the artistic dilemma; wondering if the exploration of surface, colour and texture is sustainable as an artistic concept.
XIII 2008 and LXI 2009 (click here to view more)colour as symbolic, surface and texture as calligraphic mark and gesture, yes.. but surface as a signifier, a metaphor for something else? the success of this approach depends on the prior experience of the viewer, and their ability to suspend belief (it is a painted surface) to allow the multitude of subjective references to permeate their senses. as artists we depend on a similar engagement from others that we have ourselves when making art; absorbed, intense, committed to its reason for existence. this acceptance justifies our work. Bataille, in the essay The Cruel Practice of Art, said that:the painter is condemned to please. By no means can he make a painting an object of aversion. The purpose of a scarecrow is to frighten birds, to keep them away from the field where it stands, but even the most terrifying painting is there to attract visitors.consider the fascination we also have with the ugly, the damaged, the deformed, the repulsive. we rely on the ugliness of things to help us measure and possibly re-evaluate what is beautiful. in the wabi sabi aesthetic, things exude a kind of understated beauty through their very fragile hold of it, beauty faded, beauty decayed, and then from the emotional associations and socio-historical references.. a wabi sabi approach to experience also relies on a degree of humility and modesty, or solitude, which is often at odds with the motives of the successful artist: the need for an audience, looking for opportunities, in control of events.. in wabi sabi, the underlying principle is not to commodify, objectify or judge things, but to acknowledge, contemplate and reflect: objects, scenes, events, the landscape of the moment.. and then move quietly on..p.s. it would be interesting to find other artists who are also pursuing a 'wabi sabi' aesthetic in their work, but the current nature of the internet (the proliferation of social networking sites) is at odds with such a gentle philosophy..