Second Meeting with Emily

Met with Emily again last Monday and forged the beginnings of a plan

We began by discussing Alice Neel. Throughout the last few weeks I have become increasingly interested in her work. The startling direct eye contact she makes with her models and what this means and why it might make others uncomfortable.... the outlines and flat planes of color varying with the detailed shape she often gives the eyes and the face (the psychological nature of her paintings).... the way her hand delivers an almost seismic like reading to how she perceives and feels her subjects...

I had just watched a documentary from the perspective of Alice Neel's son and they had mentioned how a to photograph was like capturing the death of a moment where as to paint a portrait was like trying to understand a person over time which lead to

an interesting conversation/ question..

what happens to time when you paint a photographed moment of a person or of yourself holding a pose; one that is meant to be held over an extended period of time?

In the creation of the second tonal study, (as torturous as it sometimes seems... I now admit to seeing Emily's point in how repeating and working drafts of an image... improves the drawing, builds ideas, makes you think with more awareness about what you are doing, and so on) .. I underwent a couple of seriously flawed failed attempts with in which I was trying to get ahead of myself and bit off more than I could handle....

but as Emily has pointed out... the mistakes are often the best tools for conversation and growth

I wanted to study.. alongside of tone... the way different artists (Jenny Saville foremost in my mind) painted flesh. This turned into a mess. My last study shown here was done just using my own developing techniques and trying to absorb and exercise some of the advice given to me during the residency such as painting marks to show form and trying to stay away from local color (looking to paintings like Saville's and Alyssa Monks to find color).
After discussing my frustrations and looking at Savilles work, Emily advised me to
 work with a myriad of different brushes (Blick's mega brush is on its way), to try to think about how Saville has layered her colors (which was put down first?), and
 to consider placing more detail in some places and working more abstractly in others..... to truly consider the image and how I was painting it.

Major take away... really look and see... squint at your source .... move to your painting and then look again....
( since meeting with her, I am finding this incredibly helpful.

Also... She taught me how to keep my colors from muddying with the long awaited phone book trick. (ask if you want in)

As for the plan... I came into the meeting with some conceptual imagery for my next body of work... these were of two connected yet different directions...
the first....   images I cropped from various photos of myself which I then began to distort with photo editing programs creating some very interesting yet not entirely natural effects. I feel as though this is a good direction in which to experiment as I am interested in portraying the individual and love painting the female body but I am also thirsty for surreal color and exaggerated or playful lighting. I was unsure of this direction but Emily was encouraging.. so we have decided the final version of my tonal study I am completing now will be an entry into this new exploration

The second.... I met with a young woman living in hyde park who, in trade for a painting, was willing to model for me. As well as, taking pictures... I had her perform a video of herself with my laptop (she could see herself in the screen) . After looking at the artist Judith Eisler, Emily's recommendation, I thought it would be interesting to take photographs of the video... which I then edited again...

Emily and I discussed how this was a way of layering technique and medium...

we discussed the importance of conveying the subjects awareness of themselves being video taped or photographed and the various ways in how this awareness could be portrayed...

She encourages me to follow my instincts in making artistic choices. In the residency I was often encouraged to make smaller works but my gut feeling with most of my ideas is to go big... with the works we discussed, she agrees. For me the hand in the painting would be interesting if it was lifesize but these self examinations and performances are currently supposed to be in a scale larger than life. (Also painting large brings me more satisfaction for some reason. )

Also discussed....
how I have been playing a lot with photo editing programs (in the next month I will be receiving tutorials in photoshop) (right now my work is still rudimentary and based off of my phone but I am learning)

an alternative more professional camera/ video recorder is in the works...

Finally, we talked further about taking a class in painting. I may try to take Tony Apesos up on his initial offer and go to Lesley to sit in on a class but there is an alternative in that there are two oil painting classes being offered at the museum in Worcester. Emily and I are researching the instructors before making a decision.

Emily Eveleth and not Evelyn (see last post)

Blogging for graduate school about people I so appreciative of knowing just officially made the list of things I am not allowed to do with out efficient sleep.

my apologies.

preview

:) ok so it is almost midnight and I am unusually tired. I met with Evelyn again yesterday and will be posting my notes/ thoughts on our meeting tomorrow night after going into Boston to meet other local students/ alumni to brainstorm and talk more shop.. hopefully continue build on new ideas. (should be fun)

This is a quick teaser of what maybe on the near horizon... (mind you I have to finish my study in style and then work on another and then... )

Tonal study part 1 (black, white, and grays)

(15x20 oil on paper) check back on Monday for part 2 and more ....

Playing with tone before attempting the larger study 

just playing