Studio Journal #9

This week I want to focus on my thesis proposal and what I need to be doing. As it should be, I don't have a definite final product of what I am going to show in May, but I do have some ideas that I have been thinking about. Looking back at the past year, I had a difficult time finding something that I was passionate about. I aimlessly hopped from one topic to another. Even this semester when I finally found an interesting topic, I felt that I was still trying things around without a clear "to do list," which I should've been doing since the start. But then again, I don't think I would've known where I wanted to go anyway. Wanting to do a design project as well for the thesis show, I decided to work on an interactive book or books. It would be interesting if one could open a book and as he/she is flipping through the pages some images would appear. Because of my constant search for an interesting topic, I thought about making a book or rather a journal of my process. But it isn't just about a process of what I've done but more of a discovery process. The world knows that art is powerful; it has the strength to change and challenge ideas, promote inventions, and even keep history alive. I want to discover how a two or three dimensional object is able to make these extraordinary events happen. After all, artists are just putting parts together to make a single object. For example, how does a painting get reactions for the viewers? Through this process I know now that I need to read a lot of books on other people's experiences with art focusing not only on their intentions in making art but also their reactions from seeing art.

Part of the reason why I am leaning towards process is because I believe that it is important to include one's experience in the field that they're pursuing. What have you learned the past three years and even this year at Mason Gross? What new ideas did you develop that you never thought of before? What experiences did you gain from teachers, peers, and/or the environment? What is the meaning of becoming an artist? Is it to make change in our communities or about the process or both? I always thought that art schools focused on techniques and praised those that had extreme talent. But it wasn't until my teachers started asking me more open-ended and abstract questions about what artwork could mean or how can it be influential that I began to wonder why I was even in art school in the first place. What do I want to use my artwork for? Why do I paint or make designs? Why is art important? What is the value of art?

I plan to concentrate harder in reading more resources and applying them to my paintings. I realized that hopping around from one topic to another serves no purpose in developing and showing the real power of art.

To do List:

-write a coherent thesis proposal

-stretch canvases

-Read the book, "Complete Mondrian" by Marty Bax: It has a short written text on Mondrian's biography in the beginning of the book, but includes the influences and the intentions/explanation of some paintings that Mondrian portrayed. Also, the rest of the book contains pictures of most of Mondrian's works.

-Read the book, "A Decade of Thinking" by Mira Schor

Book Description from Amazon:

"A Decade of Negative Thinking brings together writings on contemporary art and culture by the painter and feminist art theorist Mira Schor. Mixing theory and practice, the personal and the political, she tackles questions about the place of feminism in art and political discourse, the aesthetics and values of contemporary painting, and the influence of the market on the creation of art. Schor writes across disciplines and is committed to the fluid interrelationship between a formalist aesthetic, a literary sensibility, and a strongly political viewpoint. Her critical views are expressed with poetry and humor in the accessible language that has been her hallmark, and her perspective is informed by her dual practice as a painter and writer and by her experience as a teacher of art."

-Start a painting that is similar to the print out sketches I've been making.

Studio Journal #8

Paper Towel and Mac (Color). Christine Huang. November 2011.

Last week I worked on another version of the "Paper Towel and Mac" but this time with color. I decided that I needed to overcome the challenge of dealing with infinite color possibilities and just paint. This is the beginning of the color version. The drip on the right side is interesting and I've been thinking about using that aspect to create lines. So far, the colors aren't really working for me, but I will work on it more.

Hook. Christine Huang. November 2011.

During my critique with Catherine Murphy, she pointed out the interesting part that was in "Dresser," which was the part on the right that is angled similar to a hook. The line comes from the left with a horizontal placement but then when it reaches the right edge, it comes around into a diagonal line ending at the left side again. I reproduced the "hook" again in "Hook," which is only 6"x6". In this painting, I thought it was interesting how the hook lines come and intercept the space. In addition, it creates another plane (as if a piece of paper) that would enter from the left side towards the middle. I experimented by shading in limited shapes to see if two planes can be depicted. When I shaded in the darker tone for the "paper" plane, it turned out flat rather than on an angle. So I decided to use my palette knife and paint in the direction the "paper" plane would go. I don't think it quite works yet. Perhaps I will need to fill in all the shapes, but I thought the cleanliness of just the lines was very strong.

