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Monday, May 2, 2011

Thesis in Review

So we installed Thursday before last. It was quite the experience. We were given four days to get the job done. It was basically finished the morning of the fifth day. It may as well have been started the night of the fourth. But, it doesn't really matter at this point. It's up.


I'm happy with my installation. It's incredibly scaled down from the monstrous wall of paint i had originally proposed. I'm ok with that. It may have even worked out for the better. After actually installing I can see how horribly cluttered my original plans were. Not only that, but my theme didn't come across as clearly as I hoped. The connection between light was, ahem, overshadowed by other differences between the works. There is an emotional content to the landscapes which had not previously occurred to me. In many places they look ominous and desolate. Furthermore, the paint handling changes from painting to painting. Working from photographs in some places caused me to desaturate my palette. Looking at landscapes through the screens of photographs disabled me from painting from multiple moments in time, like with the still life. My still life are a compilation of many moments of observation. A slight tilt of my head will drastically alter my painting. This forces me to make choices with regard to assembling these moments. This collage in which I am trying to hold on to every moment at once is something I feel is very crucial to my still life painting. However, the strain of assembly often leads me to working very tightly. I have said before that I do not want to toil as I paint. In my landscapes there is only one moment. This allows me a certain level of freedom. I can never lose the image; it's printed in front of me. As loose as I go I can always see just how to correct it. This leads to the strongest connection between my landscapes and still life: The landscapes allow me to change my paint in the still life. The looseness in one will carry over to the other.  With that in mind I think if they had been arranged chronologically to some extant I might be able to show this connection better.