ok...i really need some help/advice with these. i went to michael's over break and got a bunch of beads and sequins and shit and also some embossing powder which i put in the acrylic and blast with heat. i put the beads in gel medium...i saw a raqib shaw show at the met (nate you gotta see it) and it blew me away and i wanna try to do some things he does...
but basically these are studies with the beads and embossing and acrylic paint.
do they suck? i can't completely tell. annie doesn't like them so much. should i use the beads as
just accent or do you like them all over? what about the embossing stuff? should i put stuff in the background or do you like the matte color? do these look too craftyish?
my plan is to make big 4 feet long cities (2 feet high) that are done in this style. with little teeny details and sequins and embossing stuff. kind of abstract/cartoony a bit...from my mind and not from pictures. it will cost a lot in beads and other materials and take a loooong time. (these flags
take about 8 hours each) so i might do one slightly bigger study before i invest myself in that.
i have some other paintings i'll post soon...waiting for a good picture day. these were scanned in and are 8x8 inches.
thanks for any critique
b
5 comments:
hey ner
before a crit. i would just like to commend you for your exploration.
its inspiring, and thats primary to what this blog is about,
these are definitely interesting but there is something about the color and composition i dont like. colorwise i like the variety from bright to neutral but unlike your other work they dont create a space. i like the idea of the flag and icon and craftyness but for interest sake i need the next element.its a little clunky-flat. this could work as part of a bigger whole, for instance if you were to have a comic square within a piece that would point to a detail or david salle style. these might work better with a more congruent color idea rather than the sections of color gradients.
just an idea, again awesome, and it could be so new i am second guessing the genius. which i know you bear. 8) could be my blindspot.
it's so funny to see this because i've been on ebay obsessing over beaded sari appliques. you might want to look them up. also look up vintage sari boarders. i agree with travis about the colour and space, but sounds like you plan to put a city around the flag or in the distance or something. i think you can pull off the beads. the parts i like with the beads the best is where they are thick and directional as apposed to alone with just paint around it. in the sari appliques i feel the same way. the coolest ones have very directional bead formations. this is just an idea, but i thought it might be interesting to just have beads on the flag when you expand to include the city. cool shit
i am all for utilizing different materials. i find the flags to be interesting, but also feel that they need to be a smaller aspect of a larger whole, or, there needs to be a neurotic, american impulse behind them; for example, if you were to execute, say, thirty-five to seventy-five individual flag paintings, and displayed them all at once, then for me the work would possess more gravity, although i do realize that the interest might be generated more from the exercise, itself, than the actual paintings. still, having more flags to study would be a fun activity, in itself, from a viewers perspective...anyway, sorry about that. that probably doesn't help. i'm always thinking about motives. i'm always thinking about the artist, as i feel that sophisticated viewers often connect with why a painter/artist is doing something vs. what a painter does (though artists maybe find themselves more interested in each others actual work). in my mind, work that possesses a compulsive, neurotic component and/or tendencies connects and resonates with contemporary art lovers.
having said all that stuff above, i also meant to note that the flags remind me of marsden hartley's emblematic paintings of his german officer lover (i think) which were portraits that focused exclusively on the insignia that german officers wore on their uniforms...maybe worth a look...
http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/modern_art/portrait_of_a_german_officer_marsden_hartley/objectview_enlarge.aspx?page=1&sort=0&sortdir=asc&keyword=&fp=1&dd1=21&dd2=0&vw=0&collID=21&OID=210008711&vT=1
MH, portrait of a german officer
Post a Comment