Painting With No Meaning
Blue Roses
“What does it mean?” That is probably one of the top ten questions people ask when they look at a painting. Certainly not all paintings must have ‘a meaning’. Some paintings are to be felt, others are interpretations of nature, and others are just a way for the artist to deliver a technique for personal amusement and practice. Painting with no meaning is very satisfying indeed. All you want to do is to enjoy the process. If someone else finds meaning to it and likes it is a plus.
In my last studio days of 2014 I did just that: painting to explore a technique and have fun. I am a sculptor and prefer sculpting much more than painting. However, I enjoy painting from time to time. I approach painting the way I approach sculpting. I begin with the pose. I work on basic shapes and then work smaller areas until I ‘build’ the figure. I am not looking for meaning or some intellectual and spiritual awakening. I just study the figure. I try to understand the intricacies of the muscles and their reaction to movement. It is delightful to observe how muscles expand, stretch, and contract. You can feel it in your own body.
The process begins by tracing that pose I want to explore. I trace just the lines with paint. I love lines. I apply some shading as a guide. ‘Filling’ the figure with color helps provides a foundation on which I will shade and form the muscles. For me is very important to follow the fiber of the muscle with my brushstrokes. It provides a sense of volume. It also helps to accurately shape the anatomy. Before I work on the details of the anatomy I try to surround the figure with color as in providing a setting (which is generally empty space for me but it provides visual sense). The surrounding colors also help me decide the colors for shading the figure.
Detailing the muscles is very challenging but so much fun. I work one small area at a time and connect the muscles until the figure is complete. Hair comes after. To add a little something to the composition I added flowers this time. I was going in different directions with the flowers once I added the blue roses (which were originally purple) close to the head. First, and that was the original idea, I wanted to create a ‘u’ shaped frame of flowers and vines on the bottom half of the canvas. It was too much for me. The next idea was to just add a few flowers closing the figure at the bottom. I was not feeling it either, so I left it like that with just three blue roses. The rest is about cleaning up the details. After about 12 hours I was very satisfied with the result.
To be honest, the first thing that came to my mind was that song. Yes, you know which one. You are singing it in your head right now. Let’s go back in time for a moment. “Here I go again” from Whitesnake… Go ahead, sing along!
Fast forward to 2114. New years eve 100 years from now. A completely new generation is ready to celebrate. If we went from horses to space shuttles in 100 years it would be interesting to imagine how the future holds. Marty McFly from Back To The Future made it to 2015. It really doesn’t look like that although we have many things they didn’t think about back then. Nevertheless, we probably won’t make it to 2115, but would someone remember you?
It is that time of the year! Many are figuring out their new year resolutions and goals. The desire of making something different for a new year is very common. We know most of them are carrying on from previous years. We also know that desiring to do something is not enough. Resolutions are decisions or determinations to accomplish something. Action is required.
End. Begin. Continue.
Life Incomplete
Excited about the new year? Many people are. People are ‘pumped’ with starting something new and fresh that would changed their lives. Gym subscriptions begin rising, new diets are intended, changes in looks, and the list goes on and on. Generally the excitement of the new year lasts just a few days. The routine takes over and we completely forget about new year’s resolutions. The fact is that changes and getting used to changes won’t happen in a day, or a week. It is said that it takes a minimum of 21 days to develop a habit. What we forget is that there are no new beginnings without endings and that the line between the two is not as thin as it looks. There is a period of transitioning from ending to beginning.
William Bridges explains in his book Transitions – Making Sense of Life’s Changes how to understand change in order to cope with it. Life is a continuum full of endings and beginnings and are often the transitions that are the most difficult times to endure. We leave behind experiences, people, things, practices, habits, and thoughts to move on into new ones but it doesn’t happen magically at midnight like in a fairy tale. Changes take time and we humans don’t like that. We want things to happen right away, don’t we?
What if you decide to make changes happen instead of waiting for them to just happen? Visualize the ideal you. Be wise in doing this. Don’t visualize yourself in comparison with someone else. Be realistic. The ancient Greeks defined ‘sin’ as ‘missing the mark’. If you go too high, too low, or to the sides you are missing the mark. Can you see it? Now, consider what needs to be done in order to achieve that visualization. What does it take to get there?
Educate yourself. Listen to the experience of others. Weight their points of view in light of your context and needs. Follow what fits your vision. Try new things within your means. Some risks and leaving the comfort zone are necessary. Stop doing what is not working for you. Keep doing what is working so far. End. Begin. Continue. Results take time. Enjoy each achievement. Most importantly, love what you do. Life is incomplete until you are complete. Life is only complete when you are not. Is the transition that matters and makes a continuous change in you.
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