Jona8than Green Art and Other Things

So it has been a week since posting on here, which is fine enough. Last week at the end was quite busy, with some other course work needing completion. I did manage to do some painting and work Friday evening, but the weekend was the Halloween weekend, so a lot of things were shot; to be expected.

Monday I took William Faulkner's advice "Kill your darlings", and painted over my explosion canvas. The painting wasn't working, and so quick as a whip, I started a new one over. Quite liberating in a way, and feeling much happier with this one already.

The mention of William Faulkner is interesting as well, for had a discussion of literature, text, and images last night in art theory. I feel like I straddle both areas at time, there is a huge love of reading and writing; and actually won an Arts and Letters Award one time for poetry in grade twelve. Planned on doing english and philosophy after a semester of pre-pharmacy. So did a year of English, and other arts courses.

Yet in my art making process, the combination of text and image come difficult to me. I do usually have a sense of narrative to my works, but I find it hard trying to achieve a sense of poetic to my works with words. It hasn't hit me yet.

Borrowed a book from the library about Luc Tuymans , I'm a little intrigued by his pieces, the muted colours, the efficiency of paint, the relation between title and image of the paintings.

It was dark as pitch this morning, which really just throws my day off. I don't like waking up in the dark, for to me, it means go back to bed. Still very grey out, reconsidering ever going to the Great North with 20 hour darkness, might just ruin me. Haha.

Had a studio visit with Pao Quang Yeh today, he is a officer with the Canadian Council of the Arts as well as being a practicing artist. We only had 15 minutes really, for more people wanted a studio visit with him than the previous artists.

Pao is a pretty insightful artist, he asked some hard and penetrating questions to me about my artwork, and in doing so, revealed that I might not have the actual reasoning for why I'm doing the stuff I am doing figured out yet. Which, I'll be honest, I don't; nor did I feel prepared today for some reason for some of those questions. Lack of alertness really, really ought to sleep better.

Those are not excuses or defenses against some of what he asked me. One thing he focused on, was the idea that I was not speaking with my own voice. That I was not sure of some of my reasoning, and that I was doing things that conflicted with my intentions. I should be honest with who I am, and where I am from, should not be apologetic with anything. Going to talk the talk, got to walk the walk. He cut under my personality to something a little inner, caught me off guard. Be damned if that happens again.
My skulls drawings were a sort of contention, in that he was not getting the intentions of what I wanted the skulls to be in the artwork; which goes back to my unsureness of the intentions of course. The mark making could be improved however, and there was advice to approach them as portraits not just renderings.

He didn't feel my painting, the current one in progress was working either. In that I didn't seem committed to it yet, even in the under painting. I am unsure of what he meant by that, and I neglected to ask more about that. I do have to get in to a bit more, if thats what he meant. Just got to bust in to it. He asked about combining my painting and drawing together. Said look at Ed Pien's work. I will say one thing, shouldn't mention artists you admire right off in a meeting. haha.

He liked my smaller drawings a bit more, the ones I do very quickly. They're small little sketches on some BFK paper, done with markers and pen work. They are nice, but I saw them as something more preparatory to my art. I had planned to do one, a small sketch of a rocket, as a bigger drawing. About 7ft by 4ft. He recommended doing more of them, in the small size, but many of them, hundreds and install them together;to think about what that would say. Interesting proposition, and one I have considered before. It just doesn't excite me the same way a large drawing does.

Was an interesting conversation, something to think about. Especially on how I communicate, in short time periods for instances and of course my art making. Does kind of lights a fire though

Hoping to do some painting before the night ends, though the stomach is gnawing upon itself. Currently at the library, working on an art theory paper. Sometimes I love writing and reading theory, other times, as of now, it is killing me.


I was informed to look at Zhang Huan lately, he has created some beautiful skull drawings done with incense ash. Culturally specific in a way, but yet, the meaning is very clear if one has some knowledge of his background and culture. They are also just beautiful, very well done. There seems to be an attempt to rehabilitate the icon as well. Not sure, shouldn't speculate. They are awesome though....hmm.

