Jona8than Green Art and Other Things

Been reading a few excerpts of Andre Bazin's "Art of Cinema" last night, it is pretty interesting. There are elements of cinema I would like to try one day, that just can not be done with drawing and painting, cept perhaps in the work of William Kentridge or Jeff Wall. Still up in the head really, just another piece of info to swirl about up there

"Painting and drawing seem to me to be too closely related to the subconscious, to something that goes beyond reason. This scares me, perhaps I would say too much about myself..."

Still needs some more revising...

My work deals with the ideas of death and loss, through the use of objects, space, and narrative. I use objects that have contain small memories and history to them, and by placing them in created and often neutral spaces, to convey the larger ideas of mortality and loss. I use the medium of drawing, for it can show the sensitively and vulnerabilities of being human. It is like a slow motion version of thought, for the process of drawing can be imprecise, and uncertain. Drawing captures this by the power of it being an unmediated impression of the artists hand and mark on the surface.

My research is very intuitive and habitual, a part of my daily routine. My research is engaged in areas of art, philosophy, gender issues, sexuality, sociology, literature and an increased interest in thanatology. Death and loss factor in my research in ideas dealing with how mortality and death are dealt with in western cultures, as in issues of confronting and overcoming. Ideas on desire and death have also become an idea of note as of late, the idea that death and desire are linked.

These drawings are a continuation of the drawings from last semester, albeit indirectly, a refocusing on the topics at hand. They led me through my research to a passage from Bill Viola

“I want to go to a place that’s seems like it’s at the end of the world. A vantage point from which one can stand and peer out in to the void—the world beyond…there is nothing to lean on. No references…

You finally realize that the void is yourself. It is like some huge mirror for your mind. Clear and uncluttered, it is the opposite of our urban distractive spaces. Out here, the unbound mind can run free. Imagination reigns. Space becomes a projection screen. Inside becomes outside. You can see what you are.”

This was an inspiration point for these drawings, to use the paper as a huge mirror for my mind. The emptiness of the paper would focus the attention on the objects, and create the mood associated with the idea.

The drawings are a collection of objects, and I am extrapolating from Christian Boltanski’s idea of ‘small memory’. For Christian Boltanski ‘small memory’, is memory about little things; trivia, jokes, memories about the little things in life. [ I’ll get the exact quote for this and footnote] The objects in these drawings have memory, but only about small things, small events. These objects however can be used, with their small memories to create larger meaning and ideas through the drawings of them.

The tie clip is a response to an event in my life; the drawing brings the words meditated passion to mind. I choose this specific object because it had personal meaning to me, but I felt it could communicate to others as well by drawing it. I drew this object existing in a neutral space, an empty space, as well as the other drawings. Luc Tuymans and Toba Khedoori both use large amounts of space in their works to a feeling of isolation and emptiness in their works, Khedoori in particular uses it to create a sense of placeless-ness and acute sense of isolation. The neutral space in my drawings work the same way, however they are not totally devoid of a referent like Khedoori’s or to an extent Tuymans, my drawings have a horizon line as a indicator of space and distance.

The tie clip is an object with social and cultural meaning to it, it is an object of restraint but yet also one of flourish. The ability of restraint is also seen as part of the flourish, the ability to restrain one’s self. The ties with its phallic connections play in to this.

Drawn in a realistic manner, from life, and surrounded it by a large mass of charcoal, the item has been marked with tape so it would not interfere with the drawing of the clip. The clip is surrounded with this greyness, to create a surface around the clip that is indeterminate and imposing, to equate it with death. The tie clip exists without the tie, so there is loss and inability to function. The desire for sex is often equated for the desire of death, for death holds the promise of release from desire.

The finger trap drawing is that of a finger trap in the empty or neutral space, hovering in the space and the drawing is split through the middle by the seam of the paper. Perspective and the horizon lines exist in the top of the drawing.

This object of the finger trap is a trick device, where you are trapped by your fingers, and when you try to haul or pull yourself out of, you only get more trapped, the trap tightens. The only way out is to push further in, and let go. The finger trap is made of pieces of bamboo, braided together; bamboo is often seen as a symbol of longevity as well as the twisting and twining in of braiding. The finger trap is a joke, not intended as a restraining device or such, but rather to be an example that one must think differently to escape a situation.

