Thursday, December 7, 2017

Slapstick 12/7/17

I paused today to reflect on my current so-named Slapstick inquiry.

Here's how I set it up—controls: slap it on, let it stick; variables: everything else.

Here's how it has played out so far:

• the inner turmoil I'd been feeling for weeks has taken leave of me for a good week now;
• on most days I have not worked in short quick bursts; on a few days I have;
• I have stumbled into generating a series that totally engages me;
• in that series I notice the interplay of two phases—an initial intuitive unfettered slap onto paper of paint, texture, pattern, and line and the subsequent detail-oriented resolving of ongoing challenging visual puzzles that emerge;
• I do catch myself fussing and getting detrimentally precious but can often tap into my self-designed guiding principles to slap something into place rather than fuss and to let it stick rather than get precious;
• until I forget again.

Onwards and sideways.

A Twenty-Foot Wooden Crate of Fifty-Cent Sweaters
4x5"; acrylic, grease pencil, and collage on paper,
mounted on card stock
abstract
2017


Favorite orientation?









8 comments:

Lola (Jen Jovan) said...

Detrimentally precious! Love that phrase. I am often guilty of that. This new style is da bomb, by the way! Fav orientation? Number one.

Simone said...

I love it when you take on a project and keep going, and reflect on it! I'm glad it helped you working with (or how do you say that) the inner turmoil. I find the combination between organic painting and straight lines fascinating! It reminds me indeed of painters like Braque and Picasso. Have a lovely weekend!

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Jen, preciousness definitely plays a significant role when I paint, sometimes helpful, I suppose, when it guides me to stop because stopping is in the best interest of a given painting, but more often an impediment to tapping into unjoyably unconstrained and open-hearted self-expression.

Ya know?!

Thanks for your comments.

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Thank you, Simone. The interplay between organic painting and the 'limits' of the lines has been really fun to explore. Wonder if Braque and Picasso shared similar feelings or if their adventures offered different gifts and challenges.

Sheila said...

Ha Ha Ha, love this post Dotty. I think my favorite is the way you display it at the top. Love it!

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Thanks, Sheila. I'm loving this particular sideways path I've found myself on!

carol edan said...

This series is really jumping. My fav is #3 vertical. I seem to like the up would movement. I can hardly see what is collage and what is painted. What I understand about the process is the "slapstick" is pasting down the collage pieces. Love the way the scripts add to the whole.

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Thanks for your comments, Carol.

1. Does the upward movement come from the vertical orientation and the triangle in the center?

2. As I said in a comment at IG yesterday, I'm at my dad's in Maine right now and not at home (actually painted this a week ago), looking at the photo and trying to see/remember how many of the pieces are collage; maybe 19? They're texturally more evident in real-time, but since the base and the collage are both from the same original start the collage is hard to detect photographically.

3. 'Slapstick' has turned out to be descriptive of pasting down the collage pieces but it's INTENT, when I began this inquiry, was to paint quickly and freely, to just slap stuff in place freely and let it stick, i.e. not edit and 'fix.'

4. I love the print collage, too—4 bits of black on white, 1 of yellow on white, and then the yellow n and o (with the n in 4 pieces itself!).

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