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Vibrant and Subtle Colors
At the reception for the first solo exhibition of the first UnGraven Image prints, featuring all three of my painting current series: G enesis: Sunset-Sunrise , Written on the Wind and Trees of Life , I was asked a question that I have been considering ever since.
My new friend Evelyn asked me a pertinent question, “Why are the colors intense – vivid-- in some of your paintings and more muted in others?” She wanted to know if I see colors as vibrantly as I sometimes paint them, and if so why more muted at other times.
I always consider questions, constructive criticism and comments, even the ones that people ask because they want attention. I have learned that I can always learn something new by listening to the inspiration that comes from considering what someone says. Some of the best blogs have come thanks to questioned from members of the Collector Family Members throughout the USA . I know Evelyn to be a very intelligent woman who is passionately committed to our community and various causes. We first met at one of the zoning hearings in relation to the Jewish Center of Southampton that is addressed in the previous blog. I respect her.
Evelyn's question is a good question. At first I did not have an answer.
As an artist I am focused on the painting I am currently creating. Although many of the works, certainly the newest ones, are often haphazardly, even crookedly and sideways, hung around the house-cum-studio, basically as the walls are a good place to keep them, I continue to see each one as a separate entity.
So I walked along the gallery and noticed that the earlier works in the Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series seem to be more intense, as there is a definite shift that came as I experimented with the acrylics and began to use lots of gel to create glazes. There are more prints and more works, so far in my Genesis series. That is due to two reasons.
The first is because the texts from Genesis 1-2:7 are the original Abrahamic theological basis for UnGraven Image theory. The theology that when the Creator speaks, those Hebrew letters represent the essential matter – or pre-matter—that underlies our universe is shared fully by all Jewish and Christian denominations and branches and is in the Koran, so I am informed that it is fully Muslim, too. Theologically, I began wit this reference and only later, and serendipitously, learned that Torah font Hebrew is binary and so the paintings are fully Taoist and also reference important concepts in Buddhism and Hinduism.
The second reason is that books I read early on in my UnGraven Image artistic journey indicated that galleries would want paintings for a show that were all of one media and one series of work. So I focused on Genesis, which is also obviously my point of theological beginning. I am now aware that as the founder (and instigator!) of a new theory and emerging movement this otherwise sound advice may not fully pertain to my work, I have developed my largest body of work so far in this series. I am very cozy with images of my local sunsets and sunrises.
However, my nascent experimentation with the idea of using Hebrew letter to represent the essential pre-particles in a painting was focused on the art movements and theories preceded. I “saw” a connection between art and theology and elementary physics theory and as an artist applied and experimented.
UnGraven Image art theory is a next step from Conceptual, especially Word art. It asserts that the meaning is intrinsic in the symbol-strokes that create the work, letters forming into words) and even if the strokes are hidden – as opposed to Word art, where they are primarily revealed to convey meaning, the meaning of the work remains inherent in the symbol-stroke rather than in any narrative imagery those strokes may create. In fact, the narrative imagery serves to reference the strokes, which is the flip of all narrative art where the strokes exist to create the narrative.
Even so, when people with some art background see my acrylic work, they comment that it reminds them of either Pointillism, especially Seurat or Impressionism, especially Monet, but of course, different . It seems to me that the acrylic works with the glazing are softer, like Monet.
My original answer to Evelyn dealt with the difference between the earlier acrylic works verses the newer ones with the glazes. I think to some extent whether a work appears more vivid depends upon the series and to some extent the media.
However, although Evelyn wisely pointed to differences in the Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise works, among the prints displayed in the show are four from the Written on the Wind series. This series began after the tsunami, when here on the South Fork of Long Island, NY, we were snowed in by a blizzard. I was in my home studio, listening to the news and painting. We learned that the wild and free animals had somehow known to flee to higher ground and were overwhelmingly saved, while we humans had no such foreknowledge.
I looked outside my window and saw the birds, who were used to easy forage, managing in a world blanketing by snow.
The first paintings in the Written on the Wind series were the cardinals, they were easy to spy flitting about in the snow. The male is vivid, but as in nature the female is less so. Psalm 84 (Sparrows) seems fairly muted to me. One of the three sparrows is somewhat camouflaged and sometimes goes unseen by the casual observer. So far, the Written on the Wind series is created with watercolor pencils. I can writer the Hebrew letters of the chosen Psalm and then use water to diffuse it.
The other series included in the current prints is Trees of Life. This series ranges from very realistic, to the most religious and mystical. All of the prints available in this series are on the website. The originals of the Seasons of Trees set are mixed media, combining watercolor pencils, and/or ink and/or gouache. These trees are quite vibrant, but not all the trees in the series are.
Although my original answer in relation the Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series has validity, the glazing does not fully account for the vibrancy and clarity, epically since part of this newly finished painting on the easel that I will sign (finish) tonight has both potions that are vibrant and others that are less so and where the letters obviously meld into the image.
I think the question of vibrancy and clarity has to do also with the way we see. My granddaughter Anna Sara was here yesterday. Anna is very proud that she can name colors and very interested (unlike her father, my son was) in painting and drawing. She is bi- even tri lingual and can name colors in these languages. At two and a half years old, Anna is teaching me Hebrew names for basic colors Right now, for Anna green is green. The best we can do is light or dark green, red or pink, and so on. Turquoise intrigues her, but is still a blue. When we see life simply, as Anna does, the many shades and frequencies elude us.
I have been pondering Evelyn's question for almost a week. A question highlighted by the fact that when I returned to the newest and largest (48 x 38 inches) yet work on my easel there is much of the vibrancy she asked about. What makes this interesting is that this work is again a mixed media work. It is again vibrant, partly due to the underlying effects of the watercolors. Since I began painting in UnGraven Image, the art suppliers have developed new canvas primers that take watercolor and mixed media. I experimented. I now have four (there smaller) Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise paintings that begin as water color pencil works and then have inks and/or acrylic added.
Sometimes life is simple, even when we are sophisticated. There is right and wrong and often there is no grey or mitigating circumstances or shades between them. There are times in our lives when the colors are dimmed. I remember when my beloved Dad passed away, how in my heart it seemed strange that the lights in New York City, his beloved city were not at least dimmed, while with my intellect I recognized that that was an absurd idea, even had Dad, basically unknown, been the mayor. In my memories of those earliest days after his death the colors are subdues and nothing seemed bright, even though I know this cannot be true. . It was the world of late Rembrandt, full of small awakenings of light coming from the poignant muted darkness.
At other times the world can be so vibrant for me that it is visually orgasmic like some of the later works of van Gogh. There are times when I see a sunset or flower and vegetables and fruit on the vine that are bursting with life and color, which is so intense that I want to somehow dive into it as if it was refreshing cool water on a very hot summer day.
Life and color and how we see things is subjective. It depends upon the time, place and us – plus to some extent for me, the media. And yes, Evelyn, I can and do sometimes actually see colors so vibrantly, but not always.
July 11, 2007
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