A Deeper Dive: Is Cohesiveness Overrated?

 Ever feel scattered? Or as if your work is all over the map or lacks a clear style or focus? Again and again I come back to this feeling that my work should be more 'consistent'. It should be recognizable as mine. And yet I would never tell someone else that their work should be consistent. I really believe (as you'll know if you've taken any in-person workshops with me) that you should explore what interests you. WE should explore deeply and honestly, and follow our passions and interests. Otherwise we're just banging out 'production art'. 

The other end of that spectrum is skimming the surface of an idea. Try one piece, then move on. And that is not real exploration. I'm always telling people in my workshops to "do ten more" in answer to almost any question. But not "stick with that image/style/whatever for the rest of your career".

That said, some artists explore honestly and passionately in what looks to us viewers like a narrow, but deep, range of imagery. We read this as 'consistency' or 'cohesiveness' and seem to feel that this is the correct way to make art. Why the high value on recognizability and consistency? Does it make us as viewers feel good to recognize an artist's work? Or is it just more convenient for galleries and marketing?

Just like I have changed my profession several times over the span of my three decade career (potter, freelance art for manufacturers, painting and teaching), and my extracurricular interests are broad and cyclical (chicken husbandry, language learning, excel spreadsheets, graphic design, cheesemaking), my work changes in format and style pretty consistently. It is also cyclical. So I did stripes for over a year - that was the exception. But I've done stripes before, differently, with different perspectives. 

Right now I am doing what I call collage quilts or collage mosaics, and then working them into pieces. The friggin world has fallen apart, and this feels like making something meaningful or just pretty, out of the shards. Or maybe I am just trying to make up a story that connects my work to something real. Oh well, it's the work I'm doing because I'm following what interests me. I'd love to get your comments on this topic.

This is the mess, partially assembled.

This and the following three images are the 'quilts', collage on very light-weight paper.

Finished (I think) piece, as yet untitled, 24"x24", acrylic and collage on wood panel

24"x24" on wood panel

16"x20" on wood panel

Thanks for visiting.

Late Stages of a Painting

This piece is 20"x20" on wood panel. It has gone through many stages in a previous life, and then resurfaced to take a new direction. Here is the latest:

This is many layers after it came out of hiding.

Flattened out the top area with a grey-green

Added a bit of gray pattern in the middle and emphasized the gray circle on the right.

Painted over the drippy over in the top right, marked the gray circle with graphite and paint, and added some orange stripes inside the big orange orb on the lower left.

Toned down the gray circle on the right. Looks like I also tweaked the turquoise.
This may be done, or very close. 

From Sketchbook to Canvas

This is just one painting in process that I've begun using my sketchbook page as a starting point.

This work in progress is 36"x36".  It may change completely as it evolves, but you can see the influence of the sketchbook exercise in it.

This is the sketchbook page that I created as a "mood board" for the painting.

I never work on just one piece at a time, so I do have other paintings in the works that are similar in feel to the above. The one shown here is the one that most directly reflects the sketchbook starting point. I have no idea where it is going!

Awkward Stages of Paintings

I feel a bit scattered in the studio lately, which is not unusual for me in general, but especially when I am between workshops.  Still, I feel it's important to go there and do something, even if it is just playing around or wrecking a few works in progress.  I have been futzing with these "train wrecks" on and off for a while, taking the opportunity to see how much contrast and variety I can get, usually at the expense of any kind of unity or wholeness.  The benefit is that they surprise me.  I intentionally go into awkward and unknown territory.

Whether any of them become finished pieces or not (and some do!), they all go through really awkward, even ugly, stages.  So I thought I would share a few of those awkward stages with you.  I think most paintings (of mine, anyway) go though awkward stages, like adolescents.  So these are my thirteen-year-old girls, or fourteen-year-old boys of paintings.  They are all 19"x25" on paper:

One thing that works for me about the paintings being "ugly" at this stage, or awkward, is that they compel me to DO something.  I am not afraid to "wreck" them, because they are so obviously in need of major renovation.  It is freeing.

Work In Progress

I've been working on these 20"x20" wood panels, playing with color and pattern, in between teaching sessions.  Here is a video:

For me, the key to not getting stuck (or getting un-stuck when I am stuck), is to:

• Work on at least several pieces at a time.  This depends on size: the smaller the pieces, the more I have in the works at once.
• Do only a few things to each piece before moving on to the next.  I try to stop before I get stuck, and let the pieces remain in process for as long as it take.  

This approach helps keep up the momentum, but of course nothing can totally eliminate the occasional frustrations of making art.  

Still in Process

Still in Process

Might be Done

Thanks for visiting!

Work In Progress

I started these improvisational pieces while teaching at AVA the other week.  Here are four that I consider finished; each 10"x10":

Color-Pattern-Line #1

Color-Pattern-Line #2

Color-Pattern-Line #3

Color-Pattern-Line #4

Nine more (of a dozen or so) works in progress in the same series.  

The four finished pieces are now available as prints in Fine Art America.