clippings

consumption diary

The goal for this workout is to provide yourself with some important tools to guide your thinking and to analyze your inspiration, concept, expression and narrative

Your criteria for success is to finish this workout with more clarity about you and your inspirations and to have increased confidence in your ability to translate your inspirations into personally satisfying paintings that reflect your unique voice.

You are working to understand the heart of you, what specifically turns you on. What are your desires, ambitions, inspirations and your story?

WHY?

• Art is poetry, it makes you feel something.

• Art is the result not of expert technique but the expert understanding of how to manipulate technique and use your medium’s characteristics to communicate your narrative.

• If you only know technique your paintings will never come alive.

• If the technique is all that you know, you will find yourself chasing cheap tricks not harnessing the power of your medium

Visceral

Conceptual

NOT NAILING MYSELF DOWN

When I first started painting, I just wanted to paint for the sake of painting. If you had asked me why I painted or when I asked myself why I painted, I didn’t have an answer other than ‘Because I like it’ and the result was that I found myself not knowing what to paint and my attempts at ‘finding my voice’ were exercises in looking for genres, movements or other artists that I could identify with. I was seeking definition outside of myself as opposed to uncovering my actual identity.

The ‘because I like it’ answer left me feeling perpetually lost, my subjects were erratic and I was unable to allow myself to understand a subject deeply and thus develop the ability to move beyond grappling with the rendering of it and into exploring the medium itself. I was also not able to carve out my unique niche as I was defining my work against other painters and was producing work which resembled what they were doing.

SETTING MY DIRECTION

When I decided to paint full time, I knew that I was drawn to working from life models and urban subjects and I knew that I needed to get serious and choose a direction to explore, so I made my decision within the perspective of my greater goals for my work and my life.  Life models didn’t seem to make sense within the goal of working every day as I would need access and financially it would be harder as I had decided to pay the rent with painting and adding a wage for the model would have been an extra burden. My long term vision for my work and lifestyle definitely influenced my aesthetic choices.

I had also started narrowing down my vision by defining what I liked as well as what I didn’t or what I couldn’t do.

LIGHTING MY FIRE

I started painting the urban but in a very general way because I didn’t understand my inspirations and again, if you had asked me why I painted the urban, I would have answered ‘because I like it’. My answer was superficial and so was my choice of the individual subjects. I chose the big picture view: the skyline against the water or the mountains or the sky. If I did tackle a street it was also as a general statement about the street, shouting out to a faceless, characterless crowd “Hey look at this street in Vancouver, look at the road, the cars, the trees, and the people walking’

I also found myself very involved in the technique of painting and evaluated my work based on how closely it resembled the subject, congratulating myself if things were technically correct. At no point did I think about the poetry of the painting nor about my conversation with my viewer, it was all about me.

But as I kept asking ‘WHY’ I also started paying attention to what really caught my attention, what set me on fire when I looked at the city and it was the:

• The juxtaposition of incongruous things:  The working city alongside the leisure city, the urban against the natural, the modern against the traditional, the changing against the stagnant, the designed against the default, the powerful against the quiet, the important against the neglected, etc.
• The roar of power: The trucks, trains, engines, the feeling of racing down a road on your bike with a truck on one side and a freight train on the other.
• The forms of the people and specifically cyclists.

These answers infused my individual painting choices and I became increasingly specific. I only spoke to the crowd when I chose to and now I was able to say: “Look Johanne, see that red Audi in front of the modern building where Ian works, I believe that it belongs to Marvin who usually visits on a Sunday morning, that old coffee shop on the corner run by Mrs. Faber”. My paintings have become a very personal space with a strong voice and whether I choose to work generally or specifically, it is now by choice.

My thoughts are no longer purely about the technical but about the poetry and art of the painting and now I think of my viewer and the relationship that we have as well as the one that I have with the paint and they, with the painting. My added understanding that I was viscerally attracted to my medium not conceptually, plunged me deeper into the poetry of the painting and I paid more attention to translating my narrative through my medium.

I continued to pay attention to what set me on fire and because I was viscerally motivated I could then ask ‘WHY’ with specific reference to my medium and I quickly realized that it was the whites and the brushstrokes that attracted me in the work of others and made my heart race in my own work. I asked ‘WHY’ again and realized that more specifically, it was the strong brushstrokes that lead me through a painting and the abbreviated, arrogant strokes that translated complete objects with one flick. It was the heavy, opaque not mucked around with whites. I asked ‘WHY’ again and understood that it was because they made me feel something and forced me to interact with the work. The brushstrokes held my hand and took me through the painting, the confident marks delighted me and made me want to spend more time with the work and the whites kept things fresh and alive while also seeming to reflect some of the mood of the day back at me.

