Hello Ladies!
Not a ton has happened in the past few weeks, yet a ton has happened! First and foremost I took all of your feedback to heart and have been working on the blog, updating, adding more etc. Thank you for that information. Please take a look at the progress, I still have some stuff to add, but I am liking it more and more. I feel like that more details I add the richer the project in a way.
I would like you to look more specifically at the paintings that i have completed in the past few weeks. I have been trying to use the symbol as the subject in the painting. Still using red ochre as the primary palette with the original 8 reds that I used last year. Same family:) I am specifically having issues with the two that have more pattern. I am finding myself, pushing against myself to complete them, they have been started, gessoed, started again and am here. I am not sure if its a feeling a obligation or if I am on the verge of something new, but I just CAN NOT finish these paintings. I am lost. HELP!!!!! Below is the link to the post of where I am now with them, also with some from the Red Rocks collection.
I just have an unnatural feeling all of a sudden, and that is not good! Feeling like things are being sucked out of me and what’s left is repetition and compromise.
Thank you and looking forward to all thoughts and suggestions for these red blues:)
Best and hugs!
-L
Hi Lindey,
I am really looking forward to hearing how your December 5th workshop goes! As for your struggle with the muzzibikon symbol in the paintings, I think the one where you have let it transform into something new (#6 in your slideshow) is more exciting that using straight away at this point. I also like how you turned it into pattern on slide #5. However, I think it is useful as a referential point to have a couple where it is the focal point. Slide #4 is still interesting to me in a tribal way and seems to symbolize that root system you speak up in your project. Slide #7 seems to be a transitional phase from where you are making the symbol obvious to where you begin to obscure it in #6. I think perhaps arranging them so that there is an more obvious “chronology” would be interesting. It's almost as if your chronology has happened in reverse though, which is great to me. First you started with this obsession with red and then you started realizing why. It has to do with your Ojibwe roots. Still, try arranging them with the more tribal moving into the more abstract and see how that feels.
I went to the powwow this weekend and never noticed before when they said the lovely sounds of the jingle dresses were used in healing ceremonies held by the Ojibwe. Sometimes 40 women would gather to vibrate the air for someone who was ill physically or emotionally. Now, the jingle dress is worn by Native American women dancers who have chosen it as their preferred style, but I am sure it would still speak to your Ojibwe ancestral memory. Why don't you listen and watch to some of these videos to see if they inspire anything new? Here is a good place to start, a video of the jingle dress competition at the 2015 Denver powwow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot2VD_Eu2l8 Finally, although this video is great, I highly recommend going in person. Sometimes I get the chills or get so emotionally stirred that I cry. The intensity of the singers and drummers can't be captured in a recording.
Gun-ga-yuhi gi-neli,
Stephanie
Hi Lindey,
Great work on the blog! I’ve found keeping up the blog/website is a never ending ‘process’, at times even a creative process [sorry, I’ve entered a puny state]. The more I do, the more there is to do, something to add, update or tweak. What I like is it keeps me thinking of what I am doing, how I am doing it, and how I can talk about what, why and how I’m doing what I am doing. Have you considered how or if you will continue some sort of ‘process’ blog post TI?
I am enjoying where the paintings are going and your use of the symbol as subject, and how in a few [last four] of the paintings the symbol begins to become less symbol like and more moutain-esque. It has become part of the landscape. Makes me think a little of the symbolism of Mont Sainte-Victoire for Cezanne, but in reverse. Here the mountain isn’t the symbol, the symbol is the mountain. Are these the ‘Red Rocks’ collection? If so, I like how the symbol seems to merge into that body of work. Maybe this is something to explore further, merging the symbol with previously explorations?
I understand what you mean with the use of the symbol in the paintings with more pattern. I think the problem might be that in those paintings the symbol is getting lost in the pattern, the repetition, thus losing its value as a symbol. In the final four paintings although the symbol has become mountainous, it is still symbolic. In the paintings with pattern, it’s just a pattern.
Oh those unnatural feelings; know them well. Repetition and compromise. First to those paintings you can’t finish…put them aside, turn them to the wall, get them out of sight! Someday you’ll either come back to them, or they will make nice fuel for another fire. In the meantime put them away!
Then it sometimes good to step back and look at the paintings that are finished. Look back at how you started them, how you developed them to the point they were ‘finished’ for you. What is most important to you in those paintings? Is it the red? A particular red? Is it the symbol? What happens to the symbol? Once you have accessed all the variables in those finished works, pick one and invert it; shake it up. This helps me with trying to keep the repetition at bay. Does it always work? No, and that’s why my fire always has plenty of fuel!
As far as compromise; where exactly do you feel the compromises are occurring? Is it in the use of the color, or in the symbol, or somewhere else? Is it a compromise in technique or a compromise in concept? Sometimes compromise is necessary for progression, other times refusing to compromise will take you further. I think the key might be to identify where you feel the compromise is at and then seeing what happens when you say “I will not compromise this time.” Then see what the results are.
Looking forward to see what you bring to NYC!
Robyn
Hi Lindey,
I’m sorry for the commotion I caused this week. Hopefully you’ll find some helpful words in the feedback you get despite the fluff up.
I can totally empathize with the feeling and experience you’re describing. It’s inspiring to me that you continue to show up and keep working. The tough ones teach me so much - even when in the end I have to let them go, destroy them, leave them unfinished, finish them but show them to no one. . . paint over them. . . start again. It’s SO uncomfortable (I was just there a week ago) and the spiral feels inevitable but I’m willing to bet you’re on the verge of something new. . . and maybe the sense of obligation and commitment is a positive. I’m going to go ahead and liken a studio practice to running because I see similarities between the two and thinking about training helped me get through my recent weeks in the studio.
Sometimes training sucks. Sometimes everything hurts. Sometimes I get invited to a brunch and I’d really, really rather drink bloody mary’s but I get out there and do it. Sometimes it’s flipping cold and wet and dark out and I have to put ice grips on my shoes so I don’t slip and sometimes even with the grips I slip and fall. About 5 days before every race I go out and experience THE most difficult run ever and it almost convinces me (every time) that I’m sick or I’m injured or I’m not ready and I shouldn’t do the race. But then I show up to the start line because I worked so hard to show up all through training on all those days when I didn’t want to show up and really, all that showing up makes just about every race the best thing ever.
That was a lot of words just to say I think it’s worth it to keep showing up.
The works toward the end of the slideshow - 6-9 are stunning. The textures, the layering and the glazing/translucent washes are lovely (6,7 and 9 in particular). Are you using different types of supports? If not have you considered different supports? Fabrics? Encaustics? Glues? Resins? Have you thought about using mediums and supports you haven’t used before? Different processes? Maybe embrace the idea of removing and erasing? Maybe add red to the gesso when you want to start again? Maybe change scale to see what that does for you? Maybe pull a smaller painting out of a work that you’ve been developing? Maybe think about covering just a part of a painting that been worked rather than restarting? Maybe think about creating dimension with the works? Stitching?
I really am blown away by the seventh work in the slideshow. I want to see it in person. For some reason I feel like it would have an interesting smell (like honeycomb) and it would be really hard for me not to touch. It leaves me wondering it’s age and it’s history. I think you’re on to something all on your own!
Thanks for sharing your work. It’s inspiring!
Abbe
Hi Lindey!
As I’m in the middle of updating my site, I so hear you! I like the changes that you’ve made so far, and look forward to seeing what you’ll be up to next on there. An artist’s work is never done!