The split in this drawing is to change the perception of the drawing, an interruption of the braid, the linking of the finger trap. To escape the finger trap, one must push their fingers to the centre. If the finger trap is split in the drawing, can one escape when there is no centre to push to? Is one really trapped? So by giving the split, one can see the finger trap as complete or not.

The drawing of the hammer head is drawn in the upper half of the sheet, to place it close to the horizon line and give it a good expense of space.

The hammer head is a found object, was found with no handle. In a way it is decapitated, and remain useless. The head is still good, but it needs a new body, handle to work. I invested it with small, localized narrative through the use of the shadow; the shadow alludes to the missing handle, like the shadow of the handle had been burned in to the image, still there. The hammer head is scratched, and pitted from the activity of work. It is not the shiny new hammer of a store, but one with a history. By the look of the hammer, the lack of the handle and the shadow, along with its position on its side, all work to give the impression of the hammer head being dead.
The horizon line is included in all of the drawings, dividing the empty space up and giving ideas of distance and space. However this is all relative, for the space could be essentially a table top or a soccer field, there is nothing in the drawing to give accurate scale. This relates back to the Bill Viola quote stated above. The horizon line is also used for its placement of the vanishing points, which indicate where all things must go. An idea of Nietzsche also figures in to my including of the horizon line.

The tie clip is a response to an event in my life; the drawing bring the words meditated passion to mind. I choose this specific object because it had personal meaning to me, but I felt it could communicate to others as well by drawing it. I drew this object existing in a neutral space, perhaps more of an empty space to me. I divided this space with the use of a horizon line, and perspective lines.

The tie clip is an object with social and cultural meaning to it, it is an object of restraint but yet also one of flourish. The ability of restraint is also seen as part of the flourish, the ability to restrain one’s self. The ties with its phallic connections play in to this.

Drawn in a realistic manner, from life, and surrounded it by a large mass of charcoal, the item has been marked with tape so it would not interfere with the drawing of the clip. The clip is surrounded with this greyness, to create a surface around the clip that is indeterminate and imposing, to equate it with death. The tie clip exists without the tie, so there is loss and inability to function. The desire for death is often equated for the desire of sex, and

I have the object with perspective lines going from it to two vanishing points, the perspective lines do not match up to the object and are done so really to just acknowledge the vanishing points.

The finger trap drawing is that of a finger trap in the empty or neutral space, hovering in the space and the drawing is split through the middle by the seam of the paper. Perspective and the horizon lines exist in the top of the drawing.

This object of the finger trap is a trick device, where you are trapped by your fingers, and when you try to haul or pull yourself out of, you only get more trapped, the trap tightens. The only way out is to push further in, and let go. The finger trap is made of pieces of bamboo, braided together; bamboo is often seen as a symbol of longevity. The split acts in this case as

The finger trap is a joke, not intended as a restraining device or such. It is an example of how one cannot escape something through

The next drawing is that of welding goggles, surrounded by space and the goggles are split by the connection of the paper. On one side of the paper split, the lens is cracked. There is a slight shadow in front of the lens.

This object has industrial context in that it is used for protection from the bright light of metal cutting. They protect you from seeing the light. One of the lenses is cracked, which would allow some light to get in. This object also appears in post apocalyptic media often as a fashion object. What I was trying to do with the paper split here is show the object in it’s entirely, but showing a shift in the perception of it. By being broken on one side, and on the other side of the split, the perception of the object and its meaning is changed.

The drawing of the hammer head is drawn in the upper half of the sheet, with a long light grey shadow coming from it downwards, and perspective lines leading to a vanishing point.

The hammer head is a found object, was found with no handles. In a way it is decapitated, and remain useless. All it takes is a new handle, but till then it just lays there. Invest it with small, localized narrative through the use of the shadow and the perspective lines.

The drawing of the arctic explorers (incomplete) is that of a drawing in space, horizon and perspective lines in the space around it. This image is that of five explorers at what they thought was the North Pole, from the Peary Expedition. The drawing is erased; some of the explorers are erased as well as some of their surroundings.

This image is a found image, that I used for it reminded me a quote from the book The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart. To paraphrase, a character mentioned his “own interior Arctic”. I wonder whether it was easier to cross the real Arctic or one’s own, do you think you reach your destination when like Peary’s you are a ways off still. The drawing of the image shows loss through the selective erasure of the elements in it.