The painting became alive and interactive and I realized that I wanted to communicate and to connect with my viewer and to take people into the work with me.

ROADMAP

The next question once I had understood my context and motivation was to figure out how I would get there? How would I absorb these strong whites, communicative brushstrokes and translate my attraction to the juxtapositions in the city? What did I have at my disposal, what was my medium and what was that medium’s strengths and weakness’? An important question because if you like strong brushwork, then perhaps watercolour is not your thing?

I looked at other artists that I was attracted to and asked myself ‘WHY’. What was I seeing and more importantly, what was I not seeing? I looked for how they handled their brush, their whites and I paid attention to whether there was another tool that I had not noticed that could help me better connect and communicate.

I also looked at the artists that I didn’t like and asked myself why and what was different in their work that made me disconnect from it.

This journey has not been linear and has taken place over a period of 10 years and it continues to evolve. Today I have questions about time and complexity in a painting and I understand myself as an artist more deeply and have developed an ease with evaluating ‘WHY’ and ‘WHY NOT’. I always have a scribble book and will shut off and unplug for a day to brainstorm, mind map and write essays by hand with a sharpie. Why by hand? because I am very visceral and I feel that moving my hand in conjunction with my thoughts, opens a little part of my brain that is more organic in its ability to build relationships between ideas and I simply love the sound of a sharpie’s nib on paper, the way the ink spreads just a little and the strong bold shapes that it leaves. It brings me deep pleasure which helps me stay connected to my abstract thoughts.

Vision your World

Detail as much as possible about your day and your week and visualize your surroundings as you move through your activities. Are these activities voluntary or necessary? Are they beneficial to you or to your neighbourhood or a mix of both? Do you see yourself being recognized for painting and if so to what level? Are you going to be at the Venice Biennial as a guest of honor or visiting artist or are you going to be sitting on your yacht moored off the coast of Croatia sipping champagne or are you going to be awarding the certificates at a Federation exhibition?

What is your income level? What is your lifestyle? How much time are you travelling? How much time are you spending with your family? Are you working on something or learning something new? How physically active are you? Do you have a home studio or a go-to studio? Is your artistic network made up of other artists or collectors or both? What level of competition are you involved in? How many exhibitions have you had? Are you approaching people or are they seeking you out?

Dive as deep as you can and in as much detail as you can and incorporate your life outside of the studio as well as your artistic life. Artists, especially those that are primarily responsible for the care of a dependant, often underestimate the importance that these pressures will have on their aesthetic choices and when they feel frustrated or pressurized they will not be in a place to maximize the experience nor will they have the insight to springboard off of it.

The more introspective you are, the more you will get out of the exercise and there are no correct or incorrect insights. If you only see yourself working on a painting once a month because your life is too full to have more, then note it as it may not be compatible with your artistic concepts and you can then make adjustments.

Vision your communication

What words do other people use to describe you? What words are used to describe your work? What are the paintings that are hanging next to yours? Visualize this:- are they representational, abstract, figurative, expressive, new media, multimedia? Do people think that you are adventurous? stable? diligent? Do you hear people talking about the brushwork or the colour? What are they saying? are you considered cerebral or emotional or both?

Dive deep and think about those words that are being used that would make you proud. The more thoughtfully you approach this exercise the more you will gain insight.

Vision your work

Think about that painting that you just completed (in 10 years time), what does it look like?

You will have a sense of it as you imagine it and it may be helpful to think about the painters or the work that you aspire to. What does your body of work look like? what are the words that you would use to describe it? Is it colourful? What is the medium? What is the size? What is the substrate? How does it make you feel? Are you satisfied?

I often imagine a large painting that is not bound by the confines of a room, it lives in its environment and it moves me with its powerful presence and rich surface. As I imagine this work, I have the memories of the paintings of other painters that I have seen and that move me with an intensity that is similar to what I imagine my in 10-year painting doing.

Start Digging

You may find that there are some important Keys that don’t at first, seem to be compatible with your vision and they will need to be weighed against each other. For example, if you see yourself as:

• TOP SELLING: this may not be compatible with EXCELLENCE nor QUALITY. Depending on your business model you may need to pump out work which may lead to lesser quality or less development in your work.
• PAINTING ON WEEKENDS and LOTS OF TRAVEL may not be compatible with LARGE BODY OF WORK or MASTER as you just won’t have the time needed to dedicate to your work.
• GALLERY REPRESENTATION may not be compatible with FULL TIME as often a gallery does not give you the income that you need to be full time.
• GALLERY REPRESENTATION also may not be compatible with TRAVEL, if your representation is successful you may need to spend more time in the studio than you are willing to.
• BOLD BRUSHSTROKES may not be compatible with a small home studio as you may be too nervous to execute them for fear of damaging your home.
• LARGE PAINTING may not be compatible with a part-time approach to painting as you may not have the time needed to dedicate to completing the work.

