Although this method of painting is admirable, it is becoming disingenuous for the modern world. The placement of objects closer or further apart in the composition will dictate how the individual responds to the image. Looking back into the past, painters often used signs and symbols to represent the principles of the present.
Over time, conventional symbols change according to the principles of the present and sometimes change their meaning. While Surrealists distrusted logic, many appealed to the processes of the working brain, by depicting dream images or exploring automatism, creating expressive images without the involvement of the rational mind (National Galleries of Scotland. The action painters of this movement used large gestural brushstrokes impulsively and sometimes aggressively .
Attention is drawn to the individuals not only through stories, but also through the texture of the objects and the harsh lighting of each scene. Artists strive for a more accurate representation of the contemporary, common human experience and it is necessary to question the status of life.
ELECTRONIC FIXATIONS
Social media companies specifically design their platforms in a way to create a strong connection or addiction in the user. The human brain mainly learns information during the day when there is a lot of light. Exposure to bright light activates areas in the brain that promote alertness and improve cognitive performance, all essential for memory formation.
Today, 99% of the US population faces some form of light pollution, or exposure to unnaturally high levels of light in the evening, from both indoor and outdoor sources. Thus, we receive at least 1000 times less light during the day and 100 times too much at night, with. Increasing light at night inhibits the production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, which can lead to insomnia and other sleep disorders.
The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many of the pre-existing problems in today's human relationship with technology. Nothing is completely clear in this composition, just as this temporary way of life was difficult to process.
A TARNISHED LENS
Lighting is a big part of storytelling, which can direct the viewer's attention, emphasize or obscure certain elements, and can be used to set the tone (Brown. Additional forms of tension can be created by placing the audience in an ominous observer position, placing objects into the foreground , which slightly blurs the focal point.In Move, I placed a child's mobile and crib in the foreground to force the viewer to look beyond and into a room with warm light beaming through a window at the suggested apparition of a cat.
While the visuals alone force you to ask a lot of questions, the positioning of the objects in the foreground makes it clear to the viewer that this scene is entirely from a first-person perspective, increasing the chance that the audience can get into the scene traps. Is it the fear you are watching, or is it just the discomfort of being a spectator. Sometimes it can be difficult to identify with a painting if the story of the figure is too present.
Landscape painter Ann Lofquist describes the importance of being careful in finding a balance between nature and human presence: "These days the figures are small because I fear they will psychologically dominate the scene" (Doherty 1995). Changing the point of view to what the figure in the picture might be seeing, rather than being a bystander to someone else's story, increases the viewer's relevance and thus connection to the picture.
BITTERSWEET LIGHTS
Phosphenes are generated by mechanical, electrical, or magnