01/06/2011 – Day 2

Morning on the way to work on the M train

On the train, artist across the way has sketchbook. I feel like just sitting here and letting time pass by. Tried to read the book on Richter. Too philosophical, not in that frame of mind. No energy to do calligraphy this morning. Tonight will be the first night I really return to the studio and test the process of picking up directly where I left off.

Evening in the studio

Picking up where I left off was not hard from a technical point especially because I have a clear goal in mind. To accomplish this 10″ x 1″ cyan gradient from 10% to 100% following the print out I have. So it’s certainly an easier process to jump back into. Feels more “work” like. There’s not any sort of quasis magical mystical mystery that I’m waiting to happen in the work and the process. I’m not trying to create an “aha” moment. Which on some level I was always looking for, waiting for, when I was working with Frank [Frank O'Cain], less so with Paul [Paul Ching-Bor]. At least the 3rd year with Paul. Now it’s more ordinary. Nothing special. Certainly I’m impatient to get it done. But, I just keep reminding myself to get back to focusing on the technical aspect. In this case the relationship of the tones to each other. I can see that as I get tired it becomes hard to maintain focus and concentration and I get a little bouncy and impatient. I start fighting with myself to get back to focus more. I would like to have more energy and to be able to work longer and focus easier. I wanted to finish the cyan band tonight but I didn’t. A little disappointing but at the same time I am committed to taking this slow so I am willing to accept that it is not done and walk away no without it being done. More than anything I don’t want to rush and over do things and get burned out.

Katy Moran / Carla’s Garden  / 2007

Coming back to a contemporary abstract painter I have written about before, and whose work I was struck by back in the spring at the Andrea Rosen Gallery, I was google-stalking the London based painter Katy Moran. Hoping to find some new work or upcoming shows or something, I came across a video interview on the Tate website for an exhibition back in Feb-April 2008 called Strange Solution. Anyway, I thought Katy had some interesting comments on abstract painting, issues that Paul Ching-Bor and I, along some other painters, have been discussing recently at the Art Students League, particularly working from photos and images and pushing toward abstraction. Around the 1:05 mark she comments that for her it is about finding an image that is interesting enough to get started and then leaving that image at the right point. Check out the video here since I can’t post it to the blog. Below is a snippet of what she had to say.

‘They’re finished when I can see a figurative element in them … through the paint I’m searching for the thing it reminded me of, or suggested to me, and trying to get close to that thing.’ The exuberant spontaneity of the gesture is genuine rather than contrived, Moran comments, ‘When I’m making a painting, I get quite excited by how close to awful I can push it, while getting something quite lovely from it as well’.  {Read More…}