Sunday, October 3, 2010

...handed to me on a plate







"Peak" paintings by Julia Kuhl courtesy of frosch & portmann gallery........
"Mount" paintings by Carla Knopp.

Julia's are so beautifully distilled to the essence of their painted imagery.
Mine seem self-indulgent and lacking the confidence to be simple. ....or to simply be.

Lately I've been pondering the honesty of my work. It seems I'm still overly influenced by external considerations. I really do best when I go hyper-insular. That's where the beautiful shit is, and it's my job to go find it. It is not my job to make sure everyone appreciates it. It's not my job to limit my findings to that which can be easily consumed by a mildly engaged audience. It's not my job to devise social constructs under the guise of art.

Go see all of Julia's work. I really like it and it deserves to be presented as its own post. But it's also such a weirdly direct lesson for me, that I had to compare. It's both devasting and exciting.


4 comments:

M.A.H. said...

Nice find. I like the watercolors. Simple but not irritatingly twee. I know what you mean. I wish I could go super simple w/o thinking I need to have more.

Carla said...

I like those watercolors too. I was going to delete and redo as a post on her, but you've busted me, so post will stand as is.

Steven LaRose said...

This is were I get confused. I get the fear of being "self-indulgent" and yet, isn't it necessary in order to be confident and simple? Trusting the self to just lay down the kernel of a painting and sticking with it, is sort of cocky confidence isn't it? Sort of a delusion of grandeur that is utilized for brevity. Is it not our jobs to think of the audience? Can my audience simply be you and Mary Addison?

Carla said...

I mean self-indulgent in a very particular small way, to do with fussiness of paint handling. I feel I 'lay down the kernel' of a painting, but then it gets tossed about, and aside, while I play in the dirt. I need to be more cocky and delusional and brief. I crave that.

As for audience, oy vey, I did go there. Next post.