Experiment: How to make a fake smile real
I started painting again in studio (my method for warming up the mental back burners for ideas). I've been thinking about Ashes comments on some small works two weeks ago, "these paintings are much more "rebecca" than anything i have seen from you in a while", "you NEED color. . . it adds an emotional dimension that you run from otherwise". Part sour grapes and part constipated reflection over what makes me me.
It started with a small painting, where on a whim I added a pair of connected red dots. Not sure why I did it, but it's really the only thing I find compelling about the canvas. Image-wise I traced it back to my love of the "fake smile" and "false moustaches". I've always found something funny/attractive about their disingenuousness. A thought occurred to me, How to make a fake smile real? What makes something genuine?
I took the smile from a painting by Richard Ceely (part of my stash of fake smile artworks) as a start point and began some small canvases I had kicking around the studio. I don't really have a set method for working. It's been more about trying new ways to fool my brain into working less hard, so I can play. Haven't quite hit a stride yet, but I finally let up on a bunch of stubborness in thinking I had to work a certain way. Working on a range of sizes from 8"x10" to 4'x4' all at once. Just building up surfaces simultaneously. Here are some behind the scene nothings thus far.
It started with a small painting, where on a whim I added a pair of connected red dots. Not sure why I did it, but it's really the only thing I find compelling about the canvas. Image-wise I traced it back to my love of the "fake smile" and "false moustaches". I've always found something funny/attractive about their disingenuousness. A thought occurred to me, How to make a fake smile real? What makes something genuine?
I took the smile from a painting by Richard Ceely (part of my stash of fake smile artworks) as a start point and began some small canvases I had kicking around the studio. I don't really have a set method for working. It's been more about trying new ways to fool my brain into working less hard, so I can play. Haven't quite hit a stride yet, but I finally let up on a bunch of stubborness in thinking I had to work a certain way. Working on a range of sizes from 8"x10" to 4'x4' all at once. Just building up surfaces simultaneously. Here are some behind the scene nothings thus far. 
posted by mindsprinter at Saturday, August 19, 2006
2 Comments:
wow reb! Those are looking really beautiful and interesting. Those two blue/green ones have a very spacious quality... nice to look at and perceive! It'll be neat to see where you go with this stuff. thanks for sharing the inner workings of your studio!
thanks, not sure where these are going, so we'll see. haven't much to say lately, at least not in words, just want some image autopilot time to space cadet for a while.
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