I have come to a bit of a cross roads in my development as an abstract painter. My most recent painting, “My River Runs to Thee”, contains something that the rest of the 2012 works do not: imagery. I was hoping I could get some feed back from the WordPress community as to how I should proceed. Which one’s do YOU like best and why? Should I incorporate imagery and add that extra layer of meaning? Thank you all so much for your input!
Soul-Crusher
Piss Business
Cross Section
Juggernaut
The Black Amnesias of Heaven
In the Womb of the Desert Sun
Symbiot
Origin of the World (After Courbet)
My River Runs to Thee
Cross Section and Soul-Crusher are my favorites. Juggernaut is also really cool.
I personally like Juggernaut and The Black Amnesias of Heaven. I love paintings that focus on color and movement as organic forms. The imagery is cool in the others, just not my favorite. I also like Origin of the World (After Courbet).
To begin with, you call your works “abstracts”. Abstracts of WHAT? An abstract of a novel is a brief explanation of the whole novel. An abstract of a TV show, as seen in the TV listings, is an understandable condensation of the whole. None of the works I have seen from you are a piece or condensation of some other work of art. I argue that your works are non-objective, and thus are wholly originals….more original than truely abstract works , which are based on some other art or images.
My faves are “My River Runs…and Cross Section. Your images are strong, engage the eye with contrasts of color, value and texture. For a while they also engage my mind…looking for some pieces of imagery that are familiar and suggetive of something real. They would engage my mind for longer if there was something vaguely recognizable there to tell a story.
You are absolutely right Mr. Fritch, my ;painting are non-objective (with the exception of “My River Runs to Thee”). I suppose I’ve just fallen into the habit of referring to everything as “abstract” (everybody does it these days. I would even go so far as to argue that the meaning of the word “abstract” has shifted culturally to encompass non-objective work as well. Anyway, semantics aside, I agree with you that more recognizable imagery is the next step for me and as you can see with “My River…”, that is the direction I am headed. Thank you very much for your ongoing critics with my work. I look forward to meeting you someday.
Sincerely,
Jake