....

You could sleep with everyone in the world and still feel rejected.

A quote from a film. Maudlin tonight. Eye strain means pause from painting. I don't want to do anything. And I don't really like anyone. I'm tired.

So.

New project is meandering along. It is progressing steadily, but I need to push it a bit if I want to get it where I want it. But this is talk. And talk is where action dies.

Caesar salad with potato waffle. Amazing. -scribble - And Me working hard.

Http://www.dustpiggies.com

Comic website. Fun x 50!

Mo mo mo moo

So trying to paint some stuff. Having very bad depression at the moment means that I am not going to be able to win a huge prize for most subscriptions to popular boys magazine. However I am going to work on a long project that I wanted to do and that dirty dog has been progressive. I am not planning anything else because talking is bullshit.

People who talk alot aren't doing alot. And I don't want to be that guy.

Rewind and press record

(2/25) new work is nothing of interest. I have removed the previous pieces from the series and started a new one. Not because I want to make some good. Just because I need to make something unhampered and dark.

I have the best wife to be in the world. :)

The 2nd part of my paint order arrived today.

Which serves to be quite depressing. I was listening to Ascenseur the other night and thinking about those paintings. Part of the problem is that the new stuff I've tried to do is terrible. I don't feel like I have any joy inside me to paint. And I can't paint the other.

Who knew I was born in Miami?

Anyone know that?

Btw 4od. Seriously... For a holiday of something?

I can't create anything new. It doesn't exist. The thing I want to do. It belongs in limbo. And I am a mouth breather. I literally cannot paint. So I guess ends another chapter of this miserable crap.

Fuck

My main problem is that I can't actually paint. Which poses the question. What is my point.

Hmm

Gestural painting seems to be a strong factor in abstract expressionism which is interesting too. I think I've kind of lost the plot.

Main Entry: 1ab·stract
Pronunciation: \ab-ˈstrakt, ˈab-ˌ\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Medieval Latin abstractus, from Latin, past participle of abstrahere to drag
away, from abs-, ab- + trahere to pull, draw
Date: 14th century
1 a : disassociated from any specific instance b : difficult to understand : abstruse c : insufficiently factual : formal
2 : expressing a quality apart from an object
3 a : dealing with a subject in its abstract aspects : theoretical b : impersonal, detached
4 : having only intrinsic form with little or no attempt at pictorial representation or narrative content
— ab·stract·ly \ab-ˈstrak(t)-lē, ˈab-ˌ\ adverb
— ab·stract·ness \ab-ˈstrak(t)-nəs, ˈab-ˌ\ noun

- so basic when people refer to my precious work as abstract then I guess that is a lack of knowledge? Because it doesn't seem to meet the criteria for abstract as per the dictionary definition. The computer science one makes sense but as this point I'm growing far less interested as definitions, opinions and historical information all seem to vary quite widely.

