twodressesstudio

"Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot physically see with his eyes. . . . Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an explosion into unknown areas." Arshile Gorky (1904-1948), Armenian-born American Abstract Expressionist painter.

This week marked the announcement of our first major project - Abstract Representation. It's been a challenge for me to think in terms of how I will accomplish an 'abstraction'. Our subject choices are: 1) a sport of activity, 2) a piece of music or 3) interaction with technology. I've chosen 'technology' and more specifically - my 'experience of snapping a photograph.' Sigh. I thought I was getting somewhere and yet when I reviewed my Several drafts, I still am not satisfied enough to dive out of what I have created digitally into painting. Below is a summary of my drafts so far, along with a larger photograph of my partner's hands! Let me explain. At one point, I had thought I would include somehow an image of hands framing a 'scene'...that's where his hands came in.... Writing about my understanding of this project here, will probably motivate me to understand it better and (knock on wood) I will improve upon my brainstorming thus far!

This morning (Feb 7) I changed direction to this image above in an effort to reintegrate the mechancial element of a camera as well as the 'organic' (ie. me!) back in. The sky is also a photograph I took and I think helped me to reconnect with the experience of composing and photographing it.

Above is the result of a 2 hour exercise this week in "reduction". It started with taking a black and white photograph, and with tracing papers outline the vertical, horizontal, diagonal, circular lines and finally the 'solid areas in different values.' Then place them on top of each other and compose another sketch choosing lines. Finally, crop it and use one color for your final example. I decided to use the shutter mechanics since I had planned to draw them for my final abstraction assignment. My most recent draft is photographed below.

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