Mode of Expression

Just wrote a lesson plan I think is great about different art styles and how artists use their language to express their view of the world. The idea is to have the students :

1. Understand their view of the world
2. Learn about painting techniques Ab/EX, Realism, Impressionism and Pop Art
3. Create a painting that reflects their view of the world/situation in one of those styles

It is helpful for me as well because it allows me to explore these since personally I have been working in the Cold Abstraction vein the last year or so.

I did some personal brainstorming today about my work because I have been focusing on finishing a larger painting and haven't done any deep creative work lately. While sketching/writing out ideas about the moon a news report came on the BBC about telescope makers and reflective qualities. This really intrigued me and I learned about the spook fish (if I heard that correct) that has eyes that have a strong reflective surface in their eyes used to catch more light. The get this by layers of protein and cytoplasm. This immediately calls to mind Chris Offili's paintings which are so thick with varnish that the painting has several layers that are all translucent. This effect is something that I've been going for in my own work. I did accidentally twice but despite experimenting with layers of varnish and supports I haven't been able to deliberately reproduce it.

I've always been drawn to the work of Wolfgang Laib, James Turrel, Anish Kapoor because I feel their work all has that other-worldly sensation to it and I want that same kind of experience from my own. I have not yet succeeded.

I found this still functioning elevator in Shanghai this past summer. It takes one up to probably one of the older contemporary galleries in Shanghai. I first visited in 2004. At the time I expected Shanghai to be country's art center. I spoke with Li Liang who is the proprietor and he assured me that it was Beijing. I a lot of good it did me since I lived in Tianjin at the time

This gallery is still there although I didn't think it was as impressive as it was the first time I saw it. Now that art makes money in China, artists are being less experimental. Fair enough, everyone want to eat and artists are no different. Perhaps it's the buyers who are at fault. If the buyers are more interested in experimental work, then the artists would produce it. Supply and demand. Ai Wei Wei has got it right, use design and architecture, functional things for money. Leave art as expression.

I've often thought that through one's expression they will have ideas and concepts that are applicable in the real world. I have realized that market economies are good for the world as a whole. As ideal as I think communism is, it won't ever be practical because no one person or group of people can know the entire story and thereby make decisions that are good for the whole. So we need to supply what is needed. It is creativity that allows us to see what is needed, or beyond that, what will be needed. I look to design most particularly because I see that it's design that will make life more efficient. It will save us time and resources, make work more enjoyable and easier. Good design will only come from good creative thought, e.g. good art.