Well

Need to paint today and stay awake. But also have other priorities that must be taken care of. Trying to rebalance my sleep pattern again, which is a nightmare. Either always awake or always tired. Anyway. So still looking into the theoretical underpinnings of abstraction and the non union art equivalent. It seems to be a matter of opinion, which personally I think is ridiculous for a categorisation and add to that the 2 basic ideas that it's 1) simplifictation or 2) intentionally removed from anything in reality, would be a fairly good reason to devalue such paintings, if they are based on whatever someone feels like messing about with. Abstract expressionism seems more fitting with the idea of removal of rules and interweaving of different concepts and ideas. As my understanding of what I think of abstract seems more out of sync with what is generally considered abstract in the sense of art I did more reading and found this good (but bias in the pro camp on abstract expressionism) article from the met website:
"A new vanguard emerged in the early 1940s, primarily in New York, where a small group of loosely affiliated artists created a stylistically diverse body of work that introduced radical new directions in art—and shifted the art world's focus. Never a formal association, the artists known as "Abstract Expressionists" or "The New York School" did, however, share some common assumptions. Among others, artists such as Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), Willem de Kooning (1904–1997), Franz Kline (1910–1962), Lee Krasner (1908–1984), Robert Motherwell (1915–1991), William Baziotes (1912–1963), Mark Rothko (1903–1970), Barnett Newman (1905–1970), Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974), Richard Pousette-Dart (1916–1992), and Clyfford Still (1904–1980) advanced audacious formal inventions in a search for significant content. Breaking away from accepted conventions in both technique and subject matter, the artists made monumentally scaled works that stood as reflections of their individual psyches—and in doing so, attempted to tap into universal inner sources. These artists valued spontaneity and improvisation, and they accorded the highest importance to process. Their work resists stylistic categorization, but it can be clustered around two basic inclinations: an emphasis on dynamic, energetic gesture, in contrast to a reflective, cerebral focus on more open fields of color. In either case, the imagery was primarily abstract. Even when depicting images based on visual realities, the Abstract Expressionists favored a highly abstracted mode.
Abstract Expressionism developed in the context of diverse, overlapping sources and inspirations. Many of the young artists had made their start in the 1930s. The Great Depression yielded two popular art movements, Regionalism and Social Realism, neither of which satisfied this group of artists' desire to find a content rich with meaning and redolent of social responsibility, yet free of provincialism and explicit politics. The Great Depression also spurred the development of government relief programs, including the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a jobs program for unemployed Americans in which many of the group participated, and which allowed so many artists to establish a career path.
But it was the exposure to and assimilation of European modernism that set the stage for the most advanced American art. There were several venues in New York for seeing avant-garde art from Europe. The Museum of Modern Art had opened in 1929, and there artists saw a rapidly growing collection acquired by director Alfred H. Barr, Jr. They were also exposed to groundbreaking temporary exhibitions of new work, including Cubism and Abstract Art (1936), Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism (1936–37), and retrospectives of Matisse, Léger, and Picasso, among others. Another forum for viewing the most advanced art was Albert Gallatin's Museum of Living Art, which was housed at New York University from 1927 to 1943. There the Abstract Expressionists saw the work of Mondrian, Gabo, El Lissitzky, and others. The forerunner of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum—the Museum of Non-Objective Painting—opened in 1939. Even prior to that date, its collection of Kandinskys had been publicly exhibited several times. The lessons of European modernism were also disseminated through teaching. The German expatriate Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) became the most influential teacher of modern art in the United States, and his impact reached both artists and critics.
The crisis of war and its aftermath are key to understanding the concerns of the Abstract Expressionists. These young artists, troubled by man's dark side and anxiously aware of human irrationality and vulnerability, wanted to express their concerns in a new art of meaning and substance. Direct contact with European artists increased as a result of World War II, which caused so many—including Dalí, Ernst, Masson, Breton, Mondrian, and Léger—to seek refuge in the U.S. The Surrealists opened up new possibilities with their emphasis on tapping the unconscious. One Surrealist device for breaking free of the conscious mind was psychic automatism—in which automatic gesture and improvisation gain free rein.
Early Work
Early on, the Abstract Expressionists, in seeking a timeless and powerful subject matter, turned to primitive myth and archaic art for inspiration. Rothko, Pollock, Motherwell, Gottlieb, Newman, and Baziotes all looked to ancient or primitive cultures for expression. Their early works feature pictographic and biomorphic elements transformed into personal code. Jungian psychology was compelling too, in its assertion of the collective unconscious. Directness of expression was paramount, best achieved through lack of premeditation. In a famous letter to the New York Times (June 1943), Gottlieb and Rothko, with the assistance of Newman, wrote: "To us, art is an adventure into an unknown world of the imagination which is fancy-free and violently opposed to common sense. There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing. We assert that the subject is critical."
Mature Abstract Expressionism: Gesture
In 1947, Pollock developed a radical new technique, pouring and dripping thinned paint onto raw canvas laid on the ground (instead of traditional methods of painting in which pigment is applied by brush to primed, stretched canvas positioned on an easel). The paintings were entirely nonobjective. In their subject matter (or seeming lack of one), scale (huge), and technique (no brush, no stretcher bars, no easel), the works were shocking to many viewers. De Kooning, too, was developing his own version of a highly charged, gestural style, alternating between abstract work and powerful iconic figurative images. Other colleagues, including Krasner and Kline, were equally engaged in creating an art of dynamic gesture in which every inch of a picture is fully charged. For Abstract Expressionists, the authenticity or value of a work lay in its directness and immediacy of expression. A painting is meant to be a revelation of the artist's authentic identity. The gesture, the artist's "signature," is evidence of the actual process of the work's creation. It is in reference to this aspect of the work that critic Harold Rosenberg coined the term "action painting" in 1952: "At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act—rather than as a space in which to reproduce, re-design, analyze, or 'express' an object, actual or imagined. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event."
Mature Abstract Expressionism: Color Field
Another path lay in the expressive potential of color. Rothko, Newman, and Still, for instance, created art based on simplified, large-format, color-dominated fields. The impulse was, in general, reflective and cerebral, with pictorial means simplified in order to create a kind of elemental impact. Rothko and Newman, among others, spoke of a goal to achieve the "sublime" rather than the "beautiful," harkening back to Edmund Burke in a drive for the grand, heroic vision in opposition to a calming or comforting effect. Newman described his reductivism as one means of "… freeing ourselves of the obsolete props of an outmoded and antiquated legend … freeing ourselves from the impediments of memory, association, nostalgia, legend, and myth that have been the devices of Western European painting." For Rothko, his glowing, soft-edged rectangles of luminescent color should provoke in viewers a quasi-religious experience, even eliciting tears. As with Pollock and the others, scale contributed to the meaning. For the time, the works were vast in scale. And they were meant to be seen in relatively close environments, so that the viewer was virtually enveloped by the experience of confronting the work. Rothko said, "I paint big to be intimate." The notion is toward the personal (authentic expression of the individual) rather than the grandiose.
The Aftermath
The first generation of Abstract Expressionism flourished between 1943 and the mid-'50s. The movement effectively shifted the art world's focus from Europe (specifically Paris) to New York in the postwar years. The paintings were seen widely in traveling exhibitions and through publications. In the wake of Abstract Expressionism, new generations of artists—both American and European—were profoundly marked by the breakthroughs made by the first generation, and went on to create their own important expressions based on, but not imitative of, those who forged the way.

