Fente: Fragility in the Face of Time Part II

This is the second series on the idea of "fragility and decay". 

 I have had a variety of responses to them.   Most abstracts evoke images for us , that's just how our brain is wired. 

  I won't tell you the comments , as it makes it harder for you to have your own interpretation.   This is why artists don't always title their work.   Its not for a lack of imagination.

  The materials are epoxy, plaster, oil pastels, acrylic and ink. 

Technique mixte sur papier, 10x29 cm. 

Femme: Fragility in the Face of Time

I did this series by collecting bits of my degrading studio wall that is being eaten by moisture.  

 Fuzz and flakes of interesting colors and shapes were falling to the floor.  In fact they still are as it is a major project to fix it. 

 It is like watching a changing moonscape to watch my studio wall.

So related to my interest in the "fente", crack, or opening came this series based on what I like to call "fragility in the face of time".   

Looking closer, I kept seeing a woman emerging from my manipulation of flakes and pieces , thus the title.

These textured works on paper are composed of pieces plaster, epoxy, pastels, inks, and acrylics .

Femme, Technique mixte sur papier, 8x27 cm.

Art is experimentation

I don't know whether to tell this to you straight or make up a story about how this sequence evolved.  But if anything, art is experimentation and art school can be the ruin of the artist: two lessons learned.

So here's the story.  The first picture here is a painting I did.  Perhaps it is sort of "dark",  the image emerged as woman holding out something.  It kind of happened that way.

  Someone who saw this little painting suggested the song " Ode to Billie Joe", a ballad written in the 60's by Bobby Gentry in which a woman throws her baby off a bridge.  Sorry that wasn't on my mind when I painted it.  

At the time I did this I was taking a class at the Naive art museum here in Nice (Musee d'art naif) and the teacher took the painting from me and turned it upside down.  

This below is the original painting turned upside-down. 

"Well", said this fanciful instructor, "I see a dog!   I see a big afghan hound"... and everyone else in the class saw it too.  "Why don't you take that a bit further and do a series for me". 

 Now this is akin to subversion from an art teacher but I didn't think anything of it at the time.  I hadn't wanted a series of dogs but what the heck!  So I went home and obediently did two more "dogs" until I caught myself in a lie and couldn't go on, even to please her. 

 Still, these portraits have a certain irony that I like…. so now I enjoy them.

 This is the dog's master on the neckline, under the thrall of his huge hound….

These works are done on oil paper using my technique of inks with "resist" that…. as I say….I am sure I can claim as my own discovery. 

Series: Cosmos

This series, which I call "Cosmos" is an exploration and célébration of life:   " Les cellulose qui se multiplient,  les fruits qui murissent, les planètes qui tournaient…mouvement et changement inhérent a toute vie. " 

 That is what I have in my exhibition notes and I still stand by it. 

 These were done with the techniques of "monotype" printing on a sort of transparent felt that I found sold in the commercial sector.  These have to be backed with white paper to see the prints and that is how I showed them. 

Acrylique sur textile végétale 27x42cm

Celebration of the vibration of life: an allusion to the movement and change inherent in all of life.