Thesis - 1999
QUINTESSENCE: Portrait of Earth
Exhibition Project by Donnalee Dunne
This body of work is a portrait of our planet - concentrating
on earth at the time it approaches a new era of earth time -
my view, as I see.
Quintessence has dual definition, the first being the fifth and
highest element above earth, air, fire and water. The second
meaning is the essence of something in its purest and most concentrated
form, which is the thought within the paintings.
My work explores the basic forms of the earth, at the same time
acknowledging the stratification and intertwining of varied cultures
occupying its surface. I address the impression one culture makes
upon another - blending with, or replacing and fragmenting what
came before. I address the structure of culture - solid and supporting,
or breaking away, eroding, and smothering.
In January 1990 I left the normalcy of easel painting to explore
the potential of the computer as a tool for fine art. After seven
years I returned to painting in oil and acrylic on canvas. In
Quintessence, with the combined influence of these media, I pay
homage to the computer through painting, and visa versa.
INFLUENCES
Influence of People
There are a few people who have influenced my work. Rene Magritte's
work has expanded the way I look at landscapes. The very real
is there, the execution is near-photographic, but the laws of
nature have been altered to form their own believable reality.
Because of him I have found new ways to assess the weight of
objects, the representation of a part to represent the whole,
and the simplicity of object to ground. In his paintings I found
the weightlessness of rock, the massiveness of cloud. The manner
in which I painted the five monochromatic oil on panel pieces
(plate 5) is an example of his influence. From Giorgio de Chirico
I acknowledge the importance of what is sensed by what is not
there, specifically by his use of shadows from a source off the
painting. I used this in Consummate (plate 5), and in Confrontation
(plate 4). Salvador Dali's early work has influenced some of
my landscapes in the development of starkness and ordering. This
can be seen in the computer landscape Transcendence (plate 10).
Other influences include artists I have worked with, gathering
snippets of ideas from their paintings and from their words as
we discuss our works in progress. A source of inspiration has
been the life of Georgia O'Keefe. I have long felt a kinship
with her spirit, her energy and her inner strength.
Now and then in the world of art people come together to work
and a creative energy flow happens-great or small it is a wonderful
thing to experience. There was a group of us working together
on the computer in the early 1990's, and some of this has kept
me continuing in the same direction to this day. Again, in the
late 1990's another small group of artists worked together twice
a week, and from them I have been encouraged to develop my work
into this collection.
Influence of Place
There are always those who come after - the people who feel they
are improving upon what was, before them, perceived as a good
way of life. This can be generational, or it can be cultural.
Throughout history the current generation alters and destroys
things from the past. One could say they "take over",
or become caretakers of, or guardians of the present, but often
without homage or thought of the past. This is in context within
the same culture, not as result of conquest, but of inheritance.
The idea of wilderness to farming to small settlements to cities
is a concept I have dealt with more than once as a precursor
for this current body of work.
A study in the Spring of 1993 of American Wilderness Literature
enlightened my thinking regarding the influence landscape in
art can have on the culture. It is well known that pioneers traveled
west in part because of the exaggerated reports from those who
had gone before. Albert Bierstadt and fellow artists painted
the west in a glorious "larger than life" manner that
beckoned others to follow, expecting the promised land. So, it
was no surprise when I traveled to visit Little Petroglyph Canyon
in California's Coso Range, I expected a grander place than I
found from the word of others who had been there. I knew the
early native Americans considered this a sacred place, and pecked
many rock drawings into the Basalt of the shallow canyon. The
impact of place did not occur to me however until later at home
I viewed the photographs I had taken there. The canyon wall seemed
taller, the rock more colorful, the water more beautiful than
the actual experience. Ten thousand years before, the people
who lived in the area made their marks on the rock, one tiny
peck at a time until the shape emerged. Other people after them
added their marks on top, weathering through time until the images
have merged. I knew this was the basis for a series of holy places
and the impact of one culture upon another. I painted six acrylics,
four of which became a part of Quintessence (plate 1). I used
fragments of one culture's architectural forms transplanted into
the geography of another culture. Two civilizations, two cultures
that existed separately, but when they touch, the influence is
there - one upon the other.
Influence of Medium & Material
When I began painting for this project I knew I wanted to meld
the work I was doing on the computer with painting in oil on
canvas. One thinks of the computer as the new technology and
the need to explore its functions and proclivities. That did
happen to me, but nearly ten years before, and for most of the
following years I did not work at the easel, but did all my painting
on the computer. When I finally picked up brushes to apply pigments
to canvas I found I had forgotten much of the use. The resulting
exploration of how to hold the brush, how to mix the paint, how
apply to the paint, expanded into exploration of material surfaces
to the use of paper, rough canvas, smooth panel, and applied
fabrics. I realized that my current "new" technology
was an ancient one. And it was this exploration that resulted
in the bulk of the exhibition.
This report comprised a total of 19
pages. Contact me to read the remainder
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