Article from : http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/abex/hd_abex.htm

----
So there is the beef of that. Ideally I need the met's version of abstract to provide a counter weight from the same source.

After reading

There seems to be a glut of artists and understandings that the term abstraction relating to art should be of a thing with no meaning. No worldly form. And this is why no one should be educated in any way shape or form. Especially me.

No I just want to crush my head in a vice. So I guess my understanding is not that which is probably held true, or maybe it is. Or maybe like all things, nothing means anything, just people arguing. Like a bunch of dicks.

Something else to think about, re: abstract art

Abstract Art: An Introduction
An introduction to abstract art and painting: what it is, how it developed.

"Of all the arts, abstract painting is the most difficult. It demands that you know how to draw well, that you have a heightened sensitivity for composition and for colours, and that you be a true poet. This last is essential." -- Wassily Kandinsky.

In its purest form in Western art, an abstract art is one without a recognisable subject, one which doesn't relate to anything external or try to "look like" something. Instead the colour and form (and often the materials and support) are the subject of the abstract painting. It's completely non-objective or non-representational.

A further distinction tends to be made between abstract art which is geometric, such as the work of Mondrian, and abstract art that is more fluid (and where the apparent spontaneity often belies careful planning and execution), such as the abstract art of Kandinsky or Pollock.

Also generally classified with abstract art are figurative abstractions and paintings which represent things that aren't visual, such an emotion, sound, or spiritual experience. Figurative abstractions are abstractions or simplifications of reality, where detail is eliminated from recognisable objects leaving only the essence or some degree of recognisable form.

In Western art history, the break from the notion that a painting had to represent something happened in the early 20th century. Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and other art movements of the time all contributed by breaking the "rules" of art followed since The Renaissance. Impressionism saw painters not "finishing" their paintings. The Fauvists used colour in a non-realistic way. Cubism introduced the idea of painting an object from more than one view point. From all of these the idea developed that colour, line, form, and texture could be the "subject" of the painting.

Abstract Expressionism, which emerged in the 1940s, applied the principles of Expressionism to abstract painting. The action painting of Jackson Pollock, in which paint was dripped, dropped, smeared, spattered, or thrown on the canvas, is a good example.

In 1864 the critic Ernest Chesneau wrote that if the trend the Impressionists were setting continued, paintings would eventually consist of nothing but "two broadly brushed areas of colour". What would he have thought of the art being produced 100 years later?

Ugh

The formula is creeping back in. My need for approval sickens me. And the most ironic thing is that the formula content present wouldn't be enough to please those who like the formula anyway. Just enough to make me be disgusted with myself even more.

Good

Got in a few more hours painting. Wasn't tired. Well actually I'm always tired but I wasn't going to sleep so I went and painted. Continuing my quest to produce the world most intensely coloured pile of firewood.

thbpbphphphp

i might try to re-implicate my quasi unsuccessful theory of 'creative substitution'.

