Paintings

Evaluate and Discuss the Technique and Process:
1. What decisions throughout your process were risky or bold?

By the last part of the semester I felt more relaxed and had a good feeling about my possibilities to break the technique. The possibilities of using different strokes, and the possibility of working over an old piece and being able to resolve it was challenging. The process of building my paintings by using more paint was challenging as well, but I enjoyed seeing the possibilities.


2. What decisions were safe or unchallenging to your usual way of working?

The use of transparent layers of paint, the same technique (oil on canvas), as well as continuing exploring the same female image representation, was something that I was doing before.

Discuss Material Choices
1. Why did you choose the materials you used?
I used the same materials I have been using for awhile. I think I need to resolve many things with this technique, before I move on to use other kinds of materials.

2. How did you use the unique qualities inherent to the medium? How would the work change if you used a different medium?
During this semester, I was playing with different qualities of paint, sometimes transparent, sometimes thicker, with the intention to resolve the flatness of the painting and create more depth. If the medium were different the approach to the technique would be different, for example, if I were using watercolor, of course the technique would be different and I wouldn’t be able to resolve my work in the way that I was expecting.

3. Consider the scale of the work. What aspects of technique or content would be jeopardized, and which would be enhanced if the work was much larger or smaller?
I think if I were working on a small scale, and in the way that I read the work, I would lose some of the concept. In a bigger scale, I might lose the intimate aspect of my content. However, I would very much like to explore large scale work such as the scale of Enrique Chagoya. It seems like the size would invite you to develop different concepts as well.



Discuss Content and Meaning
1. Use adjectives to describe your approach (relentless, harsh, affectionate, considered, etc.)
Slow, considered, energetic



2. How does the relationship between the image and the speed or attitude with which it is executed, add content to the work?
The way I approach painting, in the beginning, is kind of fast and energetic. But, when I view the painting, I need to slow down and negotiate with the painting. It is sometimes hard to move from one image to another. It doesn’t let you go ahead and move to work on another section or image of the painting. For example, the painting which I’m painting on top of is very complicated for me. I’m only now resolving the background image with the new image.

3. What are the ideas and message you are working through? How do you lead us to this message or meaning? Do you leave room for the viewer to form opinions about the subject, or is your work more didactic?
The ideas I’m working on have to do with the change and analysis of the representation of the female body and present a different way to read the female image. I’m using images of female representation that are stereotyped and in poses that are very sexualized. I want to make this stereotype obvious but at the same time to present the absurdity and wrongness of these particular images. I think I leave room for the viewer to assume or to detect by themselves the meaning of the painting.

4. What makes your work personal? What techniques have you used that make the process personal?
Well, I think the way I work with the composition is what makes my work personal or recognizable. I can also be recognized by my content, my color choice and transparent layers of paint.


Discuss Context

1. Which artists are you influenced by and what do you borrow/steal from them?
I like artists such as Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, but I’m not sure if I am influenced by them.

2. How do your paintings relate to historical “schools” or “movements” within the last forty years? How do they differ?
Probably, my work is influenced by modernism and feminist artists that were working with the body. They were working in performance and video, but I’m still working on these ideas through painting.




3. What current events or circumstances influence your paintings? (pop culture, politics, new media, technology, international events, etc.)
New media and technology influence my work – all the interest that feminist artists of the 60’s had for the concept about the representation of the female body.



4. What makes your project relevant?
I think that there are few painters who are working on the concept of the female body and the way the body is represented in culture. I believe that art is a media that can change reality, not exactly as political propaganda, but it’s way to present reality in a different way.

Different Artist

1- http://painternyc.blogspot.com/
Elizabeth Payton

2- Elizabeth Payton, Beautiful people. Art in America, Feb, 2009, Vol. 97 Issue 2, p98-106 Subjects: PORTRAIT painting, American; WOMEN artists; EXHIBITIONS; ART, Modern; PEYTON, Elizabeth; DUMAS, Marlene; OPIE, Catherine Database: Academic Search Premier

Live Forever: Elizabeth Peyton The exhibition is organized by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator at the New Museum.

http://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/400/live_forever_elizabeth_peyton
Elizabeth Peyton, talks with David Shapiro. http://www.theblowup.com/archived/elizabethpeyton/page1.html

Elizabeth Payton, Catherine M. Grant
From Grove Art Online, © 2009 Oxford University Press. http://www.moma.org/collection/artist.php?artist_id=8042#top

