Blogging assignment #2: Part 1

Lisa Sanditz

• Image: cityscapes, buildings, commercial signs, commercial goods (socks, pearls, shoes...), mountains, ambiguous void, water, sky, tree...
• Process: A mix of gesture, abstraction, and representation; layered and densely painted; a variety of mark making, including smaller patterned strokes and large painterly blotches; flattened picture plane; vibrant color; surface tactility
• Concept: Sanditz is approaching the concept of the “sublime landscape” from the relevant vantage point of incorporating the commercial with the natural, seeing the two as a whole, and balancing images of “the marketplace and the wilderness” (crggallery.com). She accepts today’s landscapes as how they are now and says that she is “equally engaged by what is the beautiful and what is the degraded” (smithsonianmag.com).

Tomory Dodge

• Image: “exploding” images, displaced landscape, the American West, the Arctic, trees, trash and debris
• Process: Starts with “more recognizable imagery” and then abstracts it, using the original image and the action of painting as a “guide” (acme). Mark-making and “suspension” of mark; rendering the allusion of gesture; thinking of brushstrokes as “types or ideas of brushstrokes” (Dodge);

“Before, the brushstrokes constructed the image...now the brushstrokes are the image” [Dodge], and in doing so calls greater attention to the placement of forms, the representation of gesture, and the color interactions; the very activity, decisions, and energy that have brought the painting into the world are not only there to be seen, but become, in effect, part of the painting’s subject matter. Where previously the subject of a painting would be, for example, a nocturne in which a tree is illuminated with strands of colored lights, the subject now, in many ways, is painting itself... (Nickas).

• Concept: Site depicted as “non-site”; havoc and inevitable destruction; collapse; the remains of a “human presence” (Luke); “...the association with catastrophe and disaster with redemption and transcendence.” (Dodge); seduction vs. threat

Tom McGrath

• Image: Contemporary landscapes, carports, cars, trees, buildings, roads/roadsides, headlights/light from headlights...
• Process: Works from photo/photo collages; paints wet into wet--thick wet paint; scraping, drips, definition of mark; large gestural brush strokes.
• Concept: McGrath is exploring the nature of perception by depicting the contemporary landscapes through a car window. He is interested in movement and how most people really see the world while driving. He is also, similarly to Sanditz, interested in finding the balance between the man-made and the natural and discovering if “an increasingly threatened space consumed by urban sprawl [can] still provide a romantic, transcendental experience?” (saatchi).

Keith Tyson

• Image: figures, dinosaurs, stars, geometric shapes, word/numbers/symbols, clouds, golf course, animals, flowers, cells, genomes---everything.
• Process: Tyson uses different sources outside of his control, such as mathematic equations, roulette, historical dates, among other things, to determine mark-making, repetition, image, color, etc... of his paintings. He explores a number of different media, including oil painting, sculpture, photography, bronze casting, assemblage... Through the diversity of approach he is able to capture the diversity and connectedness of “everything”.
• Concept: Everything. And how we make sense of it. Randomness, mathematics, history, nature, mythology, etc...

Eamon O’Kane

• Image: houses, architectural structures, nature (trees, lawn, foliage), wood, interior objects (tables, chairs, rugs, window panes...).
• Process: mixed media, oil painting, acrylic painting, drawing, installation.
• Concept: O’Kane uses his paintings and drawings as meditations on the convergence of architecture and nature “and the pursuit of a Utopian architectural space and its uneasy relationship with nature.” (Stevenson). He explores all aspects of these settings, including the interior design and depicts and idealistic setting where the two find harmony. His paintings are devoid of figures, but not necessarily devoid of human presence--the furniture and interior design seems to be a direct reflection of an individual’s personal style and evidence of their existence. Could the elimination of the figure be O’Kane’s commentary on the disfunctionality of a Utopia when people are involved?

Christopher Russell

• Image: people in nature, water, mountains, rocks, crystal, snow, ripples, “ribbon”, tree branches.
• Process: oil on un-gessoed canvas; layering; erasing; scraping; mark-making. Russell's paintings are a fluid exploration of the subject matter, constantly evolving. He is not as concerned with replication as he is about connecting and conveying that connection to the viewer.
• Concept: Russell is interested in the exploration of nature and our interactions with it. "He looks at the earth and cosmos as a source of mysticism, purpose, and wholeness that is within the realms of science rather than the supernatural" (chrisrussellart.blogspot.com). He explores natural cycles, geometry within nature, mysticism, wholeness/purpose within nature, outdoor lifestyle, and traditional nature-based spirituality.

Tim Eitel

• Image: figures, everyday situations, garbage, sidewalk curbs, pigeons
• Process: photo-realism; recognisable images in an abstracted space; flattened background; oil on canvas.
• Concept: Eitel is interested in presenting the “invisible” to the viewer--scenes from everyday life that might easily be overlooked. He allows the narrative to be ambiguous so that the viewer must create context and meaning from what they “know”. The images he uses are “fragments of images and memories” that he isolates from any sure environment, “but Eitel achieves this so undramatically, that the viewer merely has the sense of something intangible going on between the brushstrokes.”

Karla Wozniak

• Image: buildings, signs, advertisement, roadside, cityscape
• Process: Wozniak works from photos taken by herself on road-trips across the US. She collages images from multiple photographs together in their paintings to create an overall sense of place. She uses the tactility of the surface in different ways depending on the subject, and goes through a process of layering and scraping to achieve a sense of time and change that these places have undergone. She uses a mix of different media including oil, acrylic, collage, watercolor, graphite, etc...
• Concept: Wozniak is interested in urban and rural development and she specifically alludes to historic architects and urban planners in her work. She explores the concept of time, change, and sense of place, mainly through the depiction of the contemporary American landscape, focusing on signage and advertisements.

Melissa Cowper-Smith

• Image: household interiors, objects (cup, plant, lip gloss, lamp, dishes, etc..), chairs
• Process: different viewpoints in the same painting; painterly technique and mark-making; “strong playful palette”; collage, acrylic paint on canvas; digital prints.
• Concept: Melissa says that she is interested in “interested in the experience of memory, as it is constructed by interacting with objects, space and narrative.” She is exploring how objects and spaces become more then just things but gather sentimental significance and help define our memories and associations.