With regard to the paintings, I agree with Robyn about the paintings with more pattern: the symbol ultimately gets lost. I call it a “can’t see the forest for the trees effect” when I’ve run up against it myself! When the symbol remains recognisable, albeit as part of the “landscape”, I feel as though it brings with it its own meaning, integrated within the work. I confess that I find the more abstract pieces with their washes of reds more luminous, and somehow more connected to your tagging of the symbol.
There’s an artist, Andrew Rogers, who uses a pictogram that for him depicts “the rhythms of life” in his work, particularly his land art. He does transform the symbol by adding an element that directly relates to the geographic area and/or culture where he places the work.
When you look at your works together, do you feel as though one is transitioning to the other, that there’s a natural progression? Sometimes I can jump ahead of myself in my work…instead of letting work progress naturally, I anticipate a direction and jump ahead to push the work that way…which has sometimes resulted in my feeling “forced”…Could this be a similar occurrence here in the way that you incorporated your symbol into a repetitive pattern ?
For myself, I have often found that if I am in a place with my work where if I am feeling as though I am forcing myself to go forward the work feels forced as well. I usually put it aside for a while, pulling it out periodically to see if I can gauge how I really feel about the work. Sometimes I start a new work returning to a point just before the block started to happen and see if the fluidity returns, and if I can see it go off in in another direction…. Other times I have abandoned the work altogether….Your red blues are aptly named!
Looking forward to seeing where this all takes you!
Deb
Thank you ladies for the wonderful insight. You definitely nailed it again! Studio life has been better for sure. I am looking at things day by day! Not trying to plan too far into the future. I also am implementing a Media Monday! Where I can take time to reflect on the week (like Robyn said) and just use it as documentation of the project. I was looking at the website/blog as it has to be perfect. Got over that pretty quick! To keep me ‘in’ this project I need to lower my expectations for the my self made timeline. Things will happen and unfold in a well supported environment, and that i know I can do!
Stephanie, I love the idea to arrange current works differently. I like the tribal to the abstract, I will definitely keep looking into different arrangements but that does seem to make the most sense. The Ojibwe jingle dress sounds amazing. I will look into that for sure. Robyn, the merging of symbol with previous exploration, is exactly what I needed to do. I have already started that process and it feels so good! I need to figure out the compromise. I have a lot to sort through still. Abbe, thank you so much for amazing support and suggestions for process and medium. I am going to try encaustic, that seems like the next step with the raw red ochre pigment. LOVE IT! Deb, you absolutely nailed it!
Sometimes I can jump ahead of myself in my work…instead of letting work progress naturally, I anticipate a direction and jump ahead to push the work that way…which has sometimes resulted in my feeling “forced”. This is exactly what I do and never could exactly figure out what I was doing. This is my personality and have actively tried to therapy myself in this. Patience is very hard for me. I have organized, hi-lited and to-do listed my studio practice to fullest extent, and now its time to actually just let it happen. Oh Nelly!
Thank you again for the moral and mental support through my red blues!
Hello Ladies of Crit Group B!!!!!
I landed in Denver running from my experience this summer in Berlin!! I started teaching art classes for an art enrichment program. Which has enlivened my life so much!
I have changed my proposal, not a lot but revised some things, mostly the name and some community based involvement. http://lindeyandersontransart.blogspot.com/p/mcp504-proposal-yr-2.html
Most of what I have been doing is on the Rooted in RED blog. The link is below. I am trying to keep this site strictly for this project. There is still a lot of work to be done, but it’s coming along. I would like feedback on content of site and overall concerns and questions you have. I am aware that things are a wee bit foggy overall, but I am still hammering out some logistics.
Rooted in RED blog
This page in the blog is a post from my personal blog that explains a lot of why I am doing this project. I suggest starting there and then going through the pages and posts:)
Rooted in RED link “making a mark”: http://www.rootedinred.blogspot.com/2015_08_01_archive.html
direct link to post: http://www.thislittlepigment.blogspot.de/2015/08/making-mark-berlin-2015.html
I have also been working on some paintings that feature the Rooted in RED symbol as the primary subject in either landscapes or geometric and ojibwe patterns.
Overall, I am just looking for some feedback of any sorts. I have a lot going on right now, and I am trying to dwindle things down to the solid entities, but I have learned anything community involved takes time, and that time is really slow here in Denver! I am thoroughly excited to hear what you all have to say!!!!! My lovely ladies! Cha cha cha
-L
Hi Lindey!
Congratulations on the teaching gig. I’m sure the students are having a blast and both their and your energies are merging into a gigantic cloud of creativity! Can’t wait to see/hear what this brings down the line.
I have a question of clarification in your revised project proposal. In the written element section you state “I want to bring back the importance of the basics in the art.” I think I understand what you are trying to say as far as expressing the value of the red ochre pigment as a base element in the history of human art making; an element which has persisted alongside many different cultures as they have expressed their values in the art they have made, and that red ochre is a pigment still used today and that your use of it is significant not only because of its general significance within the greater history of art, but also because of its personal significance as representative of your Ojibwe heritage. Perhaps it is just the phrasing of “the basics” and “the art” which read as very specific, singular elements; when what I am understanding from the rest of the proposal is about the value of base elements for their primarily cross-cultural significance that then extends into a narrower realm of personal significance. Or am I mis-reading your intent?
Overall I think the Rooted in RED blog is pretty clear. One suggestion I would make is determining the importance of the information contained on the pages “Symbols, Red Ochre, Community, and Sites”. Which bit of information is what you want the person looking at this site to go to first? As someone who is constantly tweaking her own websites, I know this can change from one moment to the next, but it is something to consider, and perhaps you have already. The reason I ask is after reading your proposal I would place Red Ochre before Symbol in the menu, then follow Symbol with Site...but I might change that term to “Locations” in order to avoid confusion with the shortened word for website…’site’. Community seems to me appropriate at the end of the menu, but is Community involvement of greater or lesser importance than Location? Or might the two become of equal importance as the project progresses, and then the two pages might merge into a single page/menu heading? I don’t work with blogger so I am unfamilar with the possibilities it has to offer in terms of configuring menus, fonts, etc., but you might look to playing around with what it can do and aiming for a consistancy in the design reflective of the project, which you have done in the title text on the cover image.
I like that you have posted most of the images in the home page of the blog as it documents the process. Would you also consider posting more images of the Community and Location under those headings too? It might make future reference to a certain community/location easier to trace [not just for those looking at the site, but also for yourself] rather than scrolling back through the home page postings.
My thoughts: iron oxide hematite= blood flowing through the earth. Hematite and hemaglobin; shared etmology Greek= haima/haimat. German “heimat” means home or homeland, which amongst a people who have migrated back and forth between Europe and Asia always carries a significance of an unatainable place which we carry with us in our blood; we may not have a physical home, but that home is a part of us physically. Interesting that iron oxide was chosen for its fastness, as opposed to vegtable pigments, or pigments made from animal [bloods]. The knowledge/feeling of heimat we carry with us in our blood, left unattended through the passing on of stories and symbols will also fade. But preserved through these it remains fast through generations. [I’m liking the connection your postings have brought to the top of my thoughts Lindey!]
