I didn’t paint much this week. I had a terrible cold. I slept a lot. Before I was debilitated by mucous I managed to paint this rough underpainting. It has elements that I enjoy painting: lettering, translucence, and details. Just for fun I thought I would practice my portrait skills. It’s been about a year since I attempted a portrait. There are clearly some flaws in the lettering and the lighter fluid can (lettering can be cleaned up and the edges refined). There are also some errors in the rendering of the bottle.
I will fix those when I feel better. Every time I look over at the creepy little doll head I get a good laugh.
Remember Reflect Reform
In this work, I have been exploring phenomena of memory augmentation. I experimented with reflections and cinematic images by juxtaposing photographs, paint, wood, and mylar. The direction of the work includes painting intimate, reflective, observations of augmented memories.
I began by building a cabinet of curiosities as a way to form a tableau painting and experiment with different media. Inspired by the relief paintings by artist Sally Han, I built a model of a Victorian cabinet using tenets of Darwin's theory of evolution. I painted on a variety of surfaces including wood, photographs, and adding raw lumber to the pieces. In this process, I disassembled the cabinet to give autonomy to each piece. Although I diverted from the original idea of a final installation, there was an impulse to paint larger. Adding mylar was yet another way to accentuate reflection as a part of the critical dialogue with the work. The final result offers an opportunity to remember, reflect, and reform.
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