This is it in relation to Ceramic production (bear in mind it was 2010), the painting part of the theory was written at an earlier stage. and the whole text is all horribly dated, but the idea is in practice quite interesting.

__________________

Vibrations from Trees

(Cubes 2010)

Mike Bromage

Introduction

Initial Proposal

During the development of my work over the last year I have found that honesty is the key area of art that interests me, the transparency of artists I admire (such as Picasso, Matisse) and my personal development regarding use of materials are two of the main factors that play a part in this. My plan for the final module of the course is to spend a brief period of experimentation in staged processes, utilising the cognitive behavioural methods that I began to work with during my thesis module, which I found not only assisted me in producing transparently honest work, but also provided a catharsis to my mental health problems which are often very much a barrier to enabling honesty and lack of inhibition. The staged processes that I want to explore are a form of primitive screen printing, work with sound and Ceramics. I am choosing not to work with painting on this module because due to the negative reaction to my painting work at my last assessment and the nature of my illness it seemed as if it would be counter productive to the cathartic element of producing the work. My key areas of research will be in folk art, outsider art and the work of Picasso and Matisse. The particular interest I have in both these artists and groups is the need to make work, the way that the work is totally reflective of their mental state and in many cases disregards convention, not necessarily by subversion, but by either disregard of rules that become barriers to their creative instinct and expression, or an inability to use any other language. Once I have established which medium is best suited to the creative substitution theory in this stage of its application, I intend to explore its potential in regards to scale and produce a large body of work in line with the framework of the medium.

Project Synopsis

The Theoretical basis for my work was a practice-led theory called Creative Substitution, which was something that I established during this year and submitted as my thesis module. The body of work is totally different, but I found the alchemic process that I developed to be incredibly productive. With a longer period of time in which to work and a different medium (ceramic instead of painting) to use within it’s framework, I thought it would be an exciting end to the degree year and a development of a way of working which I plan to utilise in the future.

Process

Introduction (Regarding material)

For my work in this project I have chosen to focus on ceramics. I plan to produce a series of slab built forms that will be decorated with coloured slip clay. Clay is a fascinating material to work with on many levels and requires a huge amount of discipline and concentration, especially in the construction of the kind of forms that I plan to produce. There is a response to glazed ceramics in the viewer that I find intriguing from a personal perspective and that of an observational one, in that the nature of the material encourages an emotional response through the resonance that is provoked by not only the visual aesthetic but also by touch. There is so much to connect ceramics with the viewer, as it is such a widely used domestic material with such a myriad of different purposes. A material with so many connotations is important to use, because it allows the viewer to connect with the work on a level beyond the superficial and beyond their interest in the style of decoration. The solidity of the form and the fired clay’s reaction to the physical environment in which it is displayed is comforting because it could be a teapot, or a morning bowl of cereal, but it is exciting or conflicting because the form is actually functionless in a domestic sense.

Initially working with the clay itself there is a strong sense of the natural earth with it, being part of the ground and coming from a totally different point in the development of our planet. The construction process tries to make it become something else, but it is still in essence mud. There is a strong feeling in working with clay that the material must be respected, the process of creating the forms is deeply involved and a balance must be developed within yourself and the working environment where you can be confident enough to make decisions, but delicate enough not to damage what you are doing. This obviously can be applicable with most working environments, but I have yet to work with one that has such polar opposites with such definite consequences.

Theoretical Basis (Creative Substitution)

Parameters

Before I discuss the content of the practical work and critically reflect upon it, firstly I want to establish the basis for and theoretical underpinning of the project.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is defined as an Anxiety Disorder[1] where the patient experiences obsessions (defined as persistent, often irrational and seemingly uncontrollable thoughts) and compulsions (actions which are used to neutralise the obsessions). For these behaviours to constitute OCD it must be disruptive to everyday functioning[2]. For the purpose of this project I want to focus on the compulsive ritual fulfilment element of the disorder (the following are the established criteria for diagnosis, which are an important factor in gaining a theoretical working understanding of the illness).

1) The actions are repetitive and formalized.

2) The patient feels driven to perform them.

3) The acts are performed to reduce distress, and are not ends in themselves.

4) The patient may recognize the behavior is unreasonable and unrealistic.

