November 8th, the Arts Center of the Ozarks is hosting their 10th Annual 5 by 5 show. This is the piece that I have donated for their auction.

The New "Invisible Thread"

For several years, I have had a dilemma on where I wished my "Invisible Thread" painting to go. I completed the 6' x 12' piece and many years later decided to break down the original composition into 5" strips. Simultaneously, I struggled with where to take my photography since I currently do not have a dark room and am not particularly gravitated towards Photoshop. Naturally, I had several artistic dilemmas to conquer. 

Recently, I decided to embrace abstraction not only in my painting but in my photography. I have experimented with arranging countless compositions of the strips and documenting it using photography. Not only do I have the capability of creating new composition arrangements, I also can alter the hues and saturation of the photographs. I started with a completed painting that was then broken down, rearranged and altered with photography. What started with one piece, has now resulted in multiple new artworks that continues to grow in numbers.

Artist Drive to Create

People often ask artists why do they create when there are countless artworks in the world. They argue that nothing is "new" in art anymore. I pondered for quite some time on this question. It's a logical point of view. I find that it is an innate drive to create a piece of art, which in my case is visual. Art becomes personal and individualized when the original meaning of the inspirational piece/movement has been altered to a certain degree. It's a way to look at the world and all the information that is comprised from it and decide to make a statement about it, whethere it is on a grandioso scale or not.  Also, art today is branching out into numerous categories that are challenging to organize.
What I desire to create changes due to my interest in multiple mediums. For example, I emphasized in Photography, but ironically with all the techonological advances in it, I have become drawn into painting. I am slow to accept technology in art within my own work, not others. I could spend hours at a time in a dark room, but find it painful to sit down to a computer and work on a Photoshop. My creativity lies in the old hands-on approach. You could say it relates back to craftsmanship.

Revisions and Experimentation

As my art show draws nearer, I have fine tuned a few paintings and began to experiment with new paintings. I have documented my work in progress as well as completed work.  Several are detail shots. The last picture is of the 5 inch strips that are from a former painting called "The Invisible Thread." I'm playing with how pieces of a previous work can transform into an interesting new composition.

As an artist, I am often asked, "Who inspires you?" Over the course of the years, I have been consistently drawn to various painters and photographers such as: Marc Chagall, Christopher H. Martin, Gregory Crewdson, Jackson Pollock, Henri Bresson Cartier and W. Eugene Smith.
Each artist has an attribute that causes me to gravitate towards their work. For example, in Crewdson's work, I enjoy the unknown narrative of his photographs which leave you with an eerie and voyeuristic sensation.  If you have seen the "Wonder World" exhibit at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, you will see one of his works. My love for abstract came about from a gallery showing many moons ago in Dallas that featured the work of a local artist by the name of Christopher H. Martin. I began to understand how color can move you in mysterious ways without explanation. After several years into my photographic education, my professor discussed the work of the photojournalist, Eugene Smith. He persevered with relentless energy and tenacity to capture photographs that told a unique story within the picture frame. He truly understood and honored the editing process in photography. Nothing was put into the frame without intent. Henri Bresson Cartier also upheld the believe that everything in the frame should be considered. It is to grab you in and lead your eye throughout the photograph. He embodies the idea that you must always be alert to the environment around you for things change in a blink of an eye. One a different note, the Abstract Expressionist, Pollock, took a 180 approach from Cartier and Smith, for he he delved into his work without intention but rather an impulsive method. While not on the abstract realm of Pollock, Chagall engaged his viewers with his use of vivid colors, animals, and lovers through the sensation of light, aerial, and symbolic applications in his paintings.