The word MAY is used as you can overcome these incompatibilities but you will need to think around them and plan a route of action or you may need to change your 10-year idea if the keywords are more important to you.

If you find some incompatibilities, for now just put a colour question mark against the Keys that you think are incompatible, do another quick sweep over the question marked keys and jot ascending numbers next to them starting with ‘1’ for the most important.   You don’t need to solve everything now, the point of the exercises so far is to shape your thinking about your aesthetic direction of travel so that you are equipped to maximize your satisfaction and your ability to tackle opportunities to create real work no matter your lifestyle.

Pack your bag

An example of what this looks like for me is:

My key is ‘thick juicy whites’ and for my 10 points list:

1. 1. 1. Look into what whites are available in tubes and accessible to me
      2. What are their qualities?
      3. Can they handle being thick?
      4. Will they stay juicy or will they settle and dull?
      5. What type of medium would work best with the whites that I like?
      6. What type of brushstroke will I need and how do I practice it?
      7. What size brushstroke in the context of the size of the support?
      8. What do I need to do to be able to handle the brush well enough to make the thick, juicy stroke?
      9. Are there other artists that have done this? find them
      10. How will I learn from them?

Is your 10-year lifestyle vision still the vision of you? Is there something that you want to unpack and leave behind?

Is what people are saying about you still what they are saying? Are the people you imagined talking about you, still the same people? For example, have they changed from curators to educators? Educators to members of the public?

Is the work that you saw still the same? Are your thoughts on your work still the same? Are your feelings about the work still the same?

Are your KEYS unchanged or are there new ones that need to be added and are any of the new ones more important than the five that you isolated?

Look for shoulders to stand on

You are doing this to charge your mind to think deeply about your medium and what tools you have that can bring you closer to your aesthetic goals. Our reason for looking at what you consume is the assumption that there is something about that medium that attracts you and that the creator was successful in their use of their tools because they held your attention. The questions for you to ponder will help you to isolate and understand your tools as well as provide you with refreshing ideas about the challenges that your tools present and how you can translate the solutions that other creators used in other mediums.

When you are writing your five things about three categories, think about:

• • • Your thoughts about each medium (stream of consciousness)
    • What are the strengths of that medium?
    • How is it different from the other mediums?
    • How does this medium make you feel, what delights you in this medium?
    • Is it passive or active?
    • Which is your favourite medium amongst the ones that you consume and how does this one compare?
    • Why?
    • Can you imagine something that was expressed in this medium being expressed in a different medium, how would this look, what would be lost in translation?
    • What are the designer’s tools?
    • How were these used to achieve your feelings about the category?

Where are you now?

• • • What are the themes of each painting?
    • Why did you choose this theme?
    • Who were you talking to?
    • Were you successful and if so why?
    • If not why?
    • Were your colour choices intentional?
    • What were your criteria for success?
    • Is your painting a general ‘Hey’ or a specific “Hey Mary”?
    • What is the difference between this work and the work of other artists that you admire?
    • How could you have done what you did differently so that it was more like the artists that you admire?
    • What would your audience list as your tools?
    • Did they get it right, if not what did they miss?
    • Did you use your tools effectively?

Go

When I do this workout in the studio I am always thinking about my 10-year goals. This keeps me on track as to how I invest my hours: small frivolous works or large serious pieces. I am always thinking about how I want to be perceived as a painter and how I believe that I am perceived and I analyze this so that I can bring the 2 closer together. Before I paint a painting I consider what exactly it is that I want to communicate, is it the delicacy of the cherry blossoms or the personal stories on a street or the dense passing of time?

The answers will not only determine the size of the work but also the way that I handle the quality of the paint, the brushstrokes, and the mood. I am always looking for other artists that resonate with me so that I can understand how they are handling things and how I can do better and also how I can avoid the things that I don’t like. When I start a painting it is because I know how it fits into the body of work (the result of 10-year thinking) and I know how it fits with my visceral goals as a painter and what I want the viewer to experience.

The 13 questions that you answered in the beginning and placed in the center of the page are the beginnings of your free thinking mind map that you can create based on the keywords that you have extracted. The dominant keywords do not eliminate the ones with question marks or those that are less dominant but they help you prioritise your thinking.

From now on I would encourage you to keep approaching your work in this systematic way and every time you see a painting that you like, add it to your big book and break it down.

Every time you have an idea for your own work, add it to your small book and break it down.