Question: Are the temporary tattoos black or red? Have you offered handpainting with henna the symbol on people? It would fade to a red-ochre color before completly disappearing. Maybe documenting the fading, or having the tattooed individual document in photos the fading day by day, email or text the photo to you, you could post it then to the blog, and once the tattoo is gone asking them how its memory remains within them? It might be an interesting reduction of scale from the public mural to the private tattoo...similar to the general significance of red ochre to the history of creative expression to the personal significance of red ochre and the rooted in RED symbol to your Ojibwe heritage. And you would be the one making the mark, not the pre-made temporary tattoo.
Use of other colors in the murals: I understand your hesitance, and reasons for ultimately deciding to use the other colors in the murals. I’m just not sure the other colors are working in a way that is beneficial to the red ochre aesthetically as well as conceptually. Am I correct in understanding that the red ochre mixed in bear fat will not fade, or it will fade at a particular rate? Is it possible to tone down the other colors and use pigments that will fade at a quicker rate than the red ochre? This way the community will still be interested in the murals variety of colors, but they will see those other colors quickly fade only to leave the red ochre and symbol remain.
Great pendant!
I appreciate the idea of the large scale ‘indoor’ mural for your studio. Have you considered going guerrilla with the murals in the abscence of outside locations? If you are uncomfortable with painting directly on surfaces that might be graffiti free why not go ‘old school’ and make paper posters/handbills you have painted in studio with the red ochre pigment/bear fat and then stick them up around town using rabbit skin glue? Sticker culture is very contemporary, it is also very noticeable, at least to me. The paper/rabbit skin glue would keep the symbol and pigment out there in those between times, and make the larger murals as they go up more apparent. Andre the Giant started out as a little sticker Shepard Fairey posted around Providence [occassionaly you can find the remains of an original], then around the rest of the world...now look where it has gone, among other places as a huge, commissioned mural painted by S. Fairey on a building near one of the first sticker locations.
Keep up with the paintings, you never know where they’ll lead you.
And keep up with the community work despite any slow downs, frustrations or road blocks you might encounter [I know you will, you are one of the most positive persons I have ever met!]. But also look for other avenues that are equally meaningful to you that relate directly to what you want to achieve with the community based work, explore those in the slower moments, they might lead to even bigger boulevards!
-Robyn
Hi Lindey,
Looking forward to reading more about the theoretical research on how early peoples were attempting to communicate with spirits through their paintings. :)
I like the talismanic power you are bringing to your studio by painting the muzzibikon in your studio. I am sure in your research you will find a reference to talismans.
Did you do a mural in Detroit?
Be sure to enter keywords in blog, so if someone enters a search for Ojibwe or Muzzibikon it comes up. For now there is nothing on the web appearing when I did that in two search engines including Google.
I would totally wear that necklace. I love copper and pink gold jewelry.
Typo – barron wall should be barren wall
Definitely takes more time to progress with a project when working with other people. Having that “issue” right now with my work too. Still, it seems you have gotten a lot done!
I never saw anything in your writings about red referring to our blood, which seems an important clarifying sentence when saying the phrase, “We are all red.” I think it will help clarify what exactly you mean by that. A follow up statement about Earth would be helpful too. A triple phrase something like, “We are all red. Human blood. Of the Earth.”
By
As part of the community project I think it would be great to let youth each paint one small muzzibikon with the bear fat red ochre or work together to paint a larger one with it, just so they can feel the difference of painting with it vs. acrylic or oil. Having them work with those other mediums could be a great way for them to sensually understand your passion for the project.
*Stephanie*
Dear Lindey,
First of all I have to say I’m very inspired by your necessity to connect us into a better world, I think we all need to dedicate some part of our lives to this goal. Also congratulations on your new job, it sounds very inspiring too!
Now, here are my thoughts…
I have been digging into your Rooted in Red blog and it would be good if it had more visual documentation specially on the tab “sites” and “Community”; which I understand are the most important aspects of the project. You should think on doing something like you did with Xavier/Harvard Street mural, where we can perceive a thorough documentation on the process. This is very enriching material; you are allowing us to see the changes and the life that the painting brings to this regular wall. Shouldn’t these images be in the “site” tab? Or in the “community” tab? Also congratulations on deciding to use other colors besides red, I believe it is a huge and exciting step for the project. You are now focusing on the symbol, its meaning and power. This will help the project result where you say: “I hope that it takes on a mind of its own”. On this matter, how are you using the social media? Perhaps this might not be your final goal, but it’s a way for the “mark” to find its own path. For example, when you did the temporary tattoo (loved that idea!) did you encourage people to use your hashtag? I couldn’t find any photos on Instagram of people with the tattoo, did I miss them?
As I told you in Berlin, I think it would be key for the project to go deeper into your Ojibwe heritage. I don’t know if you have written anything about this, if you have I would love to read about it. Why I insist on this? Because the need to connect with your past and the importance of belonging to a community is something we can all relate to. This grounds the project and makes it more sincere, heartfelt. It creates a common ground that originates from a personal need but touches a universal core. On this note, I really like your new work in progress where you are experimenting with the symbol and the tradition. This might be a very different path to what you’re doing now with the mark on the public sites, but it is key for your general practice.
Now, I have to say that taking the pictogram and making it a community project is a necessity for the project. You are letting us, inviting us, to make a mark, to be part of something. Through this symbol we are all one community. Let’s take this worldwide!
Well dear, this is all my tired brain can think of now, I’m sure there are more ideas to go through, in a more conceptual aspect, but for what I can see on your blog Herman already gave you good material there. Finally I would like to say, that it would be important to insert your work into the “art speech”, I mean I see you doing this like an island and it would be great to see some theoretical references that put you in today context. Not that you need any validation from the art world or the mainstream, I just believe that as we all want and desire to be part of something, it would be good to see your ideas be part of something too.
Besos y abrazos,
O
Hi Lindey -
It’s so exciting to see your project! I just had the realization that I’ll get to watch everyone’s project evolve over the course of this year through these critiques and the thought made me pretty jazzed to be part of this community. This is good stuff.
So this may or may not be helpful to you but this helps me organize my thoughts and it will hopefully contextualize some of the questions/feedback I have. From what I’ve read on your blog and website, I see the following as the significant areas of exploration in your project:
- Rootedness and the Historical Context of Community: The cross-cultural significance of red ochre and symbolic imagery
- Through your theoretical/historical research you are:
- Collecting information from UMD about Ojibwe people and their red ochre pictographs
- Researching artists who have used the pictograph/the mural/graffiti as expressive forms for social change.
- Researching the historical uses/significance/regional differences of red and developing an understanding of the chemical properties or red as it is today and as it has existed in the past.
- Through your practical research you are:
- Documenting experiences with/reactions to red as it exists around you while also developing a deeper awareness of its presence in the world in your Dear Red journal.
- Creating in-studio works to explore old/new medium interactions, the pattern as a form of creating narrative, reds as they interact with one another.
- Questions I have in this area of exploration:
- You said at one point that you were interested in bringing “the historically rich, red ochre and traditional mediums such as bear fat into today’s art world.” Are you using red ochre and animal based mediums in your mural work/studio work? Is material/medium use an important component to the creating this historical connection? Similarly, is it important to this project that the pictograph and the murals only be created on stone surfaces?