I approach my drawings, by finding an object or found imagery, and through drawing process to invest it with meaning. The objects and imagery have personal connections to me, whether they be a part of my life, were a part, or come from an area of interest.

Just trying to get some stuff online, instead of on different computers and on jump drives. Co-ordination and synchronization are differcult at time.
This is myprint proposal for the St.Michael's Scholarship


Print Proposal

My print proposal consists of a series of ten prints done in lithography and intaglio media. Six prints of this series will be of an intimate scale, using the smaller stones and smaller intaglio plates. The rest of the prints will be large scale, through using prints off the smaller stones and combining them as parts to make one large size. The other large scale prints will be engaging St. Michael's larger stones along with large intaglio print done by utilizing aluminum etching. The support will be paper and canvas. The interest in the larger prints is because of the impact that scale can have, and will contrast against the intimacy of the smaller prints. Lithography and intaglio are chosen because of their mark making abilities, and their proximity to drawing for me.

The prints will be continuing the exploration of the rocket as an image to communicate ideas of mortality, violence and exploration. The rocket images will be based in landscape, that make use of dystopian and apocalyptic elements, modernist symbols of progress, pop culture, television, comic books and graphic novels, the figure relation in space. My work is informed by artists such as Ed Pien, William Kentridge, Marcel Dzama, and Toba Khedoori, along with a background of science fiction authors and their book covers, as well as graphic novels and comic books. This subject has started in this year of my studies through drawings on paper, as well as some studies in print and I would like to continue them in print.

I, as a previous intern only this summer at the shop know the value of St. Michael’s. The co-op program between Sir Wilfred Grenfell College and St. Michaels’s has already provided great benefit to me through learning the maintenance and running of a print shop, creation of art, and through interacting with the visiting artists. The Don Wright Scholarship would be another great asset to me, as it would enable me to transition from a student to a professional practice by enabling me to pursue art after college. It will give me a chance to hone my technical skills, develop ideas, to create a body of work, to learn from the visiting artists, and networking opportunities. Mike Connolly and John McDonald even taught me how to do my first lithograph, which I am currently studying in school and showing little tips I learned from them. To receive the Don Wright Scholarship would be a great benefit to me as listed above, and I would love to work at the shop again.

He might not be my favourite artist in the world, and he definitly works in an area of interest very different than my own, but I would have to say he wuld be a good artist to hold as example. He is so very smart, and intellegent in his work, that I in a way envy him and his hardwork.

Here's a link to ashow at the MOMA

Jonathan Green
Artist Statement

My work deals with the ideas of death and loss, through the use of objects, space, and narrative. I use objects that have contain small memories and history to them, and by placing them in created and often neutral spaces, to convey the larger ideas of mortality and loss. I use the medium of drawing, for it can show the sensitively and vulnerabilities of being human. It is like a slow motion version of thought, for the process of drawing can be imprecise, and uncertain. Drawing captures this by the power of it being an unmediated impression of the artists hand and mark on the surface.

My research is very intuitive and habitual, a part of my daily routine. My research is engaged in areas of art, philosophy, gender issues, sexuality, sociology, literature and an increased interest in thanatology. Death and loss factor in my research in ideas dealing with how mortality and death are dealt with in western cultures, as in issues of confronting and overcoming. Ideas on desire and death have also become an idea of note as of late, the idea that death and desire are linked.

My current artwork has contemporary relevance in the art of Luc Tuymans, Toba Khedoori, Marcel van Eden and Michael Borremans. My art is also influenced by Nietzschean and existentialist philosophy, and many literary influences in works of fiction and poetry such as: Auster, Bukowski, Herbert, Gaiman, and Urquhart.

Jonathan Green was born two weeks late and seeing out of only one eye. [Jonathan prefers to be referred to as Jonathan, sans surname, when talked about in the third person.] Jonathan grew up in Carbonear, and came to art school upon realizing it was the best thing for him. His interests include reading, philosophy, sandwiches, fashion, masculinity, watching fighting, dystopian and apocalyptic elements, drawing, painting, printmaking, and an increased interest in thanatology. Oscar Wilde tells a bit about Jonathan, and Bukowski, Hynes perhaps tell more. Jonathan completed a co-op internship at St. Michael’s Print Shop last year, and has just recently received the St. Michael’s Don Wight Scholarship for 2008-2009.


I think this might need to be cut down a bit