2024-2025: Painting Built and Drawing Arrived
In this body of work, I utilized the process of fundamental image making as it pertains to drawing and painting by creating a type of gestural composition as the under layer for me to play with paint upon.
The under drawing served almost as a rulebook for me to paint through. The image suggests “Post Painterly” motives and motifs, such as a cold relationship to painting and repetitive colors and compositions, as the painter is somewhat removed and reduced to the authenticity of the given processes that create the picture. Having said that, the drawings that influenced this body of work are nearly the under layer of the paintings but reduced to a repetitive Gestural type of composition. The gesture as repeated over and over again allows the picture to arrive in a similar manner to that of the paintings, but in its own way. As in relation to ideas of sorts, the drawings can be seen as a repetitive type of gestural creation that is self-referential to the picture plane while alluding to a reality that is much larger than itself.
As for the painting, there is a certain type of void present – as if the picture is that of painting itself. I was wondering and pondering upon what painting is after Post Minimalism and Digital interfaces. Can I express anything beyond paint as such? Or is there some type of cold ritual that needs to take place as the work references an expressive moment or process that is not confined solely to a new aesthetic? As the color and color movement begin to fit that of the Post Painterly time period as exemplified by the New Expressive manner of the color palette as a Post, “Post – Modern,” whim, the subject becomes ordinate to the canvas.
Needless to say, I was wondering about the authenticity of my authorship as creator of such an image, as the Post Minimal starkness of objecthood and painting philosophy seems to be removed into an 80’s retro mirror of painting itself. I found this quite interesting as I created the images, but realized that the inspiration was simply flowing from the mind; as the plan to create the painting is the underlying drawing. This flow of consciousness is in-fact quite difficult; almost as difficult to trace as the logic of the Drawings themselves.
As for the drawings, ideas such as patterns and composition of rendering and creating space seem to be the ideas or concepts; this fundamental source of picture making itself relied heavily on formalist weight of new ways of creating drawings with color and tactic that are still expressive while holding onto traditional mediums of Drawing. As a mediator, I used the photograph and photo editing to create an image aside from the drawings and paintings that could further help me in developing and refining the composition of the drawings. Furthermore, there were simple photoshop lenses that aided in my inspiration for color creating and tracing. They served as a mechanism to react to and converse with via the drawing process. This logical interface as a type of pure expression, created a more methodical cap or limitation that allowed for me to quickly think through the composition of intricate simple repetitive gestural forms.
Needless to say, the Post-Digital realm affects the picture plane but in these terms, it leads more to logic than a type of affect to the process and arrival of imagery. My intent was to return to the paintings, but this process allowed me to see the paintings in the lens of the altered photograph and the 3rd dimensional experience of simply looking at the work.
Currently there is a void in my art making chronology that is important to understand my terms and ideology from 2021 to 2023. Painting in the Ideal is not the point of the subject matter but is the byproduct of chronological play. The Modern aesthetic may seem complex or simple, but it is a segue to the New Expressive – Post Modern formal works that I have made and that still influences my ideas. As for this concept, Art History and Art Theory are related and maintain a digestible aesthetic that allows for minimal image making and the expression of the rules of paint as matter that is much more enjoyable than I expected.
In conclusion, this statement is in time and space a non-conclusive indicator of a chronology of painting and ideas. I have created some “New Works” that advance the ideas of this body of work despite the missing images that are still ruminating as concepts. Needless to say, this is simply Painting Built and Drawing Arrived.
As from my perspective as a Mexican-American artist that is somewhat grappling with the History of art from the stance of a Male of Color, the artwork seems to be lagging in Contemporary relevance. The final image of the artwork seems to be a product of the hidden transparency that may be explained by my Identity and the preconceptions of such. Furthermore, I wonder how to express myself with authenticity through the Medium of Painting and Drawing while being authentic to who I am. Having said that, there is a simple settling with the images that is somewhat reserved in Modernity in the Contemporary moment. I question “Post – Modern” art and its capacity to hold ideas concerning my Identity. Nonetheless, I am satisfied with each body of work as it matches my desired motive of expression and avenue of thought.
