Additional Criteria Considerations

Steaming off the previous entry on material choices, I follow a second criteria when choosing materials. The previous criteria mentioned was choosing materials based on their plain, boring objectness. In addition, sensuality is a criteria in the process of choosing materials. If there is a surface texture that has great viscosity and tactility, I become attracted to the material for this sensual quality. The same attraction works when a material has a smooth, glass'like gloss such as epoxy. For installation work, the sensuality may come in the form of sounds created. When a material has sensual qualities of touch (and sound for installation), there is a greater chance I will work with the material in a piece.

Pictured is an installation from the previous year that used strips of aluminum from beer cans and pop cans. The cans hung in a tree, creating a beautiful wind-chime like sound in the wind. The aluminum also had a great reflective nature to it.

Criteria For Materials

When choosing materials to work with, careful consideration and criteria is need. By choosing one material over another, that material is being privaledged. For me, choosing a material to use, such as toilet paper and bubble wrap, comes down to the basic question of what is plain, boring. To answer this question, I consider what materials are consistent in every class, what the rich and poor share, have in their lives alike.

Images of New Works and Textures!

Bubble Wrap

Increasing play with materials, I am currently working with bubble wrap. Following the relief discovery of acrylic gesso and plastic, I am attempting to pull the relief of bubble wrap using acrylic gesso. If successful, the relief will float on the white gallery wall, for its presentation.

The color white and various surface textures are influencing my newer works, even though I am moving away from the materials of toilet paper and themes of spirituality. Spirituality and the figure of Jesus are still influences on my personality, but are moving further away from my current body of work.

Images of new work will be up very soon, I promise.

Plastic- It's Fantastic!

Recently, I discovered an amazing technique on pure accident. Acrylic gesso doesn't stick to plastic. When applied in thin layers, many layers are visible at once and in a very slim package. The textures of the wrinkles the plastic has shows through wonderfully with the white color scheme I am currently using. Shadows and depth become more apparent with the white, yet the piece is remarkably thin and flat. Imagine relief done with paint, and no structure other than paint being necessary to hold the relief of an object. Paint creates the image, the relief, and the structure.

James Hampton

The following link is a very interesting article. It pertains to religion, visions of God, and the art world. After viewing images and many readings of this article, I have every desire in the world to go see The Throne of The Third Heaven in person. I'm posting the article because I think everyone will find it most interesting.

http://missioncreep.com/tilt/hampton.html

Black

Black. I have been working with soothing whites and creams for some time now. They can offer a sense of ease, tranquility, and in some instances act as a gateway into an alternative, heavenly world. These white paintings offer a great sense of calm and are aesthetically pleasing to look at.

One can't always stay in the world of serenity without the need to feel a hellish out-lash. This is where black comes in. Too much calm and white and goodness leads me to angst and aggressive states of mind. I need the conflict, the despair, the violent urges. Show me bad things, cruel things, horrid things. Scare my mind til I want to go back to whiteness and tranquility. I need both.

Painting with darks and blacks offers me an escape from the serenity of white. Blacks offer a outlet for the anger, a way to let my emotions go. I abuse the canvas with hard strokes and violent palette knifing. It makes me feel good to have angst. Then, once the black is on the canvas, the angst is gone. White welcomes me home.