Becoming Abstract
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Listening to sculptor Roxy Paine’s audio Slide Show I was struck by his statement to the effect that, in regards to his sculpture Maelstrom, in one respect he wanted his creation to exist as “recognizable parts in the process of becoming abstract.”
That sculpture could exist with the same goals as painting never really struck me before I heard this. When I hear my personal, vague thoughts played back to me in clearly defined, audible form it rings with a deeply felt trueness.
I am at a threshold in my personal development as an artist I think. There are many thresholds that come along in a person’s career; it’s like standing before a door and you can hear exciting things happening on the other side; you can’t wait to get to the other side. But it’s hard, you know it requires continued hard work. Not that you should try and knock the door down but only push, gently push and let it open.
Painting now exists primarily as abstraction; I compose with shapes of color, always have I guess, but now it is foremost in my mind. And “things” that make up the picture move in and out of abstraction, “recognizable parts in the process of becoming abstract.” In the painting process, I start with recognizable form but then switch to shapes of abstract color, shapes that may describe several individual objects or parts of objects, to harmonize the composition. It’s a continuous back and forth until there emerges a complete whole. Not only the process but I want objects in the work to meld into amorphous beings that voice the feeling of real life. A static “thing”, to me, cannot depict life; life is movement, atmosphere and mystery.
Some of this I’ve thought about for a good while now but there is a feeling, an anticipation of a deeper understanding of what I’m trying to accomplish. Exciting stuff.
See Video of the construction of Paine’s new sculpture commission for the NCMA.
Image credit Librado Romero/The New York Times
