Seminar Reflections and Artist Statement

A Couple Pallets and a Shittone of Paint

I start by finding a surface. Usually on the side of the street in the industrial section of Rosedale. By working with the damaged and flawed nature of discarded surfaces, I give some measure of control over the substrate on which I paint.

Then, I gather discarded paints and other materials to work with to create something painterly on the surface. I usually go for the most unusual paints and substances out of a curiosity in what they might do when mixed and applied to my surface. At this part of the process I simply let myself explore what each material can do.

Once everything is dry and set, I let my imagination work. Through the mind's natural tendency to find recognizable shapes in abstract shapes, (the pareidolia effect), I impose my own meaning to the image which is emerging. Pareidolia is something the mind does subconsciously. I am interested in the moment where the subconscious understanding intersects with the conscious. In a parallel way I am interested in the tension between the materials agency and my own.

Tamarind and Alabaster

Waterborne Woodsman, X200, Lumbersider, Lustacryl, discarded fabric on an old pallet. 1000x750mm

Truffle

Waterborne Woodsman, X200, Lumbersider, Lustacryl, discarded fabric on an old pallet. 1000x750mm

Truffle

Waterborne Woodsman, X200, Lumbersider, Lustacryl, discarded fabric on an old pallet. 1000x750mm

Install detail

Tamarind and Alabaster

Waterborne Woodsman, X200, Lumbersider, Lustacryl, discarded fabric on an old pallet. 1000x750mm

Thoughts and questions brought up from critique to be answered:

• What is the work opening up in this conversation?

Could be: The relationship between painting and object and how that could add to neo expressionism and painting in general.

• How does it add, enforce, contrast, to establish discourse?

Thinking about POLITIC in art:

What am I messing with within the histories of neo-expressionism in relation to a particular object?

What more is there to say?

-Dadaism

-Surrealism

-Neo expressionism

Are there conventions attached under question? - If question is related to material-

Reflecting on ISSUES that are emerging in the practice (contextually) from critique:

• What a pallet affords- it can be hung and free standing EXPLAIN

What does my surface give to the image and vice versa?

• Really crack down into the processes, and what they afford as restraints

When do I stop and when do I interfere?

• Childlike moment of storytelling

How does something like pareidolia initiate childlike imagination states?

• Narrative without clear narrative- investigate as this is a trope of neo-expressionism

Suggestive narrative- How could I better suggest a story and how easy can I make it to find?

• What is narrative in art?

Can the paint provide narrative?

These are all things I need to investigate and interrogate through my practice in order to be more articulate.