- In your studio work you created really beautiful comparison/interaction/meeting pieces around the five reds - Red Ochre, Madder, Lake, Minion and Cinnabar - that connect the four cultures that are of significance to your contextual understanding of red - I love these works. I so want to see the reds sit independent from one another in addition to these interactions for some reason. I’m not sure of my reasoning - I recognize that the conceptual framework of your project is to engage community and to unify but I think there is something really substantial in recognizing the distinct differences of the reds that have informed your contextual and perceptual understanding of this unifying element. Distinction and discernment aren’t necessarily divisive judgements, especially as you continue to develop a deeper knowledge of red (historically, culturally, chemically, theoretically, etc) the acknowledgement of distinction can be a form of regard for how these reds exist/have existed in the world. I like your studio explorations for this reason - each red is distinct but is then also shaped by interaction/context/engagement. This is good stuff and I’m looking forward to seeing more.
- Murals and the Pictograph: Mark making as difference making
- In the post Making a Mark - Berlin 2015 (I was a little confused navigating around the three blogs. . . I understand why you want to keep them separate but I think a bit more information about your project on the Rooted In Red blog would be super helpful to people/potential participants) you ask the question, “When I perform an action, is it making a difference?” I’m curious if this is one of your research questions and if so, how can you assess this?
- How is your studio work informing your murals and the role of the pictograph as symbol of change? I think the explorations you are doing in your studio are stunning and incredibly informative. I also think the use of a symbolic form can act as a signifier for change but I’d love to see more interaction between the two.
- Community Engagement and the “Commural”: Social art as place/space creation
- To piggy back on my question above and move it into the community context - what additional actions are you taking to make people aware that your pictograph is a symbol of community? You’ve talked of the “commural” (love that, by the way) and there is evidence of community engagement on your blog (your First Friday post and Rooted in Red goes to Detroit post document people wearing the Rooted in Red tattoo) but I guess I’m wanting just a couple more words on the process of community engagement. Has your idea of community involvement changed as a result of some of these interactions? How did you gather people and communicate the idea behind the commural? What kinds of feedback did you receive? Do you foresee people assisting you in creating the commurals in the future?
- Would you consider including a map somewhere on your blog that shows where your pictographs live? I’d love to see that.
Awesome stuff, Lindey. This is a really exciting project. I love seeing what has transpired since Berlin. I recognize that I’ve written quite a bit above (again, apparently I’m going to be the long winded one of the group) so please use what is useful to you. Hopefully something will be of some use!
_A
Hi Lindey!
Sounds like you’ve been very busy since you got back! The job sounds hectic but fulfilling.
In reading your research proposals and blogs, I am given to understand that the use of the red ochre with its attendant histories and symbolism, combined with your personal history and the development of symbolic language which speaks to that, was one of the primary foci for your work
It isn’t surprising that the addition of colour would have been difficult. In your Rooted in Red blog, you indicated that you’d added colour “because it was crucial to keep youth captivated”. Would you mind expanding upon this? Is this use of colour solely in relation to specific murals, or were you planning on integrating colour in other aspects? Was the intended audience for this work always meant to be youth, or is this focus a result of the art outreach work you’re involved in right now?
In looking at the mural (great job, by the way….and fast!!!) I really liked the way the central symbol was integrated in way that evoked traditional Ojibwe painting. I admit to having difficulty as well seeing the symbols in colours other than red. Perhaps again because ochre is so central to project? Seeing the symbols in other colours implies for me that the other colours also have particular meaning… was that part of your intent? Does the “meaning” of the symbol change with use of other colours?
Also, in your use of red ochre you intentionally and specifically use bear fat. I understand with these other colours you are using synthetic media. Had you considered using colours that are derived from nature pigments and fixed with bear fat or other traditional binders?
The other thing that comes to mind has to do with identity. Does this mean that you would intend to do tagging in colours other than ochre? My understanding of graffiti culture is that individual tags have a very specific vocabulary, and that the vocabulary you have developed for this tag is specific as to the mark (your symbol), colour (ochre), and media (real ochre and bear fat).
I love the temporary tattoos, and how they allow you to create a temporary tribe (I hope you’ll be bringing some of those to New York!). From the photos, I understand the colour to be black, and wonder if it would be possible to have them made in an ochre colour.
The pendant is lovely, and really reinforces the personal meaning that this has for you, I think.
I’m happy to see the series of red paintings continue, as I think they are in an interesting dialogue with your other work. I think the work that you are doing on the long piece allows in particular development of an interesting ongoing narrative. Looking forward to seeing more!
In rereading this, I see that I am myself obsessed with your departure from red.
With regard to feedback on your site, I notice that all your text is highlighted in different colours, which I felt was distracting, and made it a bit difficult to read. Have you considered using text boxes instead? That way if you wanted to highlight a particular section of the text the entire background could be a particular colour…
Thanks for all this Lindey, and looking forward to our ongoing dialogues!
Deborah
Thank you ladies! Your insights have been articulated so wonderfully, there were questions I had problems vocalizing and you all managed to focus them. You all had questions and concerns about navigating away from red ochre. For the community murals I have decided to bring in other colors, I did this because, I find that the red ochre is more my personal link to the project, as it is the title and premise of the entire project, I do not want to limit any possibilities for the opportunity for murals. I submit 4-5 ideas based off location for murals. (i.e. some are for a dark alleyway that they are trying to brighten up for younger children to feel safe to commute in.) So every interaction will be different. I have specific proposals in for all red ochre paintings that I will do that are just not accessible for a community project. So there are really a few tangents that will hopefully support this aspect. But don’t worry at the end of the day, red ochre will always be apart, and the bear oil. The bear oil again will be more my personal link too.The tattoos are dark red ochre colored. I do love the idea about the henna tattoo. I have an idea for a portrait with that one, Robyn!
The insight about the logistics of the sight are right on! I have a TON of stuff that needs to be loaded an executed. I use blogger, because I like it more casual, but there needs to be more content for sure. I also didn’t even think about sharing the #rootedinred . GENUIS!
I am finishing a few books right now that are all on Ojibwe traditions and have given me a more sound understanding of how to bring in these teachings at a level that I am comfortable at. With more knowledge I start to have these teachings become who I am. I was not raised with these teachings, so I am learning how to apply these in a lifestyle day by day!
Most of you also brought up the blood aspect! I think about that and identity a lot, but I feel I need to do some clarification to exactly what this project means before I can bring in that side. Does that make sense? I am using the red ochre in an installation in IV tubes to signify blood in the shape of the symbol, and it will have a motor to pump it through...potentially an installation for triennale??? I agree whole heartedly that I can not, not use blood, symbolically etc.
Overall, thank you tons for the wise words. You are all amazing at being able to see through the cracks and help a girl out. Lots going on in the next week and another new job! My ideals will be to update/add content to blog and organize to read more efficiently. I will add key words for the search options. Good thinking Stephanie! I also will hopefully have found out about a few proposals for some fall projects! I need to add my hashtag to everything! I will have the newest project proposal implemented and the final activitites for the classes I am starting in November.
Thank you again ladies and talk soon:) YOU ARE THE BEST!
