Making Your Own Work: Reading 2

 FIGURATIVE ART VERSUS ABSTRACT ART:LEVELS OF CONNECTIVITY
 By: Tsion Avital

"Although abstract does not represent, it symbolizes through metaphorical exemplification, or expression....Beside representation and readability there are many more fundamental differences between these two kinds of art which strengthen the doubt as to whether abstract art is indeed art, or perhaps something else."

Abstract and figurative art differ in many ways. Figurative art contains recognizable images of objects while abstract art typically has not symbols system. Abstract paintings communicate through expression rather than representations. In a way abstract and figurative art are opposite yet they serve the same purpose in communicating a message through different vehicles. Through this essay the authors approaches the idea that art has this level of being legible that is mainly perceived in figurative art although abstract is read in its own way. With my own work, I approached this conversation between the abstract and the figurative by placing a representational figure with in the abstract though it is hidden. This then gives the readability of the abstracted a new level of legibility by also containing the representational. The viewer makes the connection with the painting in two different ways. From a distance they connect with it on the level of an abstracted painting producing their own imagery they see with in it. As the move closer and examine it more, the representational image is revealed giving more imagery and meaning to the viewer. 

Making Your Own Work: Reading 1

ART VIEW; HUMAN FIGURE IS BACK IN UNLIKELY GUISES

By MICHAEL BRENSON

 In Michael Brenson's article he states how the human figure cuts through all nations and cultures. The human figure through out every culture and artistic style is seen as an icon and symbol. Any viewer of an art work can look at a painting and recognize the figure as a representation of a person. The human figure has been used throughout many different cultures as a way to represent and humanize certain aspects of life not completely understood by the human psyche; such gods, changing of the seasons or even emotional states. One particular statement he makes that pertains to my paintings is how he notice in the new human landscape the human figure tends to float. With my first few painting, the figure I placed within them are floating with no indication as to a ground. The last few of my painting I changed this by leaving some white space against the colors. In doing so it gives the painting a sense of grounds while still some what floating with in the colors.

Making Your Own Work: week 15

Finishing up with this part of the semester of creating our own work, I continued following Gerhard Ritcher's process of scrapping away with the squeegee. I also have continued with scratching in the human figure in order to move forward with the conversation between the abstract and the representational. In my work I encompassed the representational figure with the abstract as a way to hide the image. With the last few pieces I left a portion of the campus white as a way to create a sense of grounding. The first paintings I didn't do this which gave the figure I placed with in it the feeling that the figure is floating rather than being anchored down to a ground. My use in the human figure (male and female) was a way to take a concrete representational form and contradict it against the abstract. Hiding the figure with in the painting allows me to express how typically people hide their true selves to others. With my paintings, the viewer has to get up close in order to see the figure. This can be taking as a metaphor that one has to get close to someone before they reveal their true self.