For now, I have abandoned the idea that self expression can arise from an unlinking of an artist’s intellect from his skills and tools. Two individuals, one from the scientific community and one from the art community observed the fact that visual feedback is key to realizing an artist’s mental vision. On the other hand, I appreciate Liz’s comment the other day (Old Habits post), in which she noted that some of the best artwork she has seen was from kindergarten students experimenting with wet-on-wet watercolor techniques. Kindergarteners are probably closer in touch with how they feel than adults, and less likely to think about what they are doing. I suppose that among the beautiful pictures, there are those that aren’t so pretty… everyone knows that too many mixed colors make ‘mud pies’. Even if an adult thinks too much, she can take a lesson from a kindergartener: do a lot of artwork and see what works and what doesn’t.
In contrast to previous watercolors that I have done, I am trying to paint non-representational pictures. What seems to work for me is dripping the liquid latex on a 4×6 or 5×7 block of paper, let it dry, use wet-on-wet for the background, pen and ink to outline the shapes after removing the resist, and painting contrasting colors dry on dry, for the most part on the white shapes. I used that technique in the two paintings below.
Perhaps the physics of the liquid latex on that small scale (surface tension and limited area on which to spread), has something to do with the similar looking canvases.
I like the look of these two and look forward to doing many more.
4×6 140# cold pressed
5×7 140# cold pressed
Hi Jack – nice to see you referencing my comments about children’s artwork 🙂 I wonder if the same idea (of an over-executive function as we get older interfering with our creativity) can be applied to writing? I get my students to do ‘automatic writing’ sometimes, not taking their hand off the page or letting their ‘editing’ head interfere with the ideas. I sometimes wonder if for young children it is their undeveloped executive brain that allows them such creativity and abandon…
Hi Liz,
Yes, executive function can certainly be overcome in writing. Have you ever been to a poetry slam? I tell you, I have rarely been so emotionally overcome – in public – by the feelings expressed verbally by the poets at the one slam I went to, and the poets were high school students, mainly. Words don’t have to have meanings in themselves. They can be sounds, or words put together unconventionally that make one think. I am not too good at reading poetry myself, but as performance art? It can be very, very powerful!
Thanks for the thoughts.
Best,
Jack
Hi Jack – just seen this… that’s an interesting observation. I’m never sure how planned performance poetry is. I can’t get along with it myself – I am at the opposite end of the spectrum in terms of my own work, with poetry for the page rather than off the page, laboured over and polished and fussed about. But I’ve been to a lot of live events over the years and they have ranged from those where poets read their writing out to pieces where something more in-the-moment is happening without that interfering editorial voice. With my own Education students I run some sessions on writing and I encourage them to get free of that editing voice over-controlling them, at least initially. One of my students has just asked me whether he can rap his assignment for me as a result 🙂