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Author: Al_Razza, Contributing Editor
| Now that you have read part one and two, we can talk about the most aggressive part of this process of all, the re-animation of the paint. And I will start by asking, would you cut up a quality piece of your art just to learn something? This will be a tough decision, so don't take it lightly.
I have always believed that to learn something new about my art or to go beyond my safe zone, my current knowledge base, I must experiment from a viable source. That source is my finished work. I must physically disassemble it and rebuild it. Yes I mean to disassemble a perfectly good work of art. Not one which has failed, but one which is good, clean, and completely satisfactory. Yes I am saying to make something, I have to destroy something. If this sounds a little like science fiction, then so be it. I have taken to this method very well, and as in all experiments, sacrifices must be made. We will not agree on all aspect of this process, but we will agree that the results will yield new findings. Are there other ways to work? Of course, I have no doubt. But every time we struggle with a single piece we are in some way reworking our idea to completion. There are so many changes, and so many decisions to make. This is our time of reckoning. We are in some way struggling with life and death with every brushstroke. Call it re-animation, rebirth, or just resurrection, a living artwork is what I am after, if such a thing exists? |
| Re-animation by definition means to renew, recall, or bring back to life. If we believe that a work of art has life at all, this will make sense. Pro life or Pro choice there is always ambiguity in ones perception of where life begins, is there not? So it goes in a work of art. I create, give birth and give it a name. When issued, I give it a birth certificate (certificate of authenticity). When it dies I should issue a death certificate as New York’s Guggenheim Museum of Art did for Ad Reinhardt’s Black Painting several years ago.
I’d like to refer you to these articles in support of an artwork’s being dead or alive! Damaged Reinhardt to Serve as Guinea Pig - Ad Reinhardt painting to be repaired - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included Art in America, June, 2001 by David Ebony http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_6_89/ai_75496768 ArtForum, 2003, The Mourning After http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_7_41/ai_98918657 |
| So should we cut up the Mona Lisa to make a collage? We shall see! Because I wonder if the old dogma’s of the past, weigh too heavily on the present. I listen to various opinions of how to work, with suggestions for conservation, and regards for what is conventional. Even judgments about what a complete piece of artwork should be. To live and let live as it were. After all I don’t create just to destroy! That would be ridiculous? So all these things are good for those who need a place of security to work, but there are others who don’t see it so clearly.
Perhaps this brings into mind the Fascists works of the Italian Futurist? Yes, I believe it does, but I have a difference. I support renewal. Where they felt that all that is old should be disregarded. I do not. I am Inspired by the Renaissance works of great masters, but wish to revitalize and alter their discoveries. Take a few chances, even if it means failure. If Da Vinci were alive today he would be a mixed medium artist. Why? Simple. He was a scientist, not just an artist. And that is the root of Mixed Media. He perhaps would have taken his portrait of Mona and said: “You know I can just cut this and paste that into a multi media work and have something really special. Not just another pretty face!” Of course I am being Facetious, and I don’t cut up everything I do. This would be self-defeating and degenerating. But it is an intriguing thought. Don’t you think? If a work of art is to exist at all, it has to be released, signed off on as it were by the artist. Would he, Da Vinci, have done that today with Mona? |
| So where did I get this crazy notion?
Around 1984, I started making color studies on paper, just blending colors and moving it into swirls and blends. I had no intention of making a finished piece of art with them. So I thought. But when someone commented they looked nice enough to frame. I was curious to see this experiment go further. I observed some had very pleasing colors in places, while in other areas the color was muddy and unappealing. The first thing I thought was to make a collage with the pleasing areas and scrap the rest. I did this for some time and decided that I preferred the collages over the color blends. They were more complicated and the color moved in a variety of ways that was more unique. The next step was bolder. I created works just to cut up. I found that the better the colored paper artwork, the better the collage. I devised a formula that involved three works of 32”x40” hand colored paper, with each contrasting the other. Then I would rip them up and combine them together. It was difficult at first to cut up these beautiful hand colored sheets, as I was selling each sheet at the time for a $100 unframed. But one thing leads to another. In 1989 I was offered a commission that changed me. It was a simple request. A client asked me to make a collage out of paint, instead of paper. As I considered how to approach this, I was reminded of when I did some of my first experiments with paint skin. It was 1982. I was working on a Masters degree at Pratt Institute in New York. But it was going to take more than a reminder as to how I should proceed. But the job got done and the rest is history. I became an abstract expressionist painter with a passion for exaggeration of both subject and surface. Hence the paint skin was a perfect means to that end. |
| The Sacrifice
So where do we go from here? I have a suggestion that may be a place to start. Collage is a good first step. After you have accumulated a body of work, whether drawings or paintings. It doesn’t matter. You will have left a piece of your soul behind in each work. And the difficulty will be, which artwork will be sacrificed, and how will it be done? You don’t know what to expect, but you have decided to proceed. Your choice is a less than favorable drawing. So you begin by cutting it into strips. You want to keep it somewhat recognizable, because after all, you did work on it for "three hours". This has been tough so far, because you've just a cut up one of your works. Now you will re-assemble it in the same order, but each strip will be slightly ajar from the next piece. The resulting image is one somewhat like the original except it appears out of focus. Your thoughts are, hmm, this could be something new. But then you discover someone else has been there and done that. That’s okay, but what do you do now? You press further, cutting and assembling in alternating fashions. Now you have several works going and still there is nothing that new in your ideas. But now you have something to look at and perhaps you are surprised with the result, or maybe you have lost everything in a disastrous attempt to be innovative. For that I am sorry, but you did learn something from the experience, even if it is that you are not that innovative. If however you are encouraged to push on, then lets go further. You have destroyed one of your mediocre drawings and hopefully you’ll move on to better pieces to experiment with. You may have to just add something to the works, such as a new layer of color, glue some new piece to the work, or continue to cut it as I suggested. “Time and Tides” as one friend has suggested will tell as to what positive effects will occur. Now apply the same methods to a painting. As I have taken to doing. “Take on” yourself and be consoled you can achieve better work. In an old martial arts movie I once saw, the martial arts master learned the hard way, that he must break his fingers and hands to attain a higher level of skill. If this is so, then perhaps it works for the visual artist as well, and it is far less painful to just break down a few artworks. Look at your painting and visualize it cut to pieces. Then do it. Afterwards you will reconstruct the work. You can even work with these ideas on a computer and see if the direction you have chosen is the correct one. Isn’t this a bit like Frankenstein’s Monster? Too far out for you? Then stop right here if you are insecure with this way of working. This is not for every one. |
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