-L
4-13-15
Again another unbelievable crit! I asked specifically about the current work, due to that its a culmination of everything finally fitting into the puzzle. I believe that it's a consensus the painting below has become the painting that achieves the best reaction of pigments (artificial vs natural) yet. The paintings that have noticeable acrylic in them were also a brought to the attention of jarring but at the same time allowed, the flatness as Gabriel put it "classic high modernist approaches". which is completely true, now that I look at it, which is ironic, since I have been super focused on the rich history of these pigments. Grinding pigments by hand and still painting with brush on canvas. I feel like on many levels this is part of the artificial vs. natural. Modernist approach with natural, traditional implementation. Claire has spoke of allowing the materials to have a voice, I hope that is clear to the viewer. Allowing the pigments to react and make there own story is the point. As though those reds are me, its a balance and a relationship that works well and almost creates new life, when those artificial and natural pigments meet and greet! O'Neill brought to my attention an aerial view finds its way through the imagery and landscape oriented subject. The rock has been a staple as subject matter through this entire journey. It only feels natural to utilize these pigments in such a way that speaks to their specific story. Mark and Robyn brought up a point about green, where is me another color and how does that effect the work I am doing and will do. Also Mark said he could see the path of personal discovery, which makes me feel like it the work is alive and communicative. Robyn encouraged the linking of the collage work with the pigments- being responsive. As always received great references such as Nancy Sparrow, Richard Hamilton and Georgia O'Keefe. All seem to have work that I need to look into that supports what I am trying to achieve. From all of this great feedback, I am working on some installation and mural/pictographs around Denver, possibly Berlin!
11-14-2014
i homepage
sketchbook page
work-in-progress page
Hello all!
I am back in the states and the rest of my trip has been posted. I have 3 new series added to the work-in-progress; Contained, Scenes/Natural and Scenes. Also I have loaded my entire sketchbook in its own page. The Contained Series, is where i am now and want to continue. To look more into the artificial v. natural pigmentation and continue my research from there, wanting to use the Daily red paintings composition of red side by side to layer the ‘family tree’ of each of these colors. I have also finished all of the daily red paintings, I have compiled them into a video. I need lots of help here!!!! I want them to be fluid and almost like a continuous painting if I can, but am having some issues with speed and right now I feel as if its too jarring.
There is music accompaniment, I am not sure how I feel about that, but wanted to try it out! My goal with this is to eventually project this onto white canvas to see the relationships of red to other colors and bring in more of the perception in light versus pigment. or I can paint 6 canvases and project with 6 projectors, I want to venture into the light and perception, so I feel as if they may be a good route to start with. But I am not sure! Soooooooo…...if you would all take a look at the new series, check out the video (which is under the daily red paintings) and sketchbook page. Any and all feedback would be awesome!!!! THANK YOU! :)
-L
Hi Lindey,
Welcome back to this side of the pond. It looks and sounds as if you had a very productive and enlightening 21st Century “grand tour”. The photos you posted of the “Dear Red” exhibit in Iowa City on Facebook look great. Too bad it is so far away that I can’t see it in person. I hope you post some more installation photos on your blog site, and I can’t wait to see more and here about how and why you installed the work in they way you did.
It is great that you took the time to post all the pages of your sketchbook. It is a nice travel document/document of your travels , a process passport, relating to the development of pattern as it is appearing in your studies of red. Are you considering this a “closed sketch-book” now? Or do you have specific plans on how you will continue to reference the pages, using it as a dictionary of sorts, for the duration of your project?
The Contained series you posted does seem to offer ample room in both width and depth for exploration of your project proposal. Looking at how the natural pigment “spills” contained by the artificial pigment line in the foreground interact with the pattern play in the background does seem to be pulling a lot from the pages of the sketchbook. Are the pages of the sketchbook a direct or an inspirational source? Also, what are the spills origins? Are you familiar with the work of the American painter Ingrid Calame? If not, you might find some of her approaches to sourcing abstract imagery intriguing. http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/ingrid-calame
One thing in your presentation and post to the Crit Group this time around which has, to me at least, “appeared out of the blue” [and not the red] is the video. You state that you need “lots of help here”, is this help of technical or conceptual nature which you are seeking?
My first question about the video is conceptual in nature: Why?
What led you to the idea that you need to explore red through video? In your project proposal and writings to date you don’t seem to be discussing video, and now it appears.
Sometimes painters make videos and films that are better works of art than their paintings; and sometimes they just use the medium to further explore the what behind the doing.
I’m not sure which one you are trying to do here. Either are fine, but could you elaborate for me more on the ideas and thoughts behind the journey to video for you? I am by no means implying paintings can’t be created using video. However as some paintings work better in watercolor, others better in oils, and others benefit from a mish-mash of media and technique, so too is it with film, video and sound. This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try to make the painting in another media, rather one should be aware of when the exploration is becoming more of a distraction from reaching the goal one has set rather than a pathway to that goal. It needn’t be a shortcut, but you don’t want to get too far lost either; you still need to keep sight of where you are headed.
I agree the current video is “jarring”. And the choice of music does not seem to have much of a relationship for me to what is happening in the video. If you feel that you want to continue exploring this forum for presenting the pigment; you probably should first shift the language to one that is different from that of ‘paint’ to the language of video, or at least clearly differentiate the two. The terminology needs to clarify the physical pigments you are working with in painting and the light sourced-pigment-color red, which based upon my limited understanding of physics and light is not ‘red’, but magenta. So, maybe this difference between the ‘red’ of the physical pigment and the ‘red-tone’ of light becomes a clear part of the discussion? Is that what you want to do with the projection? If so, there are a few more questions that raises for me, which I will get to later. And how does this relate back to your project proposal?
In video and film time is of the essence. For me one approach to what you are doing would be to seek the most scaled back way because you are focused on one thing, red. This might mean slowing everything way, way down. Striping it to a reduced state where the transitions are a dissolving of one red into another to accentuate the vast range within the single tone. In terms of sound this could mean focusing on a single tone and the various ways range is addressed musically within that tone. Or you could speed things way up to where the reds are mere flashes; changing at a pace where the differences, numerous as they are, are there but they are moving by us at such a speed we need to adjust our focus quickly to take it all in. Both approaches require extreme focus and concentration on part of the viewer in order to see the variety, the subtles, the nuances of red. One gives space and time, but requires a focus if the mind is not to wander; the other leaves little space and time and requires focus so as not to become overwhelmed and stray from the path. What type of sound would accompany these experiences? I think any form of traditionally structured music might not work as well as sounds which are of a more stripped down nature and correspond to the aesthetics expressed in the video. Is there a particular note, like middle C on the piano, which you could associate with a middle red; a red from which all others build off of?
Finally, back to the questions surrounding the video and projection. When I viewed the video on my computer screen it was a bit fuzzy and pixelated. This could be because it is a rough version, not the final image; or it could be related to the speed of my internet connection. Filming with a different camera, or not composed of animated still images, but actual videos of the paintings could alter this perception as well. The screen the viewer is watching the video on and the speakers that project the sound change the experience too. The light quality or bulb age of projectors which project the images, any external light in the space in which the projection is occurring, and what happens to the sound dependent upon the spatial acoustics, which change depending on the occupancy of the room, all greatly affect how the video is perceived. In other words, with video there are so many more variables that enter the conversation that it can become extremely difficult to make your voice, what you are trying to say, especially about something so specific as the pigment red, heard. Because of this I would encourage you to really think through the relationship of what you are trying to express as stated in your project proposal to what can be heard through the din of the video.
However and wherever this path leads you, Lindey, I am looking forward to seeing you and the red shining brightly at the end! See you in NYC!- Robyn
Hi Lindey,
Your work seems to be making some very exciting developments! I am particularly into the natural vs. synthetic pigment work. The line patterns, tile/stone/architectural pattern as well as the spill outlines are very visually compelling as well is conceptually intriguing. More on this later. .
The video: I see this as having great potential but am getting stuck on a couple of things that are distracting me from the subject, which I understand to be the relationships of the color to feelings from particular days.