3- Criticism- In Peyton’s case

The aspect most criticized in Peyton’s work is her inclination to paint famous people and her use of photography. They focus, as well, on her process of using photographs which she translates into delicate and beautiful paintings. Interestingly, she is the subject of analysis - as a woman, her work is almost exclusively based on male subjects and its political meaning as a female artist.
These various criticisms cover issues like the subject matter of the artist, which are portraits of family, friends and famous people. Some of these criticisms consider that she is influenced by Andy Warhol, since she uses “pop colors” and is drawn to create portraits of the famous. She uses photographs of famous people, or according to her, people that she cares about. In Elizabeth Payton’s, Beautiful People, Nadia Tscherny refers to John Giorno, who writes that like Warhol, her subjects are well-known, but unlike Warhol, her gaze is unpossessive and as such, undermines the paradigm of the male gaze. According to this critic, Peyton rejects the idea of the male artist’s controlling gaze - she chooses male subjects who already objectify themselves, something that is historically a female trait.

Other critics also comment about Peyton’s color sense and her “razor sharp graphic sense”. They discuss her emphasis on the androgen and beauty of the male form and her consistent use of celebrity as the subject matter.

4-This is a very interesting question and I’m happy to think about it. The criticism of Peyton applies to my work in the way that in my case I use photographs from fashion magazines to resolve my compositions. Like Peyton, I am trying to change the female objectification and create a different way to see the female form. Peyton’s process is close to mine, and she uses thin coats of paint, like me.

5-If I were criticized for my use of photographs, I use them as because these fashion models represent the hyper-objectified, sexualized female form. And, my objective is to give these sexual positions (and objectifications) a different context - instead of erotic positions, the figures are urinating or doing something completely different.

Other Paintings

Peter Saul
It seems like the artist is trying to destroy the beauty form, and it seems like he wants to shock the viewer by how he uses the images, penis, sexual postures, and the female form as an object. He uses the image like a comic book. It makes me think of pop art in the 50’s, and for the way he over uses the form, it reminds me of expressionism.
The artist uses thick layers of paint, like illustrations, his colors are brilliant almost “tropical” or neon colors. He uses solid colors and then he works the shadow areas on top creating light and shadows.



Enrique Chagoya
What beautiful work. Chagoya mixes images of Mexican and American iconography, and criticizes the political and economic system in both countries, with a great sense of humor.
He uses charcoal, pastel, ink, and paint and really light and transparent layers of color. He uses the accident in the process as part of his visual vocabulary.
It’s a beautiful piece.
He works the image, mixing gender and cultural iconography. He uses the work of other artists as material, creating references to masters like Goya.



Jorg Immendorf
I feel like there is an imposition of images. He use objects, as well as every day scenery and mixes it with political figures. I feel like the artist is trying to create scenes with a specific political meaning. Every single inch of the canvas is occupied with an object or a form. Reminds me of graffiti. And of course the female form is as a sexual object.
The artist uses strong colors, different layers, texture. Almost all the forms are delineated.


Neo Rauch
He uses the figure as the central point to create a narrative in which the position of the figures determines the meaning of the painting. Realism. He uses contrasting colors and works the figure and the detail in depth to create a sense of reality. He uses thick layers of paint and in some areas transparent paint.



Kai Althoff
This painter uses kind of transparent, white-based watercolor to create figures that seem to exist in a very flat space, merging with the background, very graphic. The planes of the painting are very close together. The figures are historically recognizable in some of his paintings. The figure is the main point of reference or subject.



Michael Ray Charles
He uses wonderful colors and textures, making reference to advertising images of the past. He uses layers of paint, resembling an aged process and degradation of the painting. His subject matter is related to old-time racial stereotypes, specifically of African-Americans. His work is very graphic, poster-like, including text.



Kara Walker
Her work resembles old-fashioned silhouette forms that are cut out, in black and white. She plays with the contrast between black and white and with a big contrast in size, large and small. The figures look like puppets or images out of the past, such as in newspapers or graphic posters, and refer to stereotyped, racist portrayals.



Kerry James Marshall
Stylistically, her work looks like naïf painting, with African-American figures, flat background, graphic, use of text and lettering. Like murals of the 1950’s. Subject matter – political statements about race. The colors are opaque and thick layers.



