The politics of painting

Wednesday, August 25, 2010


This piece is a little bit different, and I like that. It marks a change in direction for me because I have spent such a long time studying how to use the Chinese brush and various Chinese and Japanese painting techniques. Here, after all that work, I am able to depart from traditional subjects and lessons and begin to develop my own style with these exotic materials.

I think the Western art community has ignored the potential of this medium. Oil paints and canvases stretched on wood are still king in Western painting. There is an attitude that a painting is not real art if it's not oil and canvas, and I think that's a shame because there's a lot to be learned from Asian art practices that are every bit as impressive and important to art.

For me, a big one is learning to be in balance with the materials themselves in order to create more direct expression. Every brush stroke carries more meaning.

In current Western art practices, so much attention is focused on the new, on proving that one is a unique individual. But new for the sake of new is empty. Trying to make things look edgy and avant-garde in ways that are irreducable to some underlying concept, philosophy, feeling, or worthwhile intention, is empty.

I would rather try to be one with my art, and someday maybe I will achieve that.

To see full views of this painting and learn more about it follow the link to etsy: http://www.etsy.com/listing/54683272/fruits-of-nature

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