All Images
Graphite Oil pastil, coloured pencil, Oil Paint & Linseed, Gold Pigment.
300gsm cartridge.
Image size 44 x 60cm.
For 8 months pre 2020, I've produced one or more paintings each day. The Title of each piece is part of a poem that comprises of all the paintings. The complete poem is the sum of all the Paintings.
The project can be seen as a visual Poem which will include about 300 paintings.
The words of the poem arrive the same way as the marks I make on the paintings do and are also a continuation of the previous paintings title. So the influence can be seen as layered thought.
The project can be seen as a visual Poem which will include about 300 paintings.
The words of the poem arrive the same way as the marks I make on the paintings do and are also a continuation of the previous paintings title. So the influence can be seen as layered thought.
My work, which I acknowledge as being partly cryptic, in as much as it is coded, even from myself, although I kind of know the substance of what is flowing, and relate to the parts entering into the work. The ultimate definition is often hidden from me, rather like the interpretation of a dream is mainly symbolic and it is these symbols, or parts that need to be deciphered. The work could be seen as a transcription of the foundation of symbolism.
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Another way to view the work can be illustrated as a door or surface, with many marks on it, gathered throughout time. All the marks are a stage in time and a story of each emotion that lead to the making of that mark. When looking at the door or surface, it is not apparent which mark was made when, so the order cannot be deciphered by anyone one who did not make the the marks, for they would have no memory of making those marks.
The painting is a representation of all marks made at once, with no apparent order, as if the painting or door or surfaces manifestation is instant. It is this compilation within the surface that defies the rational mind into another way of seeing and evokes a new kind of order which is beyond the linear.
In following a TV series or in reading a book, the narrative would not make sense if you missed out watching or reading a chapter, especially if it is fiction, as fiction is story telling. In seeing the surface of a painting which seems like abstraction, sense is left to the viewer to unravel.
This instant impression can mystify the subject, yet it is in the order of unraveling the creation where the narrative becomes the poem, or story.
Another way to view the work can be illustrated as a door or surface, with many marks on it, gathered throughout time. All the marks are a stage in time and a story of each emotion that lead to the making of that mark. When looking at the door or surface, it is not apparent which mark was made when, so the order cannot be deciphered by anyone one who did not make the the marks, for they would have no memory of making those marks.
The painting is a representation of all marks made at once, with no apparent order, as if the painting or door or surfaces manifestation is instant. It is this compilation within the surface that defies the rational mind into another way of seeing and evokes a new kind of order which is beyond the linear.
In following a TV series or in reading a book, the narrative would not make sense if you missed out watching or reading a chapter, especially if it is fiction, as fiction is story telling. In seeing the surface of a painting which seems like abstraction, sense is left to the viewer to unravel.
This instant impression can mystify the subject, yet it is in the order of unraveling the creation where the narrative becomes the poem, or story.
Technology and Layering images
In seeing technology used within creativity since the 90’s, my influence became adhered to the reproduction of the image through layering technique’s, first discovered by using letraset, and seeing the potential between image and text. This layering interest develop towards the photocopier, where it was possible to layer screen print, although in back and white, or many shades of grey, the chance for random occurrence started, and the machine became a friend, to be understood.
I like to play, with the distance between elements, such as the organic physical realm and the technological.
The function of being able to take a picture with your phone and then work out what to do with it, then to actually print it out to let it breath in the physical realm, where painting or drawing can be added, to change direction of a going through the same process, but with collected parts, as if they are trying to catch up with the machine.
The function of being able to take a picture with your phone and then work out what to do with it, then to actually print it out to let it breath in the physical realm, where painting or drawing can be added, to change direction of a going through the same process, but with collected parts, as if they are trying to catch up with the machine.
What do you see in front of you, is it real?, is it just a collection of pixels, or does it exist somewhere as a material object?
Influence
The painting/collages could be seen as a kind of abstraction and symbolism.
I’m interested in psychologist’s and spiritual thinkers such as Jung and J Krishnamurti, who enable me to see a bigger picture, without restricting myself to a rational full stop. This is the process of learning and continual motion, which I use as a platform to challenge my own thinking.
I’m interested in the gaps between the visual language and the written or heard. There is a cohesion between them that unifies the brains potential, and it is this potential, that I hope exists within my work, if it doesn’t, then maybe it will do when I reach a certain phase.
I’m interested in psychologist’s and spiritual thinkers such as Jung and J Krishnamurti, who enable me to see a bigger picture, without restricting myself to a rational full stop. This is the process of learning and continual motion, which I use as a platform to challenge my own thinking.
I’m interested in the gaps between the visual language and the written or heard. There is a cohesion between them that unifies the brains potential, and it is this potential, that I hope exists within my work, if it doesn’t, then maybe it will do when I reach a certain phase.