5) The patient finds the behavior to be disturbing and attempts to resist and/or avoid situations where ritualizing will become necessary.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT) is described by the mental health charity MIND as “a short term talking treatment that has a highly practical approach to problem solving. It aims to change patterns of thinking or behaviour that are behind people’s difficulties, and so change the way they feel.” [3] CBT is used to provide relatively fast relief to a variety of patients and can be utilized with a psychoanalytic approach to provide very successful long-term solutions to people suffering from mental illness.

Exposure and Response Prevention

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy that works by facing your fears in a prolonged period of contact until the anxiety reduces naturally and not responding to the urge to use safety-seeking behaviours. The theory behind this is that by deliberately and repeatedly facing the fears and obsession and not responding to them, you will become used to them and your fear will subside. [4]

Creative Substitution

Creative Substitution is a purely theoretical idea that I have designed, which adopts the idea that by utilising the creative process a degree of catharsis could be produced regardless of the subject matter. This would need to be developed over time, with a great deal of perseverance in order to become an effective resource as many of the rituals that it would be intended to substitute have also evolved over a long period of time and are of great significant to the patient. This would be achieved by implementing a step-by-step process that would appease the need to fulfil the ritual in a non-damaging way. This theory would be used as a stopgap in a long process of developing ERP to no longer seek anything to appease the patient’s fears.

Creative Substitution (Results in painting)

In order to prepare this theory for a practical application to ceramics I need to assess how the original outline was implicated in painting. While the original utilization of this theory was simpler because of the ability to adapt the painting environment to suit the ERP element, the ceramic environment is less flexible. With painting, the goal I set out was to provide something helpful as a substitute to the ritual, but in doing so essentially ritualised the painting process and when the desired results were not achieved the symptoms actually increased, so from that aspect the project had not succeeded. What I concluded was that much more relevant is the idea of Creative Distraction as opposed to a substitution; a controlled painting process within the theoretical constructs of Exposure and Response Prevention, but one that puts the significance into positive creative action, rather than ritualistic production. Below are the Creative substitution steps with application to painting.

Creative Substitution Steps with application to painting

Prerequisites

1- Prime Canvasses at a time when symptoms are minimal and there has been no established contamination.

2- Square ‘contamination area’ in which the materials do not leave and are not interfered with before or after contamination has occurred, essentially an area that can be entered and exited with minimal surface contact.

Process

Step 1 – Exposure to minor contamination

Step 2 – Ritual Prevention via substitution i.e. perform action (paint, ink)

Step 3 – Varnish image to seal

However, in a working ceramic studio elements of control are not always possible, especially when working with other people. Therefore there became a need to assess the mood and try to plan openly when to work within the parameters of the material and not cause myself an overt level of distress. This essentially called for a re examination of how this process could be separated to fit with the mood on the particular day, which while using a ERP framework for the decoration of the cubes was entirely possible, the construction element was however not.

This lead to the development of having to reach an understanding within myself in an effort to predict time periods when I would be effective at not only construction, but also decoration. To make this less complicated I call this the ‘Two states’ element.

The ‘Two states’ element

Within this element of self-assessment there are two basic elements: order and disorder. When "I" am in order (being on a more stable footing with the obsessive compulsive section of my illness), decoration and construction are ‘disordered’. The work flows and I can decorate with colour, construct the slab forms and draw with a relative level of inhibition. However, whenever "I" am in a state of disorder (at a level of unmanageable distress), the level of honesty becomes problematic, especially when I am trying to continue a painting or object that has begun in the other state, effectively making the work dishonest and unsatisfactory. The advantage of this stage is that it makes my work very anal and perfectionist (a state that is perfect for the polishing of the form). The acceptance of these two different states requires that I examine the abilities that I possess while in a state of disorder. These abilities are not lacking in imagination or execution, but possess a totally different quality, being centered in repetition, in images, motifs and tonal language.

In Application for Ceramics

Step 1 – Roll Slab (possible in either of two states)

Step 2 – Construct rough form (possible in either of two states)

Step 3 – Polish form (ordered)

Step 4 - Application of Coloured Slip (via narrative constraints and subject matter, or by instinctive reaction via music and mood) (disordered)

Step 5 – Slip draw detail (disordered)

Step 6 – Biscuit Fire (NA)

Step 7 – Glaze (NA)

Step 9 – Glaze Fire (NA)

The constrictions and freedoms of the ceramic environment makes the Creative substitution process one of less immediacy and draws the focus away from the original construction of the ERP framework, which as the cubes developed became more apparent. The Theory takes in a broader and more therapeutic role than the intentional contamination and imposed creative relief and allows more to work with the body and mind on a long-term basis, and as a result of this I think the work has improved, as has my health. The concept (but not necessarily the theory) that originally began this process of working was flawed (as detailed above), which I had already acknowledged and had been utilising the more relevant ‘creative distraction’ process. The implication of working within the abilities that the two different states of being enabled, without trying to force myself or re-ritualise was a huge improvement and lead to an interesting development in the cubes.