Untitled. Christine Huang. November 2011.

It's been a while when I last worked on this painting. I added in some more mid tones, cool and warm tones, to see what kind of relationships they can create on the same canvas.

Studio Journal #7: The Journey and Infinite Lines ~ Questions

This week I began my exploration on circular edges. Over the weekend, I finished a small painting (6"x6") that focuses on circular shapes.

Paper Towel and Mac. 2011. Christine Huang.

The mid tones turned out pretty interesting. I wanted to fragment the canvas by "chunking" shapes together with similar tones. Here, I tried to split the canvas into three parts, with the diagonal sections running from top left to bottom right. I also intended to emphasize the section of the paper towel. This way, the two middle sections will run into and through each other, while sharing the same mid tones that lie in the middle of the intersection. I also experimented with the darker mid tones in the areas where they were surrounded by lighter mid tones. I wanted to see if those areas would read as a light area even though there are some darker tones in the area.

Yesterday I had a critique with artist Catherine Murphy. The critique went well and in my opinion, she gave constructive criticisms that were worth thinking about. At the end of the meeting, there were several questions that came to mind, which I thought about the whole day. Some topics I thought about were: relating the traditional school of thought to the time of the artist, having evidence of journey (with tension, intentions, discovery) and time in the painting, and finally, challenging oneself by putting something in the way. From what I got after hearing Catherine's thoughts on painting was that when she looks at paintings, she thinks about how she can change certain areas, making them better or different. I suppose this was something she was trying to question me with my infinite line paintings. How do they differ from Mondrian's paintings? Or what meaning/significance do they have. Because I was consumed by these questions, I decided to ask Professor Hanneline for her opinion in my meeting with her today. I asked her if artists today or in any time period have to follow the trend of artistic style during their particular time. For example, would I need to follow post modernism? Is it boring to paint realistic still lives? She told me that that wasn't so. I could follow Mondrian if I wanted to, but going further and beyond where he left off. I thought this was interesting. Perhaps right now I am at a point where he ended. What if there is more to basic lines and shapes? The second question was hard for me to grasp. How does one show time and discovery visually? (or at least, all in one painting?) After talking with Hanneline, I realized that discovery and experimentation in a painting isn't just about a painting that was finished in a one-time sitting; rather, showing experimentation perhaps would be to go back to that same painting numerous times, changing things (i.e. lines and colors) which will unfold new discoveries. This reminds me of all those times when I am afraid to make more marks on the canvas, afraid that the new marks will somehow make the paintings worse. Catherine told me that we will always have fear in our lives. We will never overcome those fears unless we take the initiative. The last question I had intrigued me. One thing that Catherine questioned was the placement of the lines in my paintings. At first, I blamed the positions of the lines on the object that I was looking at. But now, I realized that I can adjust it, just how one would crop the things they saw to make a more interesting composition. I feel as if I somehow went back to the basics of just looking at something plainly. Today when I talked with Hanneline, she posed some questions that could be brought up in my paintings: for example, if the paintings were fragmented among the shapes, how much of the shapes are still coherent? OR is it unreasonable at first glance at the rigorously painted shapes and tones, but when looked upon closely there is a different sort of experience? Perhaps there are contradictions in the paintings? At first, I felt that I didn't get the feedback I wanted to hear from yesterday's critique, but as of now, I believe those constructive criticisms were actually beneficial in enabling me to think further and deeper about what my paintings mean to me. Furthermore, getting a second opinion from Professor Hanneline was also beneficial in reassurance in some points and openings to new ideas. These two days have been a new revelation for me in terms of thinking about painting as a theoretical topic rather than a technical topic.