Fourth year paper attempt 2
Posted by Jona8than | | Posted On Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 6:20 p.m.
Jonathan Green was born two weeks late and seeing out of only one eye. A unique start to the world and this essay; such beginnings set the mood, setting, context, etc. of the essay. Or sometimes it is just an interesting detail.
Jonathan’s art consists of drawing, paintings, and printmaking. If asked that 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 a variety of media on paper; usually graphite for the smoothness of the line, and the shine of the graphite or Prismacolour markers for they are a high quality marker that allow me to work tonally. Charcoal is never forgotten though, the mat black is used sparingly. I usually stick to black or grey tones, rarely any colour used in my drawing.
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 drawing methods in graphite and marker, and usually whites, sometimes BFK cream or grey if feeling especially jolly.
The Skull 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; whereas my Rocket [Rocket just for state of reference] drawings are marker, pen, and graphite on paper and the sizes of these vary.
The paintings are on stretched canvas usually, and sometimes wood. Gessoed, sanded, and toned. Oil paint is what I use, with other media sometimes used like pencil, oil stick, and 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 start off usually as a sketch, drawn and redrawn till it feels right compositionally. Then it is drawn on the canvas, freehand, the grid does not hold any appeal to me. I would consider that I paint very directly, very confidently
The intaglio etchings are of an average size to me, 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. 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.
Drawing and painting are very intuitive after the initial research of gathering information and source material, while the references are around, they seem often too distracting. They become more like starting points to the creation. The drawings are just executed and finished usually in a sitting. The paintings sometimes start off as a small sketch, and then executed on canvas where they start to become. There is always an initial starting point. William Kentridge in an interview spoke of drawing as this,
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.
The construction of my art is through taking source ideas and thoughts, distilling it through my head, and then working at it. It is an intimacy and immediateness that fuels my art making.
The series of skull drawings are exploring an iconography that has been a part of human history, and has especially been included in art history. Skulls are a loaded icon; they are full of different meanings and have been appropriated for many types of meaning. I have researched different uses and appropriation of the skull imagery through the years, so I am dealing with this iconography in my drawings of them.
To myself, skulls have always popped up from time to time in my life and art practice. There has always been an interest in this object for me; and of course, with everyone, was a symbol of death. This meaning has changed over the years as my knowledge has expanded of different cultures, meaning, and appropriation. It still contains the reference of death to me, but through my drawing of the skulls it is done to show that the skull in various states of distortion. I did this by an addition and subtraction method to create an ephermal-ness to the skull, to reflect the varying states of meaning to the skull.
My drawings and paintings are a semiotic medley of different signs and meanings. They are images that are based in landscape, that make use of dystopian and apocalyptic elements, modernist symbols of progress, the figure relation to these objects. Peter Doig spoke about his paintings as "I don't think of my paintings as being at all realistic. I think of them as being derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of you.". This seems to suit my drawing and painting imagery, in that they are obviously more of a cognitive imagery, composed of many different thoughts and sources. To say they are of the cognitive, of the mind, reflects the
My research methods are very intuitive and wide arcing, covering a lot of ground. The library and the internet are my prime sources, for imagery and the information on the subject matter. I research a lot of different artists and different periods of art history, trying to get an understanding of the artist through biography, critical essays, and of course, their work. From there I will research other artists of the genre, tracing their influences, contemporary thought of the day, etc. Contemporary culture plays a role in my art as well, so magazines and the internet are sources for information.
It is hard to narrow down the number of artists that have influenced me over the years, and that currently influence me; it is kind of like the Paris run way. Who is good for this season? There are always the ones that stay from year to year, the classics perhaps, the ones that have had the greatest impact on my upbringing. So my short list would be:
Alberto Giacometti
Francisco Goya
Raymond Pettibon
Ed Pein
Royal Art Lodge/ Marcel Dzama
Wayne Thiebaud
Wim Delvoyle
So it follows from here to literate how these artists influence my art making, and in particular, this semester’s body of work.
Jonathan’s art consists of drawing, paintings, and printmaking. If asked that 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 a variety of media on paper; usually graphite for the smoothness of the line, and the shine of the graphite or Prismacolour markers for they are a high quality marker that allow me to work tonally. Charcoal is never forgotten though, the mat black is used sparingly. I usually stick to black or grey tones, rarely any colour used in my drawing.
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 drawing methods in graphite and marker, and usually whites, sometimes BFK cream or grey if feeling especially jolly.
The Skull 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; whereas my Rocket [Rocket just for state of reference] drawings are marker, pen, and graphite on paper and the sizes of these vary.
The paintings are on stretched canvas usually, and sometimes wood. Gessoed, sanded, and toned. Oil paint is what I use, with other media sometimes used like pencil, oil stick, and 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 start off usually as a sketch, drawn and redrawn till it feels right compositionally. Then it is drawn on the canvas, freehand, the grid does not hold any appeal to me. I would consider that I paint very directly, very confidently
The intaglio etchings are of an average size to me, 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. 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.
Drawing and painting are very intuitive after the initial research of gathering information and source material, while the references are around, they seem often too distracting. They become more like starting points to the creation. The drawings are just executed and finished usually in a sitting. The paintings sometimes start off as a small sketch, and then executed on canvas where they start to become. There is always an initial starting point. William Kentridge in an interview spoke of drawing as this,
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.
The construction of my art is through taking source ideas and thoughts, distilling it through my head, and then working at it. It is an intimacy and immediateness that fuels my art making.
The series of skull drawings are exploring an iconography that has been a part of human history, and has especially been included in art history. Skulls are a loaded icon; they are full of different meanings and have been appropriated for many types of meaning. I have researched different uses and appropriation of the skull imagery through the years, so I am dealing with this iconography in my drawings of them.
To myself, skulls have always popped up from time to time in my life and art practice. There has always been an interest in this object for me; and of course, with everyone, was a symbol of death. This meaning has changed over the years as my knowledge has expanded of different cultures, meaning, and appropriation. It still contains the reference of death to me, but through my drawing of the skulls it is done to show that the skull in various states of distortion. I did this by an addition and subtraction method to create an ephermal-ness to the skull, to reflect the varying states of meaning to the skull.
My drawings and paintings are a semiotic medley of different signs and meanings. They are images that are based in landscape, that make use of dystopian and apocalyptic elements, modernist symbols of progress, the figure relation to these objects. Peter Doig spoke about his paintings as "I don't think of my paintings as being at all realistic. I think of them as being derived more from within the head than from what's out there in front of you.". This seems to suit my drawing and painting imagery, in that they are obviously more of a cognitive imagery, composed of many different thoughts and sources. To say they are of the cognitive, of the mind, reflects the
My research methods are very intuitive and wide arcing, covering a lot of ground. The library and the internet are my prime sources, for imagery and the information on the subject matter. I research a lot of different artists and different periods of art history, trying to get an understanding of the artist through biography, critical essays, and of course, their work. From there I will research other artists of the genre, tracing their influences, contemporary thought of the day, etc. Contemporary culture plays a role in my art as well, so magazines and the internet are sources for information.
It is hard to narrow down the number of artists that have influenced me over the years, and that currently influence me; it is kind of like the Paris run way. Who is good for this season? There are always the ones that stay from year to year, the classics perhaps, the ones that have had the greatest impact on my upbringing. So my short list would be:
Alberto Giacometti
Francisco Goya
Raymond Pettibon
Ed Pein
Royal Art Lodge/ Marcel Dzama
Wayne Thiebaud
Wim Delvoyle
So it follows from here to literate how these artists influence my art making, and in particular, this semester’s body of work.