There is a spiritual side to the work. My understanding of the spiritual self resonates throughout the kind of free association which permeates my thought and action’s. My beliefs are open to development and I hold the view that learning and development are key to accepting the spiritual self and not to dismiss it. We all have occurrences that make us question anomalous situations in life and the more situations that invoke a sense of a “"further then this"” are the traits of gathering an outlook that is not hindered of confined to a dogmatic, unchangeable and confining perception.
This is what I want to challenge, so the illustration and graphic design projects I have done tend to be about changing thought.
This is what I want to challenge, so the illustration and graphic design projects I have done tend to be about changing thought.
I’ve have started using instagram daily when I finish a piece of work and add the title, which is a continuation of the poem. I find the process of uploading to instagram enables me to let go of the piece and leave it.
Prior to using this method I would leave a piece for days and then return to it, so in a way the work is more immediate, raw and direct. . The point is that the poem evolves naturally, without second guess or analytical though, which would slow down the process.
Prior to using this method I would leave a piece for days and then return to it, so in a way the work is more immediate, raw and direct. . The point is that the poem evolves naturally, without second guess or analytical though, which would slow down the process.
The Work
In viewing these works, I hope to convey the ‘choice’ of interpretation to the viewer of the feeling and content.
To absorb what you, the individual needs to connect with.
I paint in order to feel, and passing on these paintings and collages should evoke a reaction that Is totally personal.
What I want to develop is the sense that I am free of the contained self, and therefore able to convey this sense of transportation to the unified sense of creativity, if that is what it is, to the viewer.
In some of the work, there may be traces of symbolic content, especially in the collage pieces, for example: environmental issues, technology, theologically based architecture, a gaining interest in physics, mysticism, so I see these subjects as markers that will divulge an area for the mind to access a more free sense of awareness, because the subjects are of a broad spectrum, the viewer should be able to collect threads and gain ones own individual view point.
To absorb what you, the individual needs to connect with.
I paint in order to feel, and passing on these paintings and collages should evoke a reaction that Is totally personal.
What I want to develop is the sense that I am free of the contained self, and therefore able to convey this sense of transportation to the unified sense of creativity, if that is what it is, to the viewer.
In some of the work, there may be traces of symbolic content, especially in the collage pieces, for example: environmental issues, technology, theologically based architecture, a gaining interest in physics, mysticism, so I see these subjects as markers that will divulge an area for the mind to access a more free sense of awareness, because the subjects are of a broad spectrum, the viewer should be able to collect threads and gain ones own individual view point.
Painting, the Poem and Free association.
Letting go of the critical mind, is in part, what I do. This leaves a channel open to influence, which at first I may not comprehend, or only see a part of the emerging piece of writing or painting. This kind of process, doesn’t make sense, until it does. The Sense come’s from a kind of ‘letting go’ of the full stop approach of creating which implies, the ‘full stop’ attitude and replaces it with a feeling of (e) motion
Being free to search around in what seems on one hand to be a kind of chaos, yet also represents the threads of the familiar, is where the creative mind exists as a progressive entity.
When I produce a title to a piece, it is derived from a feeling that emanates from the previous title of the piece before and the piece before that and also the present moment. These are threads, or a ‘linear’ web.
Being free to search around in what seems on one hand to be a kind of chaos, yet also represents the threads of the familiar, is where the creative mind exists as a progressive entity.
When I produce a title to a piece, it is derived from a feeling that emanates from the previous title of the piece before and the piece before that and also the present moment. These are threads, or a ‘linear’ web.
Painting and Motion
The painting itself emerges as a representation of a feeling or a sense of motion. (the motion being the flow through the series.). The influence is sometimes of free association and sometimes not, yet it all seems to evoke in me an approach toward comprehension of a kind of order achievable in the mind that lets go of making a definitive conclusion and instead lets the ‘whole’, be the important emanation which is never really complete because it is always evolving.
In halting this process and this project, by making a book, there will be a full stop and then I will be able to stand back, the book then will be the launch of the next project, just like one part of the poem will effect the next.
The Gap between written language and the Image
I see the gap between written language and the image to be the part in which I find the most interest, often it is these gap’s that define our behaviour, for example, a misinterpretation between people speaking is a distorted gap, just as interference in a radio transmission interrupts the communication. Within these gap’s are seemingly unnecessary ‘parts’, and it is these parts which alter our appreciation of coherence. If we momentarily let go of the need to understand, we are open to something more which may be something to be valued as part of a whole.
This kind of transmission interference is part of our everyday lives. It is present everywhere, which may be one reason we spend most of our time trying to make sense of things.
If we follow a structured and a well known path, we will achieve the result expected, yet if along that path, something else happens, this is also to be valued as something to learn.
This kind of transmission interference is part of our everyday lives. It is present everywhere, which may be one reason we spend most of our time trying to make sense of things.