Sandra Scolnik
Some of her work looks like Bosch – small, detailed, complicated narrative, many figures. The colors are transparent, pastel and thinly layered. Her work is realistic but the way she deals with the figures, mainly autobiographical, is surrealistic.



Josephine Taylor
This work is mural-like, using black and gray and using the outline of the figures. She uses negative space and only a few references to the body’s features. Opposite of Kara Walker, she uses white on black, instead of black on white – reverse silhouette. She is referencing her dreams.



Jocelyn Hobbie
Realist figures in a kind of early renaissance style with tempura. Highly stylized, atmospheric, mostly women figures. Erotic, charged, dramatic.



Wengechi Mutu
Looks like collage –figure are composed of magazine images, water color or very faint oil, and ink Works with the female body and focuses topics on race and gender. Works on paper, it seems.



Elizabeth Peyton
Her work is figurative and resembles California figurative painters. Drawings, thin layers of paint, flat background, large color areas, portraits



Merlin Carpenter
Collage – figurative style in surreal space and background. Graphic, flat, light layers or ink, some lithography, perhaps, Text is included. Various scales in the same painting.


4-I chose two artists that I think are close to me in relation to my painting (process), as well as the use of image, and concept (well, here I’m not really sure): Enrique Chagoya and Kerry James Marshall. By the way, both of these works are beautiful. I can hopefully, some day, resolve my painting with that level of quality.

Enrique Chagoya and I have a similar color sense; he uses really transparent layers of color. Chagoya uses chance as an important element in his work. I use a certain amount of chance as well, and I use really thin layers of color. We both use black as a part of our composition. Like me, Chagoya uses lines and text in his work. In relation to Kerry James Marshall, I feel that the way he uses the figure in his paintings is similar to mine. He uses the figure to create a narrative, and his composition is really interesting. He cuts or covers certain parts of the painting with white color or texture, and in my case I try to cut the composition as well. In relation to Marshall, I don’t use thick layers of color, but the use of the figure, texture, text, and the way he cuts the composition is similar to me.


5-I think I could be interesting for me to use materials like charcoal, and to experiment in bigger sizes like Chagoya. In some of his pieces the delightful way he plays with the images, mixing different concepts, and figures could be really interesting for me to try - playing with images different from those I use. I will be more than happy to try to use part of the process of these two artists. In Marshall’s case, the composition is so beautiful. Every part of the canvas has a meaning or a reason. I would like to play with the composition in this way. Beautiful!

Questions for Reflections on 30 Painting Studies

1. When you began the studies what did you expect ? How did the experience differ from that expectation?

I am really happy about the results, or better said the possibilities of working on sketches first, and then on the studies. The sketches are a great form of throwing out many ideas, or if you are in a dry spell, at least you can try to work on ideas you had before in different ways. It was very nice for me to see the sketches together with many possible and different visual solutions/concepts and resolve one or several paintings. It is funny but after all these years I never tried to work on studies, I thought it was a waste of time. I was more than wrong. This works for me really well.

2. Describe any high points and any low points in the process: Did you struggle to complete 30? How did you overcome any impasses? What strategies did you use to keep the project interesting and useful?

Yes, it was harder than I thought, I spent more time than I was expecting, even though the studies are small, they are like little paintings, and in the way I resolved, using oil and canvas, just like a painting. I needed to wait for the paint to dry to finish it. The wonderful part of the process was the great opportunity of working with more freedom in an idea for a painting. I really enjoyed seeing different solutions for one painting, and despite the fact that the space will be different in a painting, it is really useful.

3. Did you consider any pieces failures? How do you define that failure? How can you use it positively as you begin your semester’s work?

All the time when you are working on a specific project, some parts of it don’t work, or we feel like we didn’t resolve them well. That happens with me. During the process of making the studies some of them didn’t work - for many reasons like composition, color, or repetition. I felt like I wasn’t resolving the studies well, I felt like I was repeating myself and needed to finish it. However during the process, I felt also that although many elements of the pieces had failed, it was really good to work with different ideas in other paintings.

4. What pieces did you consider successful? How do you define that success? What will you take forward into your semester’s work from it?

I consider many of the studies successful because I was able to resolve the composition, or the use of color or just develop a concept that was going to develop into a different idea.


5. Write the questions that have arisen as a result of making the studies that will form the guidelines for your practice this semester.

Repetition, I wonder if it is ok to stay with a concept or subject until you feel like is time to move forward or is it better to push for change?