Works in Progress

So, I have three works in progress right now. I'd like to have lots of works in progress since I expect them each to be relatively simply constructed, but inspired and representing a compelling use of the material. I need more discarded art, I'll be looking at CCA, maybe Laney College, as well as some of the artist studios near here in Oakland, maybe a thrift or salvage store...where else can I find abandoned art to dissect.



I got the idea to add a head on to this one. The colorful face is really beautiful,I think, and it just floats there atop the seated figure so effortlessly, like a bobblehead. I think it needs something more in that grey brown area. Maybe an extension of the burgeoning grid form.


The figure is lashed to another canvas. It is mostly done, but could use some work on the lashing. Maybe tie the substrate canvas together with opened up figure. Maybe give it a more three dimensional look. The canvasette is weak and has torn easily where I went through it with the hole punch, whereas canvas from the canvas board is much tougher than the canvasette, which I guess is textured paper with gesso.


Don't know where I'm going with this one. I think I'll cut the panels down smaller. The paint circles should be melted onto the base, but how?

Traces of Time and Change

I read the article: Traces of Time and Change: Kim Youngae - by Cassandra Fusco and it presented some interesting ideas that I may try and work into this project. The New Zealand based artist, Kim Youngae, uses cotton-pulp casting to exactingly recreate building debris, such as chunks of plaster and wrought iron gate pieces, remafde in the cotton pulp molds. Her work references history and the cultural significance of these building materials. Unfortunately, all the imagesin the library provided pdf were high-contrasted to near death by the scanning process and I cannot find any better images online. Any ideas where I can get images of Youngae's work to share on this blog?

Shredding Canvas

My first stroke of inspiration is to shred the canvas into strips. I am a little fearful at first, thinking that it is cruel to just brutally shred the figure paintings. But, I get over it, I must disassociate the material from my imagined preconceptions. Once I get started, I really enjoy the feeling and sound of ripping the canvas. It is easy, and the grid weaving pattern seems naturally to like being torn in long thin strips.



I remove some canvas from the "canvas board" It is just glued onto the cardboard.


Shredding it; this seems to be a process that is built into the canvas material itself, like it was made to tear into the incrementally narrow strips. These ones are about 12 threads wide.


That's one painting. I kind of like this perspective, like it could be an installation right now. I guess one element of process oriented art is there are all the little moments of art along the way, usually only enjoyed by the one making it.


I'm cutting a frame out of another canvas board painting. I like the shape of the chair behind the figure.



I make holes to thread the strips of canvas through.

So this is the result of the first foray into this process. I heave gotten some positive responses to it already, but I am wondering where I can go with it. This will probably be one element in a larger piece, I want to find out what I can do that works along with this structure.

Textbook for the project

Since this is an independent study class I thought I should find a textbook. Here is my first pick: Green Guide for Artists by Karen Michel.It's a beautiful book with some really good ideas. It contains recipes for glues and paints as well as lots of tips for "greening" the studio. It has nice photos and layout. It is a little thin, so I will definitely need to suppliment it with more scholarly sources. Intuitively, I question the true green potential of some of the recipes. For example, wheat paste require all this wheat to be grown, processed into flour and then boiled for 1/2 hour plus some ingredients like alum or quick lime to be added as a preservative; is that really greener than mass producing acrylic medium or glue? Probably, but how much really. Lots to learn.

Working with discarded paintings

I'm just experimenting to see what I can do with these as an art material.

Removing canvas from canvas board. I never really dissected one of these before, it just canvas glued on cardboard, not too suprising.

Removin rectangular sections

Shredding it

Removing dried paint from the container

Preliminary Materials

These are some of the materials I'll be starting with, I assume I'll need to collect more art and other materials to recycle as the work progresses. Here are a bunch of unwanted oil paintings from a figure painting class. Also some paint which has dried out in it's containers.

ROUGH DRAFT OF SYLLABUS

Sustainable Practices in Mixed Media Art Making
Ren Dodge
Art 669-67 Special Study

Objectives: To develop and exercise techniques for sustainable art making. Sustainable means of art making should require minimal waste of energy and materials. Should not support the creation of toxic materials and can actually serve as a means for reducing and removing toxic bypducts of art making from the ecosystem by binding these materials in a stable art form.

Focus will be on flat work or wall hanging type work to include painting, drawing, assemblage, collage, other compositing techniques, etc...

Skills and Techniques I would like to develop include
-Reconstitute dried paint
-Use of/making of sustainable non-toxic glues and binders
-Collage and assemblage techniques; glues, sewing, folding, laminating, etc..
-Substrate Recomposition
-Learn archival techniques for sustainable art
-Learn archival properties of recycled materials

Find Artists Doing This: Robert Rauschenberg
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/NYT-Kimmelman-Rauschenberg-in-Retrospect-12-23-05.html

Serial Work
Once I develop some of the techniques I will be using, I will connect it to my artistic style and develop a series. I would expect to complete 6-12 quality pieces by the end of the semester. I can imagine some elements of the work already; it is wall hanging, composited of recycled artwork and art materials. (As I usually do I try to make my work "about" as much as possible and to be dense with meaning. I consider the state of being alive, infuse the work with a sense of my personal self, and feel the greater human culture is naturally referenced thereby, and of course any work is going to be about ITself too and thus relate to other art, I could go on...)

Challenging art as a sacred object
Art has long been held above other material things created by humans, in fact to say something is "art" is to elevate it to a higher value than other objects. Is art making such a rare and special event that it may be exempted from conventions of sustainable production desirable in other fields? Is the the use of toxic manufacturing techniques (pigments, resins, solvents, etc..) acceptable by otherwise conscientious persons. And of course it must be fastidiously preserved by more energy intensive methods of conservation. Art can never be recycled, reused, reclaimed for another use it is apart from other objects.

EXPLORE: Art as a material or process for waste handling and disposal.