I’m finding the ken burns effect problematic because it is the ken burns effect. Recognizing that draws my attention away from the experience of the colors. Also, have you considered using a slow dissolve between slides- creating color transitions rather than the page turn type transition? That would create actual color blends and make the video a bit more of a work in itself rather than what feels more like a documentation of the work.
The music I find very distracting as it feels like an add on- not connecting to the work. I’m curious as to why you want to use sound at all and how it connects to the color expression. If you do use sound I would suggest using it in a more intentional way to further exaggerate the effect of the color.
Colors have frequencies- I have no idea how, but if you could find the frequencies of the reds you could generate or find sounds of corresponding frequency?
Just an idea.
Natural/synthetic pigment- I think this is a very exciting path to go down. With the spills- which have a very organic shape and imply accident, or at least a letting go of control. Creating these spills and then containing them within a line generates many associations for me. .oil spills contained by those industrial buoy things. Borders on political maps following coast lines or rivers. The suggestion of containing these natural occurrences within an ‘artificial’ boundary has many possible braches to follow. Let me stew on this and I’ll get back to you with suggestions of artists to look at. The only one that jumps to mind at the moment is Marcel Dzama (who famously works with root beer). His work and that of his contemporaries in the Royal Art Lodge may be of interest in regards to your journaling work.
The line work in your repeating curved line patterns (natural/synthetic pigments) brings to mind Frank Stella.
More as it comes to me.
Looking great!
G
Hey Lindey - it’s Claire …. tuning into your Redness!
seems you’re wanting some commentary on the video & on ideas for projections etc … so - tech aspects of presenting the work. how “techy” are you, in general? i’m asking because, if this is something you are really wanting to explore, you might be getting into a whole other universe in itself… & it might be good to take a moment to ask yourself if this is somewhere you are truly invested in going. if so - a good avenue to take is a collaborative one. find a real tech-head who’s totally into video, light, projection & maybe also sound - & see if they want to collaborate with you on an art project. once you’re inside that world with an “expert”, they can help you expand your knowledge from within the act of creation & it’s dynamic flow - rather than you trying to figure things out in stabbing attempts.
of course, you can totally also go the experimental, DIY, trial & error, haltering steps route too - which can produce its own aesthetic - & figure things out on a need-to-know basis.
either way, it takes a certain amount of commitment & you need to decide it’s where you want to go right now.
… from what i can tell by looking at the images of the double-reds, the richness is in the paint itself, so presenting these images as video or as projections takes the viewer away from that visceral relationship (although clearly it is apparent enough in a digital image for me to feel it, so perhaps that quality would not disappear completely).
to me, the video - with its slide-show look & background music sound - does come across as a nice way of presenting documentation of the paintings, rather than being a video-art piece in itself.
i think the idea of working with red light as well as red pigment is a good one & also a much more simple way to begin the process you seem interested in exploring.
there are probably infinite possibilities of combining pigment & light to explore their effects on each other in the perception of the human eye.
… keeping the integrity of the substance (medium) containing the pigment seems key to what i’ve seen in your work so far. it’s texture & character. light is also a medium that has its own character & behaviour, so i think if you work with it in recognition of that you will do some beautiful work because of your sensitivity to the inherent traits of a medium.
i’m interested to see where this goes …
CEB
ps - perhaps talk to Ana McArthur & pick her brains about working with light?
Hi Lindey (KJ here),
I’m pleased to see how busy who’ve been. I love the “Contained” work, so I’m glad that you are expressing that here is where you are and where you want to stay. I think as you’ve investigated red, you’ve naturally also continued to do things that you are accustomed to doing (you mentioned something like that in reference to the graphic work). The “Contained” series seems to be more unexplored ground. I liked seeing the red wine listed in the media of some of these. I don’t recall seeing you speak about this much in relation to your red investigation. Anyway, the red wine and the spill aesthetic brings to mind so much for me. I noticed that Robyn asked from where the spills come from….I can guess… Anyway, I love how the spill takes away your ability to form, stylize, deductively abstract. Yet, as I love that, it also allows you to then circumscribe those stains with the very stylization that they are themselves not. Its a great point of contrast. I also enjoy the contrast, both visually and conceptually between the natural and artificial pigments. This contrast is on point with your pigment investigation. I also enjoy that dynamic in the piece labeled Paintings II. I didn’t see any dimensions on these, but I can absolutely imagine how successful they could be large.
The Dear Red video needs to be reworked. There’s a sense with the cadence of the slide changes that I’m looking at a sentimental family slideshow...and the music adds to this feeling. I wonder what it might look like if you speed it up to change slides several time per second and then loop the whole things. Then your reds would blur together yet the bi-fold composition would maintain structure in an interesting way. ???
In both Scenes and Scenes/Natural I see a clear distinction between works that are more illustrative and stylized, and works that are more abstracted via simplification. I respond much more positively to the simplified abstraction. There’s an amazing economy there that leaves the viewer feeling that these are closer to nature, which is ironic. In that sense, they relate nicely to the spills from “Contained” as well. The more illustrative/graphic work is great for the sketchbook, but not as strong as these other two series when standing alone.
Best, KJ
Hey Lindey!
Awesome to see your trip to Europe was a success! I loved the note that you had in your process blog about the European voyage being a sort of “right of passage” for the American artist. This is intriguing to me for obvious reasons :)
I want to echo Robyn’s feedback here and again ask why the video? Something that I am struck by in your work is that it takes its physical form, often, in books. I am remembering shots of the red work when the binding was visible, and even in it’s name, “Dear red,” conjurs up a diary. I am questioning the departure from this format. There is something intimate about the experience of a book that I am not getting yet in the video. Part of this comes from the music or the transitions from piece to piece, but another part is that the act of watching a video is a passive activity as opposed to an active one, such as the turning of pages. Each page represents a sort of time capsule of a day, with one red being that found in your environment and the other being that found in yourself. Reducing the frame from book to red blocks seems to be removing the experience of the artist from the work, and leaves me wanting a more personal experience. I wonder if video footage of you turning the pages would be stronger? I also liked the hand-written notes marking the color seen and the city that I recall from my last look at your site - here again I see the hand of the artist in a way that makes it more diary-esque and more personal.
I see this much more in your sketchbook, and accordingly I am much more compelled by it. Seeing the bindings and the front and back cover in your representation gives it a context that pulls me in right off the bat. One question as an asside - it appears that towards the bottom, on the left-hand column, the blank page on the left is repeated several times. Why is that? How is the sketchbook meant to be interpreted? is there a narrative arc to it? Or is it meant to be a documentation of an experience, referential of what was going around you at the time, and the narrative arc is your journey? Have you thought about going back into it and adding/sacrificing material to give it more of an arc, or is that not what you’re after?
I’m excited to see how the projection goes, as that seems to be more of a scientific investigation into your art to go with the books and give them a context.
See you real soon in NYC!
O’Neill
Hi Lindey,
After spending time with your work, proof of its impact was verified when I noticed I had been delivered to a heightened sensitivity to the reds in my environment. Thanks and congrats!
The video is seductive and induces for me a longing to be experientially subsumed by red and the contemplation of redness. In its current state I find the event of the swipe to be a bit assertive, interrupting my experience of red. Same thing goes for the music, which acts as an emotional trigger that supersedes the visual. Still, I find the whole concept of the video enticing; I want to spend time in that place: watching red unfurl, seeing paint and the hand of the painter, to luxuriate in beauty and consideration of the eye's capacity.
