This semester I will limit medium, limit size, and limit color. I plan on creating an investigative process as I use my personal life as motivation for my artworks. I will be painting the figure on 8.5x11 birch panel. I choose panel because of how the brushstrokes are more pronounced and the painting sits on top of the surface. I choose the size because I want these to be portable, the size of a standard sheet of school paper, and about the same proportions as the human head. The size and the handling of paint is also a reaction to the immense excess – I want each image to be intentional and intimate. An ambiguous environment will leave room for interpretation.
So as to not spiral out of control, I will use the “dead palette” of venetian red, lamp black, zinc/flake white, and yellow ochre. Once I get a handle on these things, I can then bring in more variables – even relinquish control to chance. My subject matter still concerns the human form. I am inventing forms in order to capture a fleeting moment, a shadow, a trace of someone, a preservation of humanity. As Jan articulated in her talk, “Everything in our culture is fast, fast, fast, except our relationship with painting; we just sit in front of a 2D surface and contemplate.” I need that peace. As put special attention into composition and content, I will develop my technique. I hope to make the small figure within a small frame emphasizes our tininess, insignificance, and oneness. As I focus of the posed figure I will purge the space of all unnecessary details. All the while, I hope to find new ways of talking about my work, establish an emotional connection, take figure drawing classes, communicate concepts, and choose a niche in figurative painting. “It is not what you paint, but where you sit yourself in the discourse.”
