Philosophie De Pacotille #1
This is so close to being done…
Note: I had to post this. I’m getting so close. I’m starting to feel like when I ‘finish’ something, I can post it here. I’m trying to will it to completion. My plans are to still push the interior/exterior by having stronger warm dark tones inside and cool light colors outside.
Earlier, In Progress: I like the colors here. I use white and dark grey as under painting like this prior to adding transparent end color washes… this might be better than my ending point.
After years of working and thinking about painting, the work is beginning to come together. What I consider effective artwork operates on two levels: the physical surface (the application of the paint) and a conceptual layer tied to art history and the ideas being explored.
This is a small piece, something I can hold in my hand. That changes the interaction entirely compared to a large oil painting that occupies space and engages a viewer physically. I’m starting an exact copy of this work on a much larger canvas using oil, where I plan on using broader washes of color and more assertive mark making.
I’ve been listening to artist talks from Jenny Saville, Cecily Brown, and Chuck Close. These are all artists I respect a lot and represent here examples of a group of artists that I feel use photographs of the figure as a vehicle for their focus which is process and mark making. In Close, the emphasis is on process. In Saville and Brown, it is on mark making. I feel the image for these artists is secondary and of little import. I think for Saville and Brown especially, this is freeing and that they are able to achieve Twombley level mark making through this approach. I want to use the composition from this picture ‘Philosophie De Pacotile #1’ as a template for a large oil that will explore mark making and Doig style washes… see what comes from that.
Picture Making Techniques
I worked with a lighter application of egg tempera here. There is something compelling about thicker, almost excessive gobs of paint on a flat panel. It produces a surface quality that I’m interested in. The concern is archival stability. Thick tempera risks flaking if not handled carefully, so I left this exploration to a minimum here.
I started off with this as being a very fast study. I had it on the ground gathering dust for a couple of months and then came back to it with the idea that I would try some horizontal branding ideas out on it. As soon as I started in on it again, I couldn’t stop. I had the composition fully figured out. I think it works pretty well. I have some ideas for how to show space a little stronger than i am here.
One of the main things I was after was pushing color around.
Concept / Philosophy
This piece sits within a broader framework I’ve pushed all of my current works into. I am very interested in creating a set of branded works that could act as commodities.
While working, thoughts move quickly. The focus here for me was a thought I had about perception and reality while listening to a Jorge Luis Borges story. In one passage, the world collapses into unreality and is replaced almost immediately by endless possibilities of other realities. I loved the feeling of absolute horror the last line hit me with.
“I fled the room. Outside there was no verandah, no marble stair, no silent rambling house, no eucalypti, or statues, neither public square nor fountains, nor the slack gate in the railing of the villa in the suburb of Adrogué.
Outside other dreams waited upon me.”
For me, those lines are so filled with hysteria and world destroying realizations that are quickly forgotten. I love the idea that we could be in a dream and we just shift from one dream to another. I want to evolve this thinking. I’m working on pushing the text on a future drawing from stating the fact to acting more like a warning or alert “If you are reading this, understand that you are not real… etc”. For some reason it makes me so happy to think about a fictional person coming into a fictional gallery and seeing this show that is all ‘WARNING’ and ‘ALERT’… the world is not real. Or the idea of a fictional person at a fictional party seeing this weird ass painting on a wall that is saying ‘Pssst… hey, this is not reality your in… wake up’.
Future Direction
Future thoughts: I have some ideas on how I want to push the brand and commodity elements further with this. I’ve been staying up at night thinking about how missionaries in the Medieval era would wander from one one monastery to another on pilgrimages. If they were well-to-do, they would carry around personal items like silverware and plates. Being able to pull out a personal artistic plate at a communal dinner was a flex move back in the day. I’m working with a medium that was used to create reliquaries that these wanderers would carry around with them. I want to play with the idea that these paintings I’m creating are valuable reliquaries that could be used as a flex object and at the same time elaborate on the brand idea. Maybe I’m being racist… I don’t think so… I have this memory of visiting the hassidik jewish trading neighborhood in NYC a long time ago. I LOVED the devout men who lived by their own rules, dressed in their black uniforms and intent with serious purpose that had zero overlap with my reality. I have this image in my head of a similar crazed society of people living a reality I can’t understand, but I can see them carrying around flex object cases that could contain a reliquary painting.