If we follow a structured and a well known path, we will achieve the result expected, yet if along that path, something else happens, this is also to be valued as something to learn.
A B and C
The "Origin of Order" project represents the will to make order from the unknown, that is ‘to learn’, that there is order, and reason and sense. I want to find that sense and see it in Chao’s emanations of disorder, because, we are innately given the predisposition to alleviate pain, which is part of the madness, disguised as normality that we see in the world. It is this pain or sense of unease that manifests in the gap, or the uncertainty that thing’s can’t be solved, but when communication is clear or the view is unobscured to the thing or idea, we open the channel between A (transmitter), or creation (sender) and B (receiver), and then C, (an awareness of`) the gap between. In electronic diagrams, this can be seen as a capacitor, or a switch, where the flow of current between A and B become temporarily stored, stopped or non existent or altered in state, because the current flowing through (A-B) is the purpose, the act of the intermediary between A and B can interrupt the motion of thought which lets - image becoming word, colour becoming form and image becomes a flow of light entering the eye and into the brain and nervous system then returning to thought and action, creating a cycle, or flow of energy, just like electricity.
The String Telephone
Another way of visualising this process of communicating or connecting language, and the visual, or symbolic is a game I use to play as a child, by constructing a telephone out of two plastic cups and a long piece of string. Two individual’s would stand a long distance apart, or maybe one, round a corner and speak using the open end of the cup, with the string attached to the bottom of the cup as the phone sender-receiver.
The sent voice vibration would travel through the cup and the string, one would speak and the other holding the cup to the ear.
In this process the vibration of sound would take over the string and ‘travel’, this I compare to the way we absorb information, such as colour, language and sound, or the way energy is transferred. If we also add the idea that the string itself is comprised of many individual strands, the energy as resonance travels through the string and also effects every strand, creating multiple cross overs (influence from one strand to another) creating a crossover effect, just as platted hair makes each strand effected by the surrounding strands, making a third element where information disruption influences the channel that exists between A and B.
The sent voice vibration would travel through the cup and the string, one would speak and the other holding the cup to the ear.
In this process the vibration of sound would take over the string and ‘travel’, this I compare to the way we absorb information, such as colour, language and sound, or the way energy is transferred. If we also add the idea that the string itself is comprised of many individual strands, the energy as resonance travels through the string and also effects every strand, creating multiple cross overs (influence from one strand to another) creating a crossover effect, just as platted hair makes each strand effected by the surrounding strands, making a third element where information disruption influences the channel that exists between A and B.
The Flow
If we return to the switch, or gap, or disruption the in flow, or sever the connection between A and B, but keep the severed strand close together in this example, the frayed strands collect the chance for an extra element to enter into this transference, this could be seen as letting alternate, be what it may, enter the transmission to the art work, the receiver or the see’er, (you) could then be able to pick up, not only the colour, form language and meaning, but also the extra element (C), which is present in the gap and can only enter via the gap.
The play between parts, is the journey, or the present moment, where the real is at its most vibrant, because it is in motion and sings through the way we see. It is something that seems ungraspable but is within us and this is the variable element which can alter perception of a given subject or what it actually is.
The play between parts, is the journey, or the present moment, where the real is at its most vibrant, because it is in motion and sings through the way we see. It is something that seems ungraspable but is within us and this is the variable element which can alter perception of a given subject or what it actually is.
Chaos And Element C
If we see the connection between A and B as the threads woven to make a piece of string which are severed, but only a short distance apart, (they could also be an undefined distance apart) so there a many points where the information can jump from A to B, each strand and its corresponding strand are then open to distortion by other strands, so the jump may go to different strands then the original, and if the string rotates , then a whole set of variables manifest, leaving the transmission open to what can be defined as chaos, then if we were able to chart and locate the rate of rotation of where the strands are likely to communicate, which is the art works surface, or art work itself, be it writing, maths, music, film, painting, photography etc…this is what I hope to understand more in creating work.
`If these elements come together, there is an appreciation, which could be defined as silence or, no-thought and then pure experience.
Symmetry and Chaos
It seems that symmetry maybe the prime purpose of finding meaning, after all we are symmetrical beings, so in looking at the endless permutations involved in communication via, A and B, we are seeking the true message from A to B, (symmetry), this also could be seen as placing a convex mirror face to face with a concave mirror, creating a undistorted reflection, between to two opposing individual perspectives. In traveling through an experience of absorbing creativity we are trying to look for the most undistorted transference between the message and the see’er or hearer or interpreter, or perception of the whole, itself.
Standing back to see the Whole
The whole is a view, and a comprehensive inclusion of meaning and proposed or possible meaning.
The thread (or strands) are the key which pass’s through every lock to every door, as if they are all in a row. This is the individual’s perception of time, which challenges the experiencer into a world of possibilities.
