chess project = lots of room for improvisation, changes in rules or basic structure. katharine brought razor blades.
so, a flat painting was forced to become three-dimensional in its quest to enter the virtual world. my view, not necessarily shared by co-creator and chief method enhancer.
or not. but slightly easier to sketch out than to set up.
this is something i've been thinking about for, oh, years, and all of a sudden, wonder if there's not a breakthrough. involving the mylar. (how-to can really get in the way sometimes.) anyway, over coffee ron challenged me to find a new idea. i mean, he said anyone, anything. i said ok, got one, and talked about this. don't think he was convinved. but it's another thing to try out, sooner the better. basically an attempt at luminous reactive painting, if that makes any sense. translucent surface, brush, translucent paint, human, camera, projector, can't figure out which is better, camera at top and projector at bottom or vice-versa. anyway, that's something to experiment with. either way there's going to be a bit of hand-brush interference.
but looks fun to try. excited. still.
not yet sure how/if this is going to fit into my work, but have noticed an increasing tendency to start collecting it.
think everything effects everything else somehow or other, so it's probably triggering changes already, in the inner art cauldron.
think i'm going to somehow pay homage to julia in my artmini piece. how exactly not yet sure. what i'm doing keeps changing a bit. but feels linked to her work.
a case of me maybe doing something i wouldn't normally do in order to see someone else's vision more realized. normally only want to do exactly what i want to do, and that's still going to happen, but there will be more considerations. anyway still in process (thinking/imagining) but julia's work is permeating how i look at everything these days.
in order to propel the continual evolution of my artmaking practice, i apply the following paramaters to every new project:
1) it must must be experienced visually by the audience.
you can’t do everything, and paint exerts the strongest pull on me. my definition of painting has grown to encompass any two-dimensional visual work.
2) it must utilize current technology.
since we spend ever-increasing amounts of time in digital environments, i want to make art which is at home in both the virtual and physical worlds. also, using new media helps alleviate the oppressive weight of art history.
3) it must constantly change, engendering a unique experience with each viewing.
nothing is static. i want to address this fundamental condition of existence through my work.
4) it must be something i have never done before.
i believe artmaking is a method of exploration. i strive to chart new territory.
i use existing techniques in unconventional processes. i have scraped paint off a wall to create a computer-controlled collage. i have projected layers of video onto egg tempera and venetian blinds. i combine new and old media, alone and in collaborations, seeking change.
i aspire to create paintings that move.
a bit more significant-feeling than variation. so the weather is iffy-looking enough that chess is not going to happen this coming weekend, may 26th-27th will likely be final wetwork days. (don't yet have a waterproof case for the camcorder.)
each session has seen evolution in the form of painting on chess boards in the park. this detail of a "game" between vineel and stephanie s was created without brushes, using tubes of paint.
and here's a detail from the final one sunday, steph h and me "playing." it's the only collage so far, we took a picture of the chess board, cut it up, affixed it with mounting adhesive, during this the other person could of course with the second polaroid camera take a picture of a polaroid photo already taken of the board during the development process laying on the board, and so on, back and forth, until we were out of film (about 23 pictures, very little black/white space peeping through). very intense sensation, doing that, and it did end up breaking the no-color rule, mostly due to the age of the film, presumably.
yes i'm looking forward to may 26th.
what do you do if you start a project, and then eventually you abandon it for whatever reason, and then it never stops remembering itself to you, it won't let go, not that there's anything external to fuel that? and after years you think "ok i want to do it but boy does it have nothing to do with what i'm doing now"? you do it. you start it. again. you start to reach out to your collaborators, and you say yes, that was me, i was the weak one who just slid away, but now, this time, it's ok, it will happen - not like a lost romance right? because we all, any one of us, could have given it that frankenjolt current? or so wait it is like an old flame? still paintings, there is still a space to be made for them, in my near-future, there is no abandonment, yet, of pigment and yolk and brush. while project x ressurects itself, of course.
usually i buy a monthly unlimited metrocard. figure a two-dollar penalty for hopping on a bus or a subway will get me into kisokaido shape quicker. 9.75 miles walked today, only one descent into the mta. one gorgeous traffic cone this morning but camera battery was dead, you'll just have to imagine. breathtaking.
