MFA Residency Summary Semester 2

Joanne Stowell

LUCAD MFA

Residency 2 Summary

July 30, 2014

 

           The past semester brought about huge changes in my work. This was the first time that I had ever really worked in a loose, slightly abstracted style. This was also the first time that I put a great deal of thought into the ideas behind the paintings, instead of simply focusing on making them look nice. The work that I brought to this second residency consisted of oil paintings of my children in various sizes, most of which were done with a limited palette. Since this style is so new to me, I am well aware that it is definitely not yet perfected, but I am still very pleased with the result overall. After this residency I now have an even better idea of where I want to take my work in terms of both style and ideas.

Much of the feedback that I received about my work throughout the residency was very similar. Some of the most common responses were actually very surprising to me and not at all something that I expected anyone to say. Most of the people who viewed my work preferred the car scenes above any of my other paintings. This was not surprising as the car scenes are also my favorite, since that idea holds the most meaning to me personally. What did surprise me was the amount of people who felt that my work was dark and creepy, mostly because of the amount of black that I used. I used that amount of black on purpose as a way to try to create a sense of drama, contrast and also show some of my frustrations as a parent, but creepy was not my intention. Some of the other suggestions and feedback that I received about my work, as well as suggested artists and books, are as follows:

·         Experiment with ways to handle the paint – the mark should either respond to the form or disappear

·         Vary the size of the palette knife and try different way to use it, such as more scraping

·         Think about the relationship between the size of the figures to the size of the canvas and experiment with the canvas size

·         Stick to the small paintings, they have more energy

·         Get interested in the background, it need more clear decision making

·         Find a way to make the white spaces go back, instead of come forward as they are now

·         Go deeper with the palette and add more color

·         TOO MUCH BLACK

·         Modulate the black

·         Stay away from both pure white and pure black

·         Try limiting palette further

·         Possibly start working in just black and white and add color on top transparently

·         Consider leaving the kids out of the painting and finding ways to represent then without actually showing them (show traces left by children)

·         Go more narrative

·         Try working on wood panel or masonite

·         Remove the focus from the figures to the surrounding space

·         Experiment with cropping

·         Become more mysterious and less sentimental

·         Look at films

·         Go either more abstract or more realistic - pick a side

·         Try using different mediums

·         Fill the empty space (car windows…)

·         Consider motion – What am I saying by freezing time?

·         Avoid hard edges

·         Insert parts of self and father into paintings

·         Gather data about own relationship with children WITHOUT painting

·         Be more subjective

·         Manipulate the surfaces to bring out more meaning

·         Artists: Damon Lehrer, Marlene Dumas, Philip Guston, Sanya Kantarovsky, Brett Armory, Nicole Eisenman, Dana Schutz, Wilhelm Sasnal, Scott Grodesky, Leon Golub, Walter Sickert, Tim Gardner, Karen Kilinmik, Maureen Gallace, Balthus, Magnus von Plessen, Eberhard Havekost, Celilia Beaux, Whiting Tennis, Dijkstra, Van Gogh (for interiors), Giacometti, Jackie Grendel, Mamma Anderson, Robert Diebenkorn, Sally Mann and Jenny Saville

·         Books: Robert Rosenblum’s The Romantic Child, Picasso’s World of Children, Philip Aries’ Centuries of Childhood, William Blake’s Songs of Innocence, Linda Nochlin’s Representing Women, Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document, Sigmund Freud’s The Uncanny, Roland Barthes’ The Third Meaning, Norman Bryson’s The Logic of the Gaze

The most controversial aspects of my work were absolutely my use of black and my use of a limited palette. While almost everyone found the black to be creepy, the opinions of my palette and whether or not I should continue to use pure black varied from person to person. Some felt that I should stop using black all together, some felt that I should continue to use black but just modulate it, and some liked my use of black and my limited palette, some felt that I should use a full color palette, some felt that I should use an even more limited palette, and finally some felt that I should use only black and white. Personally I liked using a limited palette and I will most likely stick to it for the majority of my work this semester. I will, however, work on finding ways to modulate the black and the white so that they do not deaden the space. I also think that it would be more successful if I made my palette more obviously limited so that people can see that it was done on purpose and not due to lack of knowledge about color mixing.

I found the majority of the suggestions and feedback that I received at the residency to be very helpful. Many people made suggestions about trying different materials, which is something that I have already begun doing. I have purchased several different mediums, as well as different sized palette knifes and wood panels to paint on. Working on canvas was starting to become a problem last semester as it prevented me from making some of the marks that I wanted to make with the palette knife. I am already seeing that there are so many more possibilities for different types of mark making while working on wood panel. I also like how am able to cut the panels into whatever size I want, which is giving me so much more freedom to experiment with size and scale.

As far as the ideas behind my paintings, I am still interested in the idea of motherhood and childhood, but I intend to push the chaos of this relationship much further this semester. Even though “creepy’ was not my intention last semester, I found the idea of painting my kids in a darker way very intriguing. I had originally switched my painting style to a looser, less controlled style in order to touch on the chaos and lack of control that I felt as a parent. Through the various critiques most people began to understand my ideas only once I explained them, but not before. This semester I want to work on finding ways to really express the chaos, frustrations and stress of motherhood in ways that people can understand and relate to, without me having to explain too much. I want to be able to get people to talk about how difficult it is to be a parent. To go along with one of the other common suggestions that I was given at the residency, I will also try to find ways of expressing this chaos, without actually painting my children. I am really interested in the idea of painting the traces that they leave behind, which are everywhere. I have already started doing a group of small painting of the objects that my children have left behind on the floor. Anyone with kids can understand that wherever the kids go, there is literally a trail that follows behind them of dropped toys, articles of clothing, etc. I am not saying that I will no longer paint my children, but I do plan on doing a mix of paintings both with and without them in order to help make my ideas not so much about my own kids, but about kids of this time and place in general.