revisiting

been thinking and looking at geometric abstraction
what interests me are the following;

• field versus figure on a white surface - one is edges, one isn't - one is static the other is more dynamic 
• line as thought versus a painterly fleshness 
• a diagram as a agent of change in the future versus the drawing as a trace of an act, a record of the past. 
• if I am creating works that are modernist, or clearly reference it what am I seeing? Is past, time an object a material in the artwork, i think so but what is it's nature. So it's not entirely formalist 
• surface - playing with planes levels disrupting those levels 

nature of making - the practice

• I am making fixed time for art - slowly negotiating a deal with myself 
• still not as productive as I want to be
• also timetableing in time for writing - so that is also cool - generally not being so hard on myself .e.g. allowing myself to write in nice cafe and eat food at the same time. 
• finding that my state of mind and my state of body are far too interconnected, i become manic if i don't drink enough water or drink too much sugary stuff 

looking at modernist paintings

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9c/Mondrian_Comp10.jpg
from the above website

This Mondrian is diagramatic but is still field - but is inbetween the two, which is cool.

got thinking about something I've always wanted to make, and started to make, it is light and less thought about. So, i'm happy about it. It fits with what I am doing which is great. 

photos and walking

today i went walking around my hood again. It was curious to work out that the plastic sheeting in the rubbish tip areas are actually tent like structures that people sleep in. Found taking photos okay. People were generally friendly and i didn't feel threatened - people are really nice.

I like the hand made structures for drying clothes. like how things are tied. Like how they unintentionally make abstract paintings of layers of found board or tape over holes. purpose - where i just see abstract art.

Got confused again;

I wanted to paint or draw representationally again
maybe just draw bits that i like - like the repeated patterns of lamp post things, or the weave of the baskets, of observational drawings of tied things, like the elastic that they use.

Wanted to make things myself - but also want to draw stuff in a traditionally way - like colour and like mixing paint - but not sure if I should be painting of just taking photos??

I think way too much - and should be reading what other people say when they think about their practice.

I don't care that re looking at modernism is done to death. - there is more for me to do and that's all that counts.

interested in humanism - but I'm sort of a hypocrit - i don't like people really their mental space is too heavy on my brain, i like thinking about what they have left behind - their objects.

reading

Just reading Myth: A very short introduction by Robert A. Segal.

On page 41 he talks about I - it and I - thou distinctions. As how we currently see the world as an 'it' not a person, but how in the past we saw the external world as a person. How interesting to think about this in the currently climate of using up the earths resources and pollution. Maybe we should start again to think or  consider the world as a person that has needs and something we should respect, perhaps be fearful of as our negligence may cause the world to react negatively to us.

also linking to the French philosopher whos name I've totally forgotten who wrote about the modern city and how we conduct ourselves in the city scrificing our freedom for this imagined 'other' - this myth of the city as a person.

Big things or Small things

Been thinking about big gestures. The grand colour field paintings of abstract expressionism. Can't do it, tried it just doesn't fit with what I like. Feel like my works should be big but with pieces of paper and small lines they don't look right, they look tried to hard or pictures of pictures.

feel freer about making at the moment.

liking non functional things that look like they have a sort of purpose.

I like agnes martin but not the big paintings.

Feel like I should look at Richard tuttle again. - i like paint and I like paper, and wood and bits of string.

I don't to be avantgarde but backwards. Something old and reused - something stayed. I like rusted things. Everything is new - everybody is buying new reusable bags. I don't see old bags - just new reusable ones.

bits from today and bits from yesterday

this one was drawing a large square then drawing a smaller square inside then rubbing out the larger square. 

it's too light and not interesting enough - too much field

I like this 

but there to still two ideas in it and I want one 

like the way the lines of the curved ones don't quite meet - this is another work 

still not sure - don't like the circles maybe too distracting from the lines

i can't see this image - but think it is the black one - i like it - but it's too field and not enough diagram 

basically this is made by sticker a white piece of paper down then going over with pen 

i was interested in the bit when the pen went off the edge of the paper 

this one i prefer especially for the little corner at the bottom of right does so much so simply 

need to do more with lines around the white paper 

levels 

this one i really like 

but isn't a diagram so not sure about it 

lines look like something else but not sure what at the moment 

drawing / photography / internet

photography cuts rectangular shaped holes from the world

drawing floats in a space that isn't of this world - our cerebral space - a space that believes that acts as if it is untouchable by the physical world

the internet is the same as the drawing - images float on pages - in a space that is protected by screens (we look at it through computer screens - inside this protected infinite heaven space - a space where we believe we can live forever - that's why facebook accounts of people who have died are so strange so incomprehensible - i don't want to see them because it confirms my mortality even in this space where life appears to be infinite.

practice

just thinking about making 

so many things to cut down on

into fleshy crapness of paint at the moment 

diagrams rock 

trying to do one idea at a time 

some of them are still too many things going on 

but trying to maintain the agency of the diagram and not just be purely formalist though i am interested in the formalism of it - but there has to be the possibility of change - of it causing something 

still so many things to figure out 

i feel as if i am trying to bring the disparate bits of my practice together 

feeling positive about it 

some drawings seem pretty - i'm really unhappy about this 

still got to figure out about border - edges 

i like photography's crop - and like how drawings float in space - but want to try out some lines where they reach the edge of the paper 

this also allows me to bring in the photographic abstracts too - 

how could i make them real? physical? 

reading about modernism or new modernism - not sure what i think - 

i'm happy with how my practice is going so that is the main thing

i'm not interested in being perpetually avant garde - if this has already happened (new modernism)- oh well - I'm not a following fashion 

thought about - what work would i like on my walls - tried to make work for my walls 

I just tried to make modernist infinite fields - interesting as it made me realise that this isn't my practice

created a small book of lines - i'm trying to record as many different lines and arrangement of lines 

keep thinking about statements like "ideas abandon too soon" "lacks rigor" - these are motivational and help reflection