Sunday, October 07, 2007

Illustration Friday


My submission to Illustration Friday's special theme "Open". I wish I had time to create something brand new, but since I don't I figured submitting something was better than nothing at all!

This is also my very first time submitting to Illustration Friday. I really like how the site works, how navigating through submissions brings one to the artist's blog. Very neat. I think I will definitely be a more active participant in the future!

Monday, October 01, 2007

First painting of the school year has got the old wheels turning.



I think I really dislike writing reports or essays. I understand their merit, but I also resent them with every fibre of my being. It's not that I dislike writing, in fact I think I am a rather articulate and somewhat poetic writer when there is something that I am interested in enough to formulate into words.

I remember in high school I was a whiz at writing papers. Yet when I hit college [cegep] I suddenly went in a writing slump and received some of the worst marks ever on certain essays. I suppose I stopped caring about literature in my attempt to focus more on visual representation and stimulation. I stopped caring about the hidden significance in the written word.

Funny how I am now losing interest in the hidden significance behind art. Perhaps that isn't the best way to phrase it; I will try again: I am getting fed up with 'artists' trying to bullshit significance into their creations. In this information age it sometimes feels like art should represent something of 'deep significance' within the creator to be any good, or at least any good to the professor or curator. I think that's ludicrous.

My new resolution is to focus on the aesthetics and emotion/sensation my artwork emits. I'm tired of forcing a significance into something that would probably be far more interesting for the viewer to feel their way through and decide for themselves what it purports to them. That's not to say no thought will be put in on my end, that would be impossible. In critiques I am just tired of feeling like garbage is spewing from my palate when all I want to say is "I did this for the good feeling the aesthetics yield. Representation is up to the individual."

I better get back to my report.