July 29, 2012 Finding Balance in Our Work

Two Sides of the Coin

Finding Balance in Our Work

Fragments III #123  22"x22" gouache on watercolor paper

I have chosen to share two paintings, which represent the "two sides of the coin."  The first is from my current series of work, Fragments III, based on collage; flat color, hard edge, sharply in focus, and I have added a grid of red dots.  I think the dots are like nails which hold the pieces of composition down, so they are on the same plane.  Fragments represent the idea that we experience our lives as fragments, or bits and pieces, nothing really whole.  Our thoughts and memory are past and present, and we take these pieces and make a whole of our life experiences, just like making a quilt.  It is a controlled piece and requires careful painting, but the viewer might question where is the emotion?

Words and Marks #104  Forgotten Moments  44"x29"  mixed media on paper

The emotion is in this piece, Forgotten Moments.  This is an expressive piece, in which I can use my writing.  It is based on a piece I wrote;

Forgotten Moments

I fall to my knees

 Examine the ground before me

Try to remember

The language written there

Breath the air

Count the clouds

I am ignorant

I have forgotten

The meaning of traces

The earth rotates

Days, months, years

Pass without notice

I question the moment

Past, present

Or simply eternity

A drawer opens

A housewife's collection revealed

Forgotten moments

Notes on crumpled paper -- a phone number

Coins --a nickel, a dime, some pennies

A pencil with broken point

A receipe for pecan pie

Three rubber bands

Bits of string

Tiny red ball

Some jacks

Receipts

Stamps

Keys

Odds and ends

Hurried put away

Over time forgotten

Days, months, years

Past, present

Or simply eternity

A lemon rind of time

Past or present

Spurn responsibility

Add -- subtract

Days, months, years

This moment is all there is

I think we are all "two sides of the coin"  and we must search for ways to express it all.  To find the balance.

Thursday July 19, 2012 Dreaming of Vermeer

Fragments III #!03  20"x20"  gouache on watercolor paper

After completion of this piece I realized it reminded me of the work of Vermeer.  The black and white checks reminded me of the floors often seen in his work.  And sometimes he put a curtain on the left side of the paiting.  The orange shape reminded me of the the chair he often put in the work and the triangle the window.

Often we see realism in abstraction and abstraction in realism.  It was not my intention to create a work after Vermeer, but sometimes we never know what will be seen in the work.  

These are some of Vermeer's paintings. (Images from the internet.)

Fragments III #102  20"x20"  gouache on w/c paper

ANNELL LIVINGSTON_____________________________________________________

HC 74 Box 21860 El Prado  New Mexico  87529                        annell@taosnet.com            www.annelllivingston.com

Fragments III Series

For me, it is the idea behind the work that dictates the image that I create.  I do not experience the world, memory, or thought as a whole, but rather in bits and pieces, or fragments.  The final image does not dictate what the viewer should think, but allows a place for the viewer to think.

In this series, Fragments III, I am creating compositions based on collage as a visual model for painting.  The Cubists, Braque and Picasso, first created collage, and it has played a vital role in almost every phase of Modernism.  It is a mode of perception, a multidimensional language, which because of its simplicity has immediacy, and spontaneity that is distinct from other art forms.  The basic principle of the use of cut and pasted colored paper arranged in juxtaposition that form the foundation for an art of limitless associative possibilities.  Through this process I am allowed to explore simultaneously the mysterious spaces between inside and outside, text and image, figuration and abstraction, past and present, two and three-dimensional space. 

These works could be seen as pages of a diary or personal journal, and like poetry, one idea dissolves into another, and the series of work becomes a sequence of new images.  Like each new day, forever changing.  Each piece takes time to create and each piece also requires time to be seen.