Monday, April 4, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Margie Livingston's Painting Sculptures
Margie Livingston makes awesome sculptures composed entirely out of many layers of acrylic paint:
Definitely interesting for me to be thinking about as I consider painting in 3d dimensions this semester.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
What is the Purpose of Painting?
For the new semester of BFA we received a questionnaire that contained questions about our practice and what we believed art and painting was. The question of "What is the Purpose of Painting" is one you hear constantly today as a painter--it is as if we must continually validate our existence and love of painting. Here is my take on the question:
" The purpose of painting is to cover surfaces in color. I think of painting as much more expansive than the artist in his studio with brushes and work on an easel. Painting is every bit of colored applied upon the surface of objects that alters them from their local colors. It is the human desire for objects to obtain color where there had been none prior. The walls of our houses, the surfaces of consumer products, and how everyone wants a specific color of car are types of painting. In fact, any use of color to coat a surface is painting. The strength of the high art version of painting compared to these other forms lies in its being hand manipulated rather than applied by a machine. Yet, understanding how saturated our contemporary lives are with painted surfaces (even if they aren’t canvases) can help painters realize the vitality and relevance of their art form. Some painters who wish to use painting to record events or to tell a story struggle to find their place today because digital, print, and video media hold so much dominance. Thus they emphasize painting’s long history and its lo-fi nature; which is a great strategy and I love the results very much. However, this competition is only a problem for the painter if he wishes for painting to function as media rather than the practice of an insatiable desire to cover surfaces in paint and color. I think limiting painting as a 2 dimensional medium is a mistake. I hope to reflect this idea in future plans to create installations that will include both panel paintings but also painted 3d objects (in particular sound equipment)."
Everyone knows that all art is not painting. But I think that it is equally important to recognize that the vast majority of painting is not art. If we can realize the importance of paint in our everyday lives we can free ourselves of this superstition that painting is outdated and see how our practice remains relevant. I'm curious to hear others' thoughts on this position.
" The purpose of painting is to cover surfaces in color. I think of painting as much more expansive than the artist in his studio with brushes and work on an easel. Painting is every bit of colored applied upon the surface of objects that alters them from their local colors. It is the human desire for objects to obtain color where there had been none prior. The walls of our houses, the surfaces of consumer products, and how everyone wants a specific color of car are types of painting. In fact, any use of color to coat a surface is painting. The strength of the high art version of painting compared to these other forms lies in its being hand manipulated rather than applied by a machine. Yet, understanding how saturated our contemporary lives are with painted surfaces (even if they aren’t canvases) can help painters realize the vitality and relevance of their art form. Some painters who wish to use painting to record events or to tell a story struggle to find their place today because digital, print, and video media hold so much dominance. Thus they emphasize painting’s long history and its lo-fi nature; which is a great strategy and I love the results very much. However, this competition is only a problem for the painter if he wishes for painting to function as media rather than the practice of an insatiable desire to cover surfaces in paint and color. I think limiting painting as a 2 dimensional medium is a mistake. I hope to reflect this idea in future plans to create installations that will include both panel paintings but also painted 3d objects (in particular sound equipment)."
Everyone knows that all art is not painting. But I think that it is equally important to recognize that the vast majority of painting is not art. If we can realize the importance of paint in our everyday lives we can free ourselves of this superstition that painting is outdated and see how our practice remains relevant. I'm curious to hear others' thoughts on this position.
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