End of transmisson

To describe my materials in one word, the word would be "simple". The materials are chosen for their simplicity, and the small sensuality that I enjoy in them.

My drawings are graphite or charcoal on paper; usually graphite for the smoothness of the line, and the shine of the graphite. Charcoal is never forgotten though, the mat black is used sparingly. I always stick to black or grey tones, there is no colour in my media choice. The support has so far always been paper, a few in particular, but I do go through a range. I prefer smooth paper, I find it works best with my adding and subtracting, and usually whites, sometimes BFK cream or grey if feeling especially jolly. That is the extent though, I like the purity of black marks on white. The starkness perhaps.
The drawings are usually large, least a full sheet of paper, sometimes multiple sheets connected, or a large sheet; the expanse of space is enjoyed. I work in an additive/subtractive method, of using the eraser as a drawing tool as much as the pencil.

The paintings are on stretched canvas, though wood is not ruled out. Gessoed, sanded, and toned. Oil paint is what I use, with other media sometimes used like pencil, oil stick, spray paint. I would not call myself a mixed media painter though, does not seem a need to make that distinction. The palette range is very different than my drawings, the palette seems endless, pastel to neon to earths and darks. I am unsure of the distinction between the drawings and painting in terms of colour range as of yet.
The painting do start off usually as a sketch, drawn and redrawn till it feels right compositionally. Then it is drawn on the canvas, freehand, the grid doe not hold any appeal to me. Then light washes, undercoats and darks are applied, sometimes glazed, usually alla prima; due to time constraints.I have been introducing other mark making ways in to my painting, but still always feels like an oil painting to me.

The intaglio etchings are of an average size to myself, though some may consider them large. They are similar to the drawing in that there is an absence of colour, and the support is white, again that starkness. Created either on zinc or copper plate, not a big difference to me except in some technical factors.
They are created using the full range of intaglio techniques, and while printmaking is definitely more process based, they do not differ to me too much from my drawings. They seem of the same sort.

The subject matter, sources and influence, need some more time to digest.
Write some more later.

Very interesting, the process is so much a part of it

So I have been reading about William Kentridge today, a south african artist. I have encountered him before in Vitamin D: Drawing but of course, it was still images. Then in digital class the other day, Mark Prier, brought him up and talked of his animation technique. Then I found a great interview with him in pressPlay
where he has this interesting quote pertaining to drawings.

What does it mean to say that something is a drawing-as opposed to a fundamentally different form, such as a photograph? First of all, arriving at the image is a process, not a frozen instant. Drawing for me is about fluidity. There may be a vague sense of what you're going to draw but things occur during the process that may modify, consolidate or shed doubts on what you know. So drawing is a testing of ideas: a slow-motion version of thought. It does not arrive instantly like a photograph. The uncertain and imprecise way of constructing a drawing is sometimes a model of how to construct meaning. What ends in clarity does not begin that way.

-William Kentridge.
pressPlay page 408

That passage really struck me, it seems to encapsulate how I feel about drawing but could never seem to get at...yet. It seems so true to me. Going to ponder it more. The idea of drawing-animation is very cool as well, thoughts of application on my skull drawings have come to mind.


I did some painting last night, a lot better than I had been doing. Light washes, pushing paint, started using a paint stick as well, which felt right and looked good as well to me. Bringing another element to the painting. Did a little more this afternoon as well before coming to this library. Really wish I could get up earlier, I'm feeling like not getting enough done. A lot of ideas.

So as part of my fourth year work Independent Work of my Visual Arts degree I have created this blog.
Part of the fourth year requirments is a writing requirment, that goes in conjunction with your actual art. I intend to explore the writing side of things in this blog. So the majority of the blog writing will relat to my art and the making of it.

Today I have been doing some painting or preparing for painting. To be honest, I'm painting like an idiot now, so taking some time to regroup and get focused. I currently have 2 paintings started now, so going between them.
I have also recently purchased a large sheet of paper for a large scale drawing, so that is currently in the wings along with some etchings I want to attempt. So multitasking like an Apple comp. There are ideas for a video piece as well, but that depends on time and resources.