9.26.2011

Colors and circles and every inch of white space in-between.



When a drawing like this gets started there is no real focus. The point of any exercise is to strengthen. I dont start out with a concept and a route to achieve it. I pick it up, and put it down. Repeat. Or as Will Smith circa 1998 might refer to as "Getting Jiggy with It."  Yep....I have a blog and I can talk about Fresh Prince if I want to.
I always liked to fill in "white space" with color. I call it color space. I try to imagine the space of a drawing and where the object would appear if I were to walk through it in a dream. Much like the boy who wondered through the phantom toll-booth. Curious and cautious at first, but quick to adapt.  

Sometimes it works well and the contrast creates depth. Other times it muddies any idea of what concept might have passed. What is now lost is moving quickly and undermining the project as a whole, gotta hurry before it takes a turn for the sloppy. That does happen, and those drawings may never see the light of the scanner. Also because my style is to pick up and leave off multiple times with a drawings, my motivations and attention span are usually in different places.

When an artist sits down with a thought and or idea, and they are able to bang it out, it takes a certain amount of focus. Concentration, or whatever, the practice has a number of adjectives. Sure it takes seven,fifty or two hundred and twelve tries but, it is all a learning process. This is also why your teachers with tell you to always be sketching.  With enough focus an artist develops a style.  You can have moments of change in your style but if it is to truly become your style you have to own it.  Practice.

Each of us are different and we all focus in our own way. Auditory is dominant sense with an appeal to a great many of people of all styles.  I like to be visual, which is why my office inevitably takes the form of an installation more than a work space. That is how I think. Random. Scattered. Large.

In closing I wanted to say after re-reading what I wrote I realize I have never had a nasal sensory painting party.....who is in???