As I explored the Dear Red series I was struck anew by how aware I was of the paper underneath. Could the support vary in a way that is additionally reflective of the different cultures and heritages you are evoking? Would this change the nature of the red? Also, perhaps to state the obvious, there is opportunity in varying the weight of the paint and its application.
I love the idea of the Contained Series! It's so smart! I felt a swelling of emotion in thinking of the implications of the natural pigment encircled by the synthetic. There are resonances of mapping and the encoding of information. In this regard I think of the work of Ingrid Calame.
There is something elemental in how the images depicted in the Scenes/Natural series are architectural or natural representations of some of the same materials from which pigments might be derived. In terms of the play architecture, landscape and abstraction you might enjoy revisiting Ben Nicholson.
I am thrilled by your incorporation of different cultures and their relation to red. Tony Cragg has some works that are a fine encapsulation of red as deployed in our petro-industrial consumer society.
The idea of moving painting into light projection is interesting. I'm especially intrigued by the ramifications this presents for color mixing - as it represents the difference between additive and subtractive principles. In pigment when all colors are mixed one gets black (theoretically, if pigments were pure) while in light if you mix all colors you get white.
Also, I found this great red drawing by Louise Bourgeois and these red sculpture/planks by John McCracken (roll over images 2 and 3).
I noticed that you spoke with Diane about further exploring Willem De Kooning's use of natural light. On the 100th anniversary of his birth I wrote an essay that featured these passages:
The space embodied in all of his works is experienced as a vast, internally coherent landscape that is awash in light - great, bright, sharp light. The paintings of the late 1970s represent the apogee of these tendencies. With their clotted, curdled, dripping surfaces, these works form a topographical tour de force.
It was in the wake of this period’s baroque, sensual verisimilitude that de Kooning shifted gears and began creating painted surfaces as smooth and wet as the surface of your eye. The change shifts his work from a depictive and literal texture to an optical tactility.
Hued lines in high-keys skim and wend across the white space and surface. The contrast packs an ocular supercharge. A phantom image burns, to varying degrees, into the retina and joins the eye’s gaze as it moves across the painting’s surface.
Congratulations, Lindey, I'm excited to see where you go next with your beautiful, expansive work!
Mark
Thank you all for the great feedback! All of your comments and suggestions are right on. With the video, I wanted to encompass the viewer with the reds, I wanted you as a viewer to be surrounded and embodied by this potent color. I am not a fan of the music either, but I did include it because that specific song, was one that became my anthem during my journey. I do believe that the video projected with no sound will allow for the effect I wish to obtain. I feel like it was a way to ‘paint big’ now that I am back in the studio with massive panels on their way, i want to take the effect from the video and implement that into a painting. We shall see where that leads. The contained series, just seemed right! It all started with a minor spill that led to the usage of the very last of my natural pigments that I made. Creating awareness between these two forms seems to be where I need to be right now with pigments, furthering my research into red, I think will bring everything to point. I feel like i need to focus on this and finish it before i start on the light aspect. Thank you again for the references and insight, you guys rock!!!!!!!
10-17-2014
Hello everyone!
I am posting a bit early, due to my internet connection is totally NOT reliable and am hoping to be more consistent by the end of the week, but didn’t want to risk being late:) Hope you are all magnificent! As you know I have been traveling around researching red, making my own red pigments etc. Part of all of this was to find a more genuine artistic voice. Being amongst the magnificent world and seeing sooooooo much, I had a moment where everything clicked! With this moment I found a new approach to drawing, painting and seeing the world before me. I was drawn to the patterns of the sea, cliffs and rocks. Having a limited palette of just various reds, this really made me focus on the subject matter. I have been also doing a daily red painting, comparing the cultural experience with my emotional experience of the color red. There is a lot of work here and I am painting 2-3 paintings a day!!!! The link to my work in progress page on my blog is above, feel free to check out the other pages too. My main concern has been this one, so a lot of my research etc, hasn’t been typed up yet, by next critique:)
My biggest question are, how to combine the bodies of work? I see them separately but could they be intertwined more?
Most of all I just want your genuine feedback and understand this is only the beginning of a larger, purer body of work!!!!!!
CIAO!
Lindey
Feedback can be posted below. To do so click “Open” above. This makes the document active for your contribution. MR
Hi Lindey-
It looks like you have had a very exciting and hard working couple of months! Looking through your proposal and work postings you seem to be well along the path to finding the ‘more genuine artistic voice’ you are searching for within the context of your project proposal.
Considering the specific question you brought to the Crit Group this week “how to combine the bodies of work?” I want to first address the way you modified the question you asked with the statement that you see them separately, yet then ended with the question “but could they be more intertwined?, implying that they are intertwined. How separate do you really see the bodies of work? What is it that makes them feel “separate” to you?
What I am seeing, despite the focus on the ‘single ‘ color red, is a recurring theme of dialogue, or perhaps it is more a conversation about duality or even multiplicity, happening within the works. The “Dear Red” series seems to have that sense of dialogue between two reds; the pages of the book when opened focus on a dialogue occurring between pages; the rock series, and other drawings and paintings often contain a strong dialogue between the figure-ground, subject-object, positive-negative, red-red, and red-other color. If there is dialogue, which requires two, then the nature of “separateness” of the bodies of work is, from my perspective, questionable. Can the works be separate yet stand in relationship to each other?
Aside from considering these questions, one thing you might consider doing is laying out the paintings in combinations which you might not have done or considered, and then look at them. What are the dialogues/conversations they are having? You might find you become privy to the conversations the works are generating amongst themselves, and they will then let you know how they should be combined.
-Robyn
Hi Lindey,
It was a pleasure to explore your work. I felt awash in painterly engagement and a rapturous surrender to the beauty of the world.
I feel the prolific nature of your investigation is generating a multitude of solutions that are steadily driving toward a synthesis that will emerge from the painting process.
To me, I registered that you might be operating in the conjunction between abstraction, representation and graphic symbolism - using that nexus as a platform for the articulation of color as a vehicle of emotional resonance.
I appreciated how you seem to be indicating that there is an equivalency between an all-over pattern and an all-over color-field. In some of the works you take these two modes of potentially austere abstraction and manage to create an image that can be read representationally - and inhabited. This painterly feat causes me to reflect upon and marvel as to what constitutes the composition our world.
For other examples of artists who encode meaning and symbolic representation into pattern and color I think of Peter Haley and Alfred Jensen. Georgia O'Keefe's Sky Above Clouds IV, 1965 would be another touchstone. Jennifer Bartlett's early work offers a rigorous almost mathematical approach to image making and color.
Robert Moskowitz and Gary Hume both construct images from color fields.
Karl Benjamin might be interesting to you, as well.
I greatly admire your embrace of the materiality of paint itself. What Painting Is by James Elkins is a terrific read about the paint of painting - and its historical connection to alchemy.
Painters I think of when I think of red: Matisse (L'Atelier Rouge, of course), Sam Francis, Hans Memling (the great red cloaks of his Madonnas), Barnett Newman, Michael Goldberg (The Red Paintings 1962-63), Pompeiian frescoes, Leon Golub (who derived his red and composition from ancient Roman frescoes), Barnaby Furnas, Yayoi Kusama (especially her recent work)...
-Mark
Hi Lindey!
