Blog

WHY ABSTRACT? Issue 2

Painting is one method of expressing ourselves on a flat surface. For me, it is an input of creativity, imagination and as a way to bring emotions of any sort to the forefront.

As true of many abstract artists I tend to let go of an end result and just let the work flow in the direction that speaks to me. If I try to get too technical I will often mess up. I usually start with a limited color palette and try to limit my expectations of a workable outcome.  Painting in an abstract way allows rules to be broken and looks at form in a different perspective. For me, it supplies a freedom of expression as I delve into my inner resources.

There are times where I give the piece a name before I start painting – sometimes that works to move me along the creative path and sometimes it doesn’t. My intent is usually to nudge along a specific feeling by means of pictorial language. Some of my work can be of geometrical design if I feel a need to be organized in my thoughts. It can feel more cerebral and objective with its systematic arrangement. Other works represent a strong emotion that I might feel from a personal experience that has rocked my world. Regardless of the source of my intention, it is always to allow the viewer room to come to their own conclusions and fill in the blanks. One of the joys but also one of the difficulties of painting in an abstract style is that I am driven not by what I see but by what I feel. There is no external information available to devise shape, color, texture or composition. Abstract play can assume a certain amount of freedom but does not benefit from lack of direction. I feel I still need to associate myself with certain limits and restrictions so that I don’t just muddle along.

Some folks look at an abstract art piece and a comment might be “I don’t know what I am looking at” or “this doesn’t represent anything I know.” That is precisely the point about abstract art. The intention is not to represent something in the real sense but to develop a sensitivity inspired by unconventional details.    - Jennifer Farnell

Jennifer Farnell is a member of the Okanagan Art Gallery and the Artists on Main.

Art in the Valley

Issue No. 1: WHY ART

This column is the first in a regular monthly series on the world of the visual arts in Osoyoos and the south Okanagan. I am a painter and so it will necessarily be biased in the direction of the aspects of art I am most familiar with – painting, sculpture, pottery, exhibitions. I appreciate, but know little about, weaving, spinning and quilting. I am a realist painter but I appreciate the difficulties of doing abstract art and will try to keep an open mind about it. Only about 0.8 percent of the Canadian labour force is engaged in the arts including drama, dance, architecture, radio and television; however about three percent of the population ‘does’ art. In Canada that’s nearly a million people; in Osoyoos and surrounding area, maybe two or three hundred [although it might be more as we tend to be retired with time on our hands].

When asked why they make art, most will say something like because they have to. Many enjoy the process but many more find it darned hard work. You aren’t necessarily born to do it or are lucky enough to have talent but art comes to dominate your thoughts and perceptions rather like an itch you can’t scratch. In the end it comes down to communicating through visual means something of one’s inner life to others. In this way artists are somewhat unique. Some artists think deeply and record their thoughts on paper. Some artists feel deeply and place their feelings on canvas for others to view. Still others record their passions in pottery and sculpture. Some art tries to be avant garde, some makes a social statement, most is content to be room decoration. The art world has been dominated for the last century by a climate of art criticism that insisted realism in art was passé and only non-representational [abstract] art could be taken seriously. Fortunately, this attitude has relaxed somewhat and gallery mavens in New York, Toronto and Los Angeles are somewhat more open to the possibility that realism is legitimate. Artists themselves debate this issue constantly and in this way try to learn tolerance and understanding of one another’s styles. For my part, although North America is awash in landscapes and flower paintings, it is sufficient if we only create beauty through our work. [I have only one thing which hangs on my studio easel and that is a tag which reads “Bring something new, something beautiful, something filled with light into the world”.]

Because I sometimes get carried away with philosophizing I will endeavour in these columns to also bring to you gentle reader something practical and useful from time to time.

Michael Jorden is a local painter of landscapes, historic and western subject matter. He welcomes your comments and suggestions and can be reached at mike@jordencook.com.