so much happening around them and yet they are still. I like to think the floating words and shapes are the very items that depict the subject's thought, their aura.