Evaluation

When I began this project the goal was to further expand upon the resource, based around the idea that a creative process could be used to provide relief from the symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. In evaluating the outcome of the project it is essential to accept and name factors that would have affected the results.

Co morbidity

As with most mental illnesses, OCD comes with a myriad of co-morbid conditions such as Mysophobia, Body Dysmorphia, Compulsive skin picking, Delayed sleep phase syndrome and Depression. When trying to factor in these elements in conjunction with creative distraction, it makes creating a working environment more difficult, not to mention the changes in the severity of the symptoms. However, working on a widened time and focus scale, these elements have been much more manageable than previously when I have tried to implicate a step by step resource.

Self Help

During the time I have been trying to construct and put this theory into practise, I have had the advantage of being able to get a greater understanding of the elements of this illness through my therapy with a psychotherapist, but I have undertaken this process entirely detached from that. The reason this is of note is that while I have gathered information from this resource to inform what I have tried to undertake, this has essentially been a piece of self help and therefore is open to the disadvantages of trying to treat oneself.

Full Disclosure

Due to the nature of my illness I have not be able to disclose certain elements of the exposure that I undertook, which while is not vital to this report on the project, does leave a bit of a gap in the evaluation of whether certain elements have being successful or not.

Conclusion

In evaluating a project such as this, I need to examine whether or not I achieved my original goals and examine how they have evolved as the process and work have developed. The initial period of experimentation in regards to which medium I would approach for the final idea was important and interesting, because it gave me the opportunity to expand my research into other areas of the creative arts that I had little or no experience in, such as sound (which I don’t believe is a medium that I will thrive with at this point in time) and print work. Despite the enjoyment of experimenting with anything new, neither experiment was something with which I would be able to thoroughly explore in order to get results regarding the theoretical basis at this time.

Ceramics was the only option regarding the progression of this theory that was practically viable, with regards to viewer and context, as the sound work was based in repetition, and produced a quite violent effect on the mind and that works in opposition to my desire to create a conscious or subconscious connection via the familiar with the viewer of the work. The Staged element of the ceramic process was the origin of my original foray into Creative Substitution / Distraction but I had not previously envisioned a way (prior to the Two States element) that the construction / creative process could co exist within the confines of essentially what was to be a therapeutic resource. In that sense I feel like this has been successful, as with time and self-awareness I have managed to develop a good working relationship with the process and the requirement of the material.

I found working with clay exciting, challenging and exact, and as the project progressed I found that my skill level increased dramatically as my confidence with the material improved. Aside from the contexts of the materials uses historically and contemporarily and the aspect of tactile familiarity, I found that immersing myself in such a physically and emotionally demanding process led to a very natural evolution of ideas as well as developing practical skills that will transfer to other areas of my practice in the future.

With regards to producing an effective body of work, I believe that I have achieved this, via a lot of hard work and experimentation. All the while this has been informed by my research into the lives and processes of Matisse and Picasso, into the writings of Kandinsky[5] and my pursuit of finding ‘outsider’ artists such as Mikey Welsh, Michael Hoffee and Greg Anke. The work I have produced has merit within ceramics because of the construction of the forms and the skill and time involved and quality of production, but also the decoration is validated in its unflinchingly reactionary personal honesty, an honestly that is at the core of where I want to be as a person and an artist.

---

[1] In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders. 4th Edition. American Psychiatric Association. 1994.

[2] The example given by the APA cites an individual who has thoughts that he is dirty, infected, or otherwise unclean which are persistent and uncontrollable. In order to feel better, he washes his hands numerous times throughout the day, gaining temporary relief from the thoughts each time but washing to the point of excessive irritation of the skin, or creating an inability to perform everyday functions like work or school because of the obsessions or compulsions.

[3] www.mind.org.uk/help/medical [accessed 3.10.2010]

[4] Veale, D. and Willson, R. 2005. Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. 1^st edition. UK. Constable and Robinson Ltd.

