William Rossoto, Artist, Author, Residential Designer, Photgrapher,

Showing posts with label contemplations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contemplations. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Dialogue & Art

   
Discovering yourself through art.......



   Recently while painting some "abstract explorations" I heard an enormous amount of internal dialogue going on that I hadn't heard before.........some of this will sound a bit.....crazy, and I don't take it to seriously myself.


    This isn't some poltergeist sort of thing occurring and my mind wasn't taken over by aliens nor was I using mind altering substances.....though, that might be of help in my explorations into the abstract realms of painting. When in the creative sphere whether writing, doing visual art or designing homes I always have a sort of positive inner guide, the quite voice that helps me to make decisions, what colors and content is best, etc., but the very small voice in the back of this voice is what I heard while doing the abstracts. It is not the voice of the muse, nor the reflections of academia or anything that I can recall being fed into my brain, though of course somewhere along the path of life I may have encountered it and completely forgotten the makings of it.

    Most of the time  I do figurative or semi-figurative work, take a lot of time to do them, exercise a
great amount of detail and am unable to leave white space. The abstract explorations are quite unlike the previously mentioned, taking little time, very loose, little detail and a lot of white space. I'm forcing myself to go outside my comfort zone, to broaden my artistic horizons mostly because I've been experiencing an "artist block" for some time now and desperately wanted a breakthrough of some sort.


   For some reason, while doing these abstract explorations the little voice in back of the little voice is telling me, "what I'm doing is wrong, inconsequential, I should take more time to complete them, there is no detail and this makes the work worthless, why am I leaving so much white space and why am I not doing more conceptual work that would mean something, and on it goes". Good grief!!!! I'm curious to know if other artist have experienced these sorts of inner commentary.

   What's funny about all of this to me is the contrast of having an enormous amount of fun and freedom while hearing a very derogatory and critical inner voice....the voice behind the inner voice. My general day to day inner dialogue is quite positive and I enjoy life a great deal, yet here is this mini voice ranting and raving negative about something I'm having fun doing. Maybe some art psychoanalyst could explain all this to me and tell me what I already know such as, I'm simply crazy and maybe I should do some art therapy. Anyway, I would love to hear from other artist artist on this topic.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Explorations & Meanings


This article is on the absurd musings of a self absorbed artist (me momentarily) in search of the unknown, a sort of holy grail quest, though certainly not as profound as finally finding the philosophers sword......or was that the philosophers stone.........  Maybe some of you have gone through the following process of thought.

Starting a new series of art work is always a challenge, the contrasting elements of academia, intuition, preconceptions and a willingness to explore the hidden realms are often overwhelming for me. In this case I'm leaving years of figurative drawing & painting in the wind and proceeding with the amorphous and ambiguous nature of abstraction. I find abstract work to be much more difficult and am trying to find a way to define my concept in a set of constructs that will communicate something of value to the viewer. When dealing with figurative art there is always the associative thread of physical reality the viewer can correspond with, and even if the work is of little conceptual value there is still something easily associated with. When dealing in the abstract realms it is like trying to explain what another planet looks and feels like without the viewer having ever been there or having seen it.

A better question to ask in all of this is, "does it matter if abstract art means anything other than a pure & true expression of the artist?" If one paints from their heart & soul is that not enough, does everything need a justifiable and intellectual reason for creation as though to substantiate the artist virility, intelligence or purpose, or the viewers reason to look at the art? Is decorative art shallow and lacking in substance? Maybe all art is simply decorative and as artist we create stories about our art to satisfy academia, intellectuals and the audience hungry for a story of interest and entertainment value. I know this isn't really true, but I do ponder what the value all of that academia training tries to inundate us with.

A few of my main premises in all that I create are:
1) Will the viewer be elevated in some way?
2) Will it allow the viewer to dream and explore new emotional or intellectual territory?
3) Does it inform the viewer in some way?
4) Am I communicating what I intended through the medium of art?
5) And lots of other questions........
I should say that these questions arise only when completely lucid, not in the act of creating.......

The main question on my mind about creating this abstract series is, can I start without a concept and work towards one? When starting with a concept, a vision, a reason to proceed and of course passion, there is still an exploration of the infinite within any given subject matter which can take years to explore and define in way that will ultimately convey what I had in mind. If I start with no concept it seems improbable that as an artist anything of value might be produced other than a possible hit and miss sort of progression.

I have so many questions about what I'm exploring right now that it seems the only thing I can do is to move forward and create work or sit still and think about it, neither of which may be of much worthy fruition. After years of working in the figurative realm I am somewhat fearful of venturing into a realm of art that may simply end up a mess, or of course I might surprise myself and end up with a series of work that has some aesthetic and conceptual value......who knows? By the way, I have also ended up with a mess even in creating figurative art, but not too often.

Well, my friends I'm on a quest to search for my own truth, one that will honestly communicate without the interference of academia, mental projections of perceived audience, fearless planting of paint on canvas and paper to hopefully express my given potential, whatever that may be...........