The interweaving thread of meaning running through the painting’s. Are created intuitively and I’ve not gone into any questioning why they are the way they are, it’s important for me to let go of the more time based conscious type of thought, into a more etherial presence.
The work, for me is always experimental, so the style is always progressing, this element of change should be apparent in the paintings.
The thread (or strands) are the key which pass’s through every lock to every door, as if they are all in a row. This is the individual’s perception of time, which challenges the experiencer into a world of possibilities.
The interweaving thread of meaning running through the painting’s. Are created intuitively and I’ve not gone into any questioning why they are the way they are, it’s important for me to let go of the more time based conscious type of thought, into a more etherial presence.
The work, for me is always experimental, so the style is always progressing, this element of change should be apparent in the paintings.
Painting Technique.
First of all, I soak the paper in linseed oil, which gives it a durable a smooth surface to apply paint to without the paint warping the paper, this gives it a feel of parchment.
Then using graphite, oil paint and gold pigment I apply a base coat to the picture, this often sets the tone of the picture and is the first layer.
Then using graphite, oil paint and gold pigment I apply a base coat to the picture, this often sets the tone of the picture and is the first layer.
Photography
I sometimes use photography as a basis to start a picture and will use a picture that is captured in several different ways, One is by analogue camera, which is sometimes triple exposed, meaning I’ve wound the film back at least 3 time’s to get a random, but hopefully fortuitous occurrence, another is by printing the images on to acetates and then layering them on a light box and then rephotographing and the other is by digital photography. In the collages I have printed the image and adhered it to the picture using oil paint, and then worked over it, creating a layered effect.
The photographic image can then be merged into the painting, using line and colour. In using this process the photographic (reality) then becomes an altered reality, or another way of seeing the original picture. I call this “the difference the between bromide (the original chemical used in analogue photography) (which is now the pixel as a chosen form of reality) and graphite”, which I relate to as an element which conducts a flow or energy.
The photographic image can then be merged into the painting, using line and colour. In using this process the photographic (reality) then becomes an altered reality, or another way of seeing the original picture. I call this “the difference the between bromide (the original chemical used in analogue photography) (which is now the pixel as a chosen form of reality) and graphite”, which I relate to as an element which conducts a flow or energy.
Merging Elements
Then the process goes to drawing, then which merges the elements, making the join between bromide/pixel and graphite (or oil and pigment), I see this as the earthed element.
Then I apply texture by using techniques such as printing, for example some images will have impressions of braille, which I have included in the paintings by placing the graphite coated braille information on the painting by running over the surface to trace the impression. All the braille imagery is from a map book for the blind, of the UK and made of made of plastic. This map book has been used all throughout the series and is now at the end of its useable life, because a layer of oil paint has built up on all the surfaces leaving me unable to use them to make impressions, so this is a reason to draw the series to a close.
I like to see the use of braille as implying a symbolic notion of search beyond the visible
Then I apply texture by using techniques such as printing, for example some images will have impressions of braille, which I have included in the paintings by placing the graphite coated braille information on the painting by running over the surface to trace the impression. All the braille imagery is from a map book for the blind, of the UK and made of made of plastic. This map book has been used all throughout the series and is now at the end of its useable life, because a layer of oil paint has built up on all the surfaces leaving me unable to use them to make impressions, so this is a reason to draw the series to a close.
I like to see the use of braille as implying a symbolic notion of search beyond the visible
Collage and Painting
This can be see as reality and non reality, or fiction and non fiction, or above water and below. When I use photographic collage It reminds me of coming up for air where the impression of capturing the familiar, or oxygen permits the ability to submerse into another reality.
I have an interest generally in layering, which probably makes sense if you think of archaeology and the discovering of objects, or apparitions at certain layers, in my brief artist statement here, this is apparent:
What is looking and what is seeing? Is to see to look past looking?”
In the initial process of constructing an image I begin with drawing or a photographic layer. I then partially erase or overlap whats captured leaving a trace memory of line and thought. This trace is usually left visible so that there is an option to return to it, just as we can return to memories. As the image emerges, through the process of time, I connect what has been to what is.
The later stages of the image are a gathering of parts with intent of cohesion. Cohesion is an attempt to surmise, or complete a calculation. A completed calculation is a platform, or a kind of place where I can jump from the image to the next image. From one action, to another. This could also be viewed as creating a bridge, rather like a synaptic pathway in the brain. The process of learning and development relies on an electrical charge travelling from one point to another in order to create the connection required to store new information.”
The later stages of the image are a gathering of parts with intent of cohesion. Cohesion is an attempt to surmise, or complete a calculation. A completed calculation is a platform, or a kind of place where I can jump from the image to the next image. From one action, to another. This could also be viewed as creating a bridge, rather like a synaptic pathway in the brain. The process of learning and development relies on an electrical charge travelling from one point to another in order to create the connection required to store new information.”