Viewers Know About a Work’S Development
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It did well for what I wanted it to do THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Fine Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Matthew Shoemaker Dietz Graduate Program in Art The Ohio State University 2010 Master's Examination Committee: Professor Laura Lisbon, advisor Professor Michael Mercil Professor Suzanne Silver Copyright by Matthew Shoemaker Dietz 2010 Abstract I have several focuses while making artwork. While making an artwork I look at art history, my personal art history, and aspects of conventional two-dimensional design. Then I feel it is important, to put my own interpretation on these different things I look at in order to commit on them in my own way. There is a casual feeling in my work as chance and other operations are combined to make an image. There is often something from outside each work that is brought into the work to aide in its completion. This makes the casual process in which an image is completed into a decisive work of art. When I complete a work I want it to have a casual feel that has the determination to be a complete work of art. The key questions that have been raised in my work are what it is that I am truly after in my paintings and drawings? Do I want there to be a narrative between my work, my history and art history? Are my abstractions truly abstract, when I label the forms within them as items out in the world? Am I only interested in my work in the context of the history of painting? What are the modes of abstraction that I use to make an image? And finally, why is it important for me to work the way that I do? ii Dedication I dedicate this to my loving wife Lisa. iii Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge my committee Laura Lisbon, Michael Mercil, and Suzanne Silver, for their encouragement, and help throughout the last two years. I would also like to acknowledge, Sean Foley, Ed Valentine, and Ann Bremner for their interest in my work. This work would not have been possible without all of their help and support. iv Vita 1997................................................................Columbus North High School 2002................................................................B.F.A. Painting and Printmaking, IUPUI 2008………....................................................Post Bacc. Certificate, School of the Art Institute of Chicago 2008 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Art, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Art v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Vita ...................................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: My Art Experience ............................................................................................ 3 Chapter 4: Abstraction ...................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 5: Time and Quantity ........................................................................................... 18 Chapter 6: Color and Plastic ............................................................................................. 19 Chapter 7: Studio Practice ................................................................................................ 20 Chapter 8: Drawings ......................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 9: Paintings .......................................................................................................... 24 Bibliography: .................................................................................................................... 32 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Large Arch ......................................................................................................... 31 Figure 2. Wall Painting With Stripes ................................................................................ 31 Figure 3. 11 Windows and one Form, Problems of Continuation .................................... 32 Figure 4. Back In the Saddle ............................................................................................. 32 vii Chapter 1: Introduction When I sit down and think of how to describe myself as an artist, I immediately label myself as an abstract painter. This has always been a characterization I assert with pride. When I started calling myself an abstract artist about ten years ago many people in the “art world” believed that abstract painting was “dead.” Being an abstractionist, I am able to work with the formal issues and process of making an image, without having to worry about narrative or content of telling a story or making a statement. Part of the reason I’m unwilling to title any part of my work is that I want to stay as far away from narratives as possible. Over the last two years I have loosened my stance on what I am willing to label or explain and become more open to letting viewers know about a work’s development. Now I feel that giving my art work titles, can help me make my work be about being between something and nothing. I have been working with abstraction for almost ten years. I have had to look at my work and describe something without labels, with words. This process has made me ask questions. What it is that I am truly after while I am making my artwork? Do I want there to be a narrative between my work and art history? Are my abstractions truly abstract? Am I only interested in my work in the context of the history of painting? What are the modes of abstraction that I use to make an image? Am I truly working in a dead art? And finally, why is it important for me to work the way that I do? 1 To answer these questions I will look at my experiences with art, my personal views of the history of abstract painting, the modes of abstraction I use to create images, and why it is important for me to work this way. 2 Chapter 2: My Art Experience My aesthetic is directly related to my interests. As a child my interests were playing make believe, watching cartoons, and creating things. I was always making relationships between toys and things in the world. In Columbus, Indiana, I grew up around significant examples of modern architecture and other art. My interests grew as I grew older. I began collecting and my aesthetic changed; comics, books, CD covers, and skateboard art fueled my visual aesthetic. I have always been a searcher and collector/finder of “treasures” that truly are only “treasures” to me. In my life I have collected different things, usually things that had to be bought. I have collected coins, comics, cassette tapes, skateboards, CDs, videos, movie posters, vinyl records, DVDs, and art books. Now my collections still continue but to a smaller extent. My collecting now revolves around my art work more than consumption of collectable goods. I have often associated this search for things I collect with my practice as an artist, not only in the act of searching but in finding things as well. While searching I will go through stacks and piles of things with qualities I enjoy. I am searching to find something that I have never seen before; at the same time, I am looking for something that I may have seen a number of times but was unable to get or pay attention because something better came along. When I find something, there is a sense of joy mixed with nervousness. I experience joy at having found this gem, and 3 nervousness that I might find something else, and then have to leave one or the other behind. While searching for things to add to my collection I find the most pleasure in physically stumbling across things, whether it is searching for a record, or within the process of making artwork. With the computer age, the collecting world has changed. It is so easy to find something without really searching for it. I enjoy the visceral nature of searching that involves looking through actual physical objects not just looking through searches on the Internet. This is also true I am while working on my art. Even though a lot of artists will use the computer as a tool, I feel that the physicality of art is what makes it interesting. This is, of course, a personal aesthetic choice, but with the way so many things are created and manufactured today, I believe the aspect that can make an art work great is the fact that it was physically created by one person, and that it can be unique. Along with searching for things, the collecting of things I find is how my obsessive behavior becomes a part of my work. When one is collecting, the goal is gathering as many of an item as possible. One of my largest amassing of items is my comic book collection. In that collection I have a large number of different titles but the bulk of them revolve around the X-Men comics. My goal was to get the complete collection of the original X-men comic that became the Uncanny X-men. To go along with my accumulation of comic books I started having a interest in music where I would collect albums from my favorite bands, then all the albums of bands related to my favorite band, 4 and so