Studio Diary, July 9, 2017

“What I am trying to do is not be advertising. Advertising tells you exactly what it is, what it does. It has no ambiguity.” Shirazeh Houshiary (And oh… her space!)

I spent the day immersed in art videos. I was inspired by a lot of the response to Suzie in our episode of stART. So many people wrote and recommended she explore assemblage that I started to look it up, hoping to find something to inspire her but ultimately discovering a whole world of art videos that inspired me.

 

“You could say this is something any artist does – you find a form for something that has no form. You could call that a ghost.” Paul Bagaers.

“I like quite a smooth surface but one that still has the sense of the hand.” Eva Rothschild

“Create a path for your eye to follow throughout the painting.”

“I think a good painting is something that has immediate impact and, at the same time, is something that rewards a longer, prolonged viewing time.  If it is only one or the other, I think it is missing something.” David Salle

Oh, the colours.

This had me thinking about the nature of creatives and “stuff.”

“It starts with the desire to do something.” “I hope that this (the material) is going to tell me something that I don’t know. Alison Wilding

I sat with my journal taking notes of moments and phrases that spoke to my heart, that had a message for me. And when I was done, I spent two hours collaging in a magazine journal. Normally I don’t like using gel medium but it was all I wanted to do, create a page that felt like it was not pieces but all together. I did that with gel medium and a brush but mostly my fingers, pressing out the bubbles, smoothing the paper down, down, down, hoping it would all come together. My intention when I started was to use indistinguishable pieces to create something new but I found myself delighting in juxtaposition and colour. I just followed that and tried not to judge it, though I wondered if I stayed where habit lived not where inspiration took me. There still may be paint, pen, pencil added to it. Maybe I haven’t finished following the path.