Yes, I call this art!

Last Summer Paul and I traveled to L.A. for a couple of days, I was lucky enough to be able to drag Paul into a museum for a few hours to see work by Rauschenberg, Pollock, Rothko and more. When I was looking at the art I was filled with excitement and almost a sense of home, as if I knew these people, these artists. I have not had a feeling like that since >>> THIS <<< not even when I visited the Picasso or Gauguin exhibitions at SAM, though I saw some of the same pieces in France. And so, I feel the need to gush about why I love these pieces of art. I understand not everyone feels the same, I understand that I am not an art historian, and I understand that my opionin may be skued, tainted, or bias but I have a strong, strong opionin filled with emotion and that is exactly what these paintings are... Artists Opionions filled with Emotion. 

The two pieces of artwork below are by Mark Rothko, these peices of art are huge! that in itself is striking to me... why? because to the individual not familure with painting techniques this looks like someone cheated the process by rolling on a few slabs of paint and calling it good. I however, know that this must have been quite the ordeal to haul this canvas in maybe even build it and stretch it, then prime it, let alone to actually paint over the entire surface multiple times. Painting somthing like this... think about it, actually consider the process, to have to stand back and look at the whole image, to engage your entire body making large strokes across the canvas. These final works are a map of the experience the artist created for himself. To be able to walk into a museum and stand infront of this map and imagine the experience that it is a result of it incredible to me.

Below is a painting by Jackson Pollock, another favorite artist of mine. I think this idea of a map of an experience is incredibly true of his paintings. My interpretation of these paintings is really the same as the above - I love to stand infront of them and imagine the thoughts racing through the artists mind, the decisions they made in color, shape, strokes, and why?

"I realize that historically the function of painting large pictures is painting something very grandiose and pompous. The reason I paint them, however . . . is precisely because I want to be very intimate and human. To paint a small picture is to place yourself outside your experience, to look upon an experience as a stereopticon view or with a reducing glass. However you paint the larger picture, you are in it. It isn’t something you command!" ~ Mark Rothko

This is a painting that is near and dear to me (BELOW) ... I did this painting in 2010 as my senior project. The background of this painting is black because there was another painting underneath originally. I was so frustrated with the result of my work that one night while I was working on it I just painted black over the entire thing and started over. To me I wanted to create an image that felt like it could lift off the page like you were standing in the field with three horses. I wanted to create a sense of carelessness like it didn't matter that this was not a photo realistic painting it still looked very much like horses. The image on the far right is actually my favorite because I can see where I was working (the map idea) and I almost can feel the paint strokes used to make that image. The feelings inside while painting this was a compilation of frustration and a struggle with my personal identity. I will always remember this process and I have the image to recall all of the decisions I made in the making.

Night Mares

So to sum up my rantings on art YES!!! I believe all of this is art.... ;)