5. Kandinsky, W. 1977. Concerning the spiritual in art. 1^st edition. Dover Publications Inc.

thoughts on abstraction

Interesting 2 discussions today, which two very different people about abstraction and the common misconceptions regarding it. The main one being that it's just slapping paint around, the sad thing being of course that the majority of artists who claim to be abstract are just slapping paint around which i wouldn't mind if they took the time to call themselves abstract expressionist or something and were done with it. once someone did an "abstract" portrait of me, which was just their usual mixes of colour and two circles representing my glasses. It was not a portrait. it wasn't even abstraction. and while it is their inalienable right to paint however they want, i think this outlines the basic point i'm making about the errors of abstraction.

lets pop to wikipedia a second...

abstract art:

Abstraction is a process by which higher concepts are derived from the usage and classification of literal ("real" or "concrete") concepts, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" is the product of this process – a concept that acts as a super-categorical noun for all subordinate concepts, and connects any related concepts as a group, field, or category.

Abstractions may be formed by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose. For example, abstracting a leather soccer ball to the more general idea of a ball retains only the information on general ball attributes and behavior, eliminating the other characteristics of that particular ball.

OR more interestingly....

In computer science, abstraction is the process by which data and programs are defined with a representation similar in form to its meaning (semantics), while hiding away the implementation details. Abstraction tries to reduce and factor out details so that the programmer can focus on a few concepts at a time. A system can have several abstraction layers whereby different meanings and amounts of detail are exposed to the programmer. For example, low-level abstraction layers expose details of the computer hardware where the program is run, while high-level layers deal with the business logic of the program.

The following English definition of abstraction helps to understand how this term applies to computer science, IT and objects:

abstraction - a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance^[1]

Abstraction captures only those details about an object that are relevant to the current perspective. The concept originated by analogy with abstraction in mathematics. The mathematical technique of abstraction begins with mathematical definitions, making it a more technical approach than the general concept of abstraction in philosophy. For example, in both computing and in mathematics, numbers are concepts in theprogramming languages, as founded in mathematics. Implementation details depend on the hardware and software, but this is not a restriction because the computing concept of number is still based on the mathematical concept.

In computer programming, abstraction can apply to control or to data: Control abstraction is the abstraction of actions while data abstraction is that of data structures.

• Control abstraction involves the use of subprograms and related concepts control flows
• Data abstraction allows handling data bits in meaningful ways. For example, it is the basic motivation behind datatype.

One can regard the notion of an object (from object-oriented programming) as an attempt to combine abstractions of data and code.

The same abstract definition can be used as a common interface for a family of objects with different implementations and behaviors but which share the same meaning. The inheritance mechanism in object-oriented programming can be used to define an abstract class as the common interface.

The recommendation that programmers use abstractions whenever suitable in order to avoid duplication (usually of code) is known as the abstraction principle. The requirement that a programming language provide suitable abstractions is also called the abstraction principle.

As any sane individual would agree, neither of these concepts, in particular the latter can justify slapping paint around or creating a nonsensical mush of blobs and lines. Whether or not you chose to take abstraction to a simplification of a group of complicated images and intermingle them with a series of complicated ideas, is to a degree irrelevant as long as the basic principle of understanding the process and reasoning is in place. It's only mainly because people slap the label of abstract onto the paintings i make that i felt the real compulsion to get a grasp of the idea about 3 years ago. I've subsequently held primarily with the computer science definition (after a lengthy conversation with software architect Dan Grimes) and this has been the direction my work has been moving in. However I got stuck in a formulaic rut, much to my frustration and also lack of realisation. And what was originally an evolving process of reinvention and evolution, but it got snagged on something and while experimenting with work still, there was becoming an exhausting and unsatisfying trend to produce the same images, experiments being routinely shot down.

In such situations there is only one thing to blame. Everything except your own approach. So I have begun a project of 25 paintings of different sizes, which will form the beginning of my 2012 work, in them i want to explore the most basic and mundane subject matter and the most complex and inexplicable subject matter. This at this point probably would be classified as pretentious, but it really isn't. It's an ambition. I want to do something totally new. I actually want to try to stick to a steadfast methodology and see it through, rather than letting the shadow of what's been done before spoil it before it's had a chance to breath. i've already completed 5 of these paintings. I'm not a great believer in lots of talk and little action. But this is the outline of the project.

