Elements of Human Cartography

The senior group show this year is titled "Elements of Human Cartography." My exhibition along with other seniors was recently de-installed to prepare for the other group showing. You can see our website here.

My thesis statement can tell you more about this body of work:

One part of my life is the Latin culture and dance. I found this love through visiting Latin American countries, forming relationships with the people, learning the language, listening to the music, and going dancing. I use this part of my life as a means of exploring less-controlled methods of painting in this body of work. Recording the many reactions of paint to the action of dance gives the viewer access to this culture and dance. The paint reacts to the dance just as the female follows the actions of the lead male.

The color palates in my work are inspired by the Latin American culture and art. There is limited control of how these colors react to one another, mix and create forms because I choose to relinquish some control to the paint. The female also must relinquish control to the male in Latin dance in order to create a unique dancing experience. The male sends nonverbal signals with his body to lead the female. In this method of painting, I am playing both roles in the dance by choosing how I want to dance to allow the paint to move. Beauty can be seen in the absence of control in these cases. More control is gained when adding to my abstract pieces and painting the female figure. Working from photographs of myself dancing helps to render the movement of the body in these dances.

A recent inspiration in my work is the notion of “antropofagia” that I found in Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral’s work. This term in portuguese means cannablism but in Brazil the term became a metaphor for the consuming of other cultures, drawing from their ideas and creating something new. Tarsila do Amaral uses this idea and her own cultural influences to create new work. Like Amaral, it is important for me to create new work from cultural immersion. I constantly draw close to the Latin culture, forming a connection with it and its people. Creating a painting experience allows the recording of this immersion.

My paintings in this body of work record different aspects of these ideas. Step division #1-3 show specific steps in the dances I used to create a painting experience. Bachata in purple, turquoise, and red and the two others titled similarly reveal more of the less-controlled method of dancing along with over-painting. The paintings Figure Immersion #1-5 and Three viewpoints of movement use figures on glass over abstraction. These paintings focus on the movement of the body created by the control of the male as well as the movement of the paint created by the dance.

Video also records my intake of Latin culture and invites the viewer into my experience. The colors in Intake Record are similar to my paintings in order to convey the same cultural engagement and painting experience as in my other works. The filming location of the video is near my painting space where all of my painting experiences take place. The film is also projected onto a painted surface created with dance.The video serves as a glimpse into the dance but not an immersion of the culture. One cannot experience the culture fully through my work, but the viewer can be immersed by the work itself.

Images to come soon!

Artist Statement

In years past I have been able to improve my skill by painting from photographs and studies of the body but lately my work steers in another direction. Now when creating my work it is important for me to give more control to the movement of the paint itself rather than the tool in my hand. This is something fairly new to me as an artist used to more traditional methods. Being able to relinquish more control to the paint allows exploration of my subconscious and finding ideas I was unaware of previously. I have come to find that this experience for me is one of the most important parts of creating my work. The resulting reactions to a less-controlled method draw my attention. This causes me to continue creating work.

I have been inspired by the work of Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, and Tomory Dodge. I am drawn to Richter’s blurring method, Rothko’s use of color, and Dodge’s layers of abstraction. I keep these methods in mind when creating my own abstract forms. These forms often become objects in their own right. Along with creating these objects, color choice is very important. The color palate can relate to my experience, emotions, and concepts for each piece. The viewer will hopefully find the relation of the absence of control in my process shown in my paintings.