What an awesome time you must be having, and what a joy it must be to go all over Europe - Berlin, Florence, Greece, and discover that these same reds are actually things found all over. Florence is very much, in my idea of it, a “red” city - the terracotta roofs, the red clay in the soil. Berlin has its bricks as well, in hues of broken red-oranges. Anyway, bravo for getting yourself out on your journey!
Here’s what has me curious, and where I think there might be room to further explore “red.” One thing I’m not sure of is how you are finding these reds in the world. What strikes you about these ones in particular? When you find a red, how do you know it is the red you want to use? Or, more interestingly, how do you know you don’t want to use a particular red? Surely it would be impossible to document every red you come across! Pursuing the answer to this question - what the source for your red tends to be - might be a way of bridging your two bodies of work, as it could get to the root of your motif a bit.
But the other thing I was struck with is that the reds you are finding stand alone. Some of them are cooler reds, flirting with a warm purple, but they are reds - the tube says red on it. So much of the red I experience in my own world right now is red because of what’s around it. A grey-brown tree might appear red because I see it against a green field. An orange facade or rooftop might be red depending on its lighting - sunset light often reddens everything it hits. And even in less extreme cases, the world is full of reds that border on other colors - greyish reds, red browns (of which you’ve found many!), red-oranges, even the paradoxical greenish red you find in the shadows of certain trees. I’d be curious to see how these do or don’t fit into your exploration - by expanding the notion of what red is, or how it can be borrowed, you might make your exploration of it more infinite (which may or may not be what you’re going for).
I hope this helps a little bit! Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful work!
O’Neill
Hi Lindey,
I have very much enjoyed your postings and traveling vicariously through your exciting adventures!
I must concur with O’niell and suggest that you push further the bounds of what red can be. Your reds are quite red. I’m interested in the fringes between colors and how far those could be pushed. As in- how happy are you before you become ecstatic? Or between thoughtful and introspective and down right gloomy.
Mostly I am curious about the surface and if it is true to how you are actually feeling- have you considered building up complexity of color by glazing layers? The surfaces are quite abrupt- and perhaps it is the association with the color it’s self (stop) but it prevents me from ‘entering’ or experiencing the feeling of the color- they feel separate from each other and I feel separated from them. I would like to get more of a feeling from them of what your feeling- and feelings tend to have more depth. I think some obscuring of the surface might help if that is something you want to explore. Another possibility for surface obscuring is staining- paper or fabric. You might want to have a look at Helen Frankenthaler and certainly Rothko.
I don’t know if I believe that it would be possible to express how I feel in one completely opaque color. I’d never be able to decide on the color anyway.
About the book - the format and drawing style that I’m seeing reminds me of some of the ‘doodle’ artists that championed the zine scene in Vancouver when I lived there. I think most of them live in NY now. Marc Bell and Jason McLean could be of interest to you as well as Luke Ramsey who still lives in BC if I’m not mistaken.
About bridging these two approaches or projects. . They do seem quite different to me. I think removing the linear format and rearranging could be interesting and perhaps associations will arise. . or perhaps they are separate bodies of work whose relationship is bridged by the fact that you made them both. For now could that be enough? The links may emerge organically given time and further exploration.
Hi Lindey …. Hi everyone! (Claire here - “ The Un-Painter”!)
Yes - my first thoughts are … Rothko & Jospeh Albers … then I see they have already been mentioned within the context of your work - so I guess I must be on the right track!
I really like the photographs from your journeying & feel that they are also just as valid a body of work as the paintings … & perhaps part of the same body of work that could be presented together as one exhibition.
I don’t actually feel there is a separation between the solid reds & the landscapes. I tend to see things very broadly & inclusively (holistically) in general & am more likely to see connections than separations.
So, to me, the solid reds, the landscapes plus the photographs all seem to be coming from the same place & all appear to make sense together. As a whole, the work doesn’t lead me to question anything in particular, it feels like it knows who it is & is reassuring to the viewer in a sensual nature … welcoming, warm, exotic - like spices, ripe fruits, wine, rich clay straight from the earth.
I like the way you use line to direct the form & energy & the pathways of the eye, yet without breaking up the sensual impact of the colour.
I also love the idea of these pigments coming from organic sources.
My only thought to probe at this stage is to consider how very two-dimensional all the work appears (presented on-line, at least) … & perhaps to entertain the thought of building up thick layers of paint into almost three-dimensionality, which could be appropriate for the intense sensory nature of the work …. ?
CEB
Hi Lindy,
KJ here, sorry I am late this week. I hope you received my email regarding why,
I enjoyed seeing your work, particularly the graphic paintings on newspaper and the photographs near the end. All of the works help tell the story of being on the move, traveling. While I enjoy the work of the color swatches, I think that part of your study will really mature when you get back into a stable studio environment. I wonder what these colors will look like when you compose in the studio on other materials.
The works on newspaper are really interesting. I love the patterns and the graphic drawing. Likewise, I love the geometric abstraction. Then, of course these are all red (and pink) too. I think the red is more powerful in these works, because they are composed and stylized graphic works being used as a way to express your interest in red. It funny, flipping through the bunch, there’s one that is beige among all the reds (#58 of 129). It totally removes the viewer from the experience of the rest. I think the power in all these works probably comes from your working knowledge acquired with the color swatches.
The photos at the end are really stunning. There’s an intrinsic beauty in them. There’s also a great deal of passion--your’s for red--and that shows through. I suspect it was more of a documentation for you, but I like it, and it could be an interesting direction.
-KJ
Hello all,
First and foremost, thank you for the unbelievable feedback, questions, references and ideas. I know crit group will do us all amazingly!!!
One thing that I did notice in most of the feedback that I would like to address first is the graphic tendencies of this body of work. You are so right! I went through pics of older sketchbooks and this has been a nature for quite some time, whether I disregarded it due non-legitimacy, I am not sure, but I fully embraced it, and do tend to continue down that path, as right now it feels real. I apologize for not giving some feedback on the source of my reds and really anything concerning it. My first 8 reds, the color swatches, that are psuedo pantone cards, are based off the red, acrylic paint that I could find at the Modular in Berlin, O’Neill, I should have taken you up on the other art supply store you found closer to Uferstudios. From these 8, which I felt were a nice spectrom of the color, I continued to paint. Well as paint ran out and locations didn’t supply the same brand and/or colors I was forced to use tempera limiting myself to just 4 reds. As my research continued I have deduced the color red down to 5 pertinent varieties; red ochre, minium, madder, red lakes and cinnabar(currrently vermillion). With this discovery I found my original choices in Berlin, pretty on. As my travels and desire for the earth continued, I have started to use natural pigments that I have ground and used in a variety of ways, which you will see next crit. So with this palette, I did what I could at the time. Same with the substrate, newspaper, brown packaging paper and then yes, poster paper later has been due to the lack of options, but as we all do, we make on whatever we can! As KJ mentioned, things will shift gears, when I am in a studio with beautifully stretched canvases and an extensive opportunity to buy all the paints I want!!!!! YAY!!!!
The question I asked about the bodies of work being linked somehow, Robyn, I think you nailed it with your question, what makes them feel separate to me. I have since this was posted, thought and found a nice segue to them, which I plan to test out more in the States. I feel as if they were so different in styles and in my head they had to very different visions, but the more I have looked at them together and in chronological order, they keep evolving. Which to me essential in the specific body of work. I continue to vision the next step as I paint, it just keeps going!
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