With regards to other media, my main focus is now completely shifting to painting. There was something at the Picasso exhibiton at the tate that reminded me. it was standing in front of the 3 dancers, which was the painting that made me want to paint. I could look at it all day. But there was other work, like Picasso's ceramics which i liked, but lack the commitment of paintings. I feel like this applies to me also. The movement of paint, the knowledge of colour and meaning of working with it is more important. I used to be thrilled by the transformation process in ceramics but currently I don't have the ability to make them, and with that the thrill has become a frustrating idea. I need control. I want to construct on a two dimensional surface. Fuck. i dunno. the new paintings may be universally hated. but at least i will be being honest and creating something that is true to an ideal and not just pandering to other peoples pressure and my own fear.

Got wood

I've done four paintings now which is good because I've got quite long way to go to 25 and the new one is 60 x 60 which is fairly large which is a plus to figure out in new language style vs scale etc wise and new kind of style and motifs and colour usage progressing well. Kind of linking together which is quite nice and all very positive. Pretty pleased with how it's all turning out and
quite motivated towards working more and it's all good.

Working On the new work.

Getting more wood tomorrow. Stocked up on supplies. More coming in two weeks, like mad paint son. Ugh. Anyway so 3/25 done.

Painting is like making love to the canvas

Well that will explain why I've got such bad carpet burn. But seriously that quote is daft. But I've been painting. Finished a small one. Now moving to a large canvas. But I'm no going to be be daunted. Probably. Meh.

Feathers

So had a good paint this morning, then had to go out. I was wriggling with it for a good two hours. This one is proving tricksy, as the new and yet unwritten project manifesto should dictate the painting has to be largely unedited. So it has to be a raw, emotive crash. A reaction of honesty. Although I'm still lying. To a degree, but maybe that will make for better work. But then fails the idea and invites formula. Though formula doesn't include colour. Only style, content, method. Power nap (first in a long time) then more.

Well that enough for now.

I mean not only talking crap but painting. I might try and go and curl up in a ball.

Organic

The missing piece of the puzzle is organics. Not content. Content is never missing. That's stupid and impossible. Organic development is the key. To this anyway. The formula doesn't need the open organic. More the closed/rational/ rationalised. I'm a monster of course so that is irrelevant. AND that is why content is so irrelevant.

Once some

Thing new begins it becomes easy to stray from concentration and focus on what is done. Looking to it for help in unlocking the next stage. I don't think I'm reinventing the wheel. But no one really has. I am growing tired.

I'm working away.

The new paintings are coming along ok. It's difficult to let go of the fact that they will not go down well. I don't know how people who are non neurotic cope with painting. Maybe that's why so many painters have that desperate arrogance, the cling film veil over the knowledge that they are hacks. I'm pretty sure I'm a hack.

All things pass

Into the night. I'm going to paint tomorrow, which will be good. I'm making sure I get back in to the new studio and making it mine. Good bye horses.

Pawing

I just wrote a bunch of stuff about how the new painting is going pretty well etc and then posted a picture and it wiped all the text. But it's easing up. I'm enjoying painting, listening to nhm and not doing anything formulaic.

The formula is tired. Have to keep making new ones.

Click click click

I realised that painting from pitch black background is amazing when I'm depressed. It's much easier to pop something from black rather than dark grey.

Shoopi do wop

Nothing is interesting

I am going to be working on some new work, painting wise.

I want to paint. My new painting is about a woman who jumped off a building.

True story.

I don't post my paintings on here or my website anymore because they're different and I'm sick of the criticism.

these are a couple of practise boards. warming up for the offensive.

**

And I'm never buying fucking Windsor and Newton primer again

Because it is utter crap.

Bullshit.

It's weird how "it" develops. Like something under the skin. It's not inspiration. I don't believe in that or buy the concept. It's more freedom to be honest. Like being friendly with your gut. That's why I'm starting a new painting at 2.55am.

Awesome

Do you know much about constellations grandma?

- I know they live up there. (nods at ceiling)

My nib broke

And I can't find any pliars to remove it from the pen. So no
More fucking painting today. Ridiculous.

..

Painting and thinking briefly About when people attribute the FACT that spending time with them is a learn experience for you. Such delusion and arrogance. people are. I'm Painting. Which devolves language a bit which is ironic considering how bad my paintings are.

My comic was reviewed on pop tastic art

You can read the review here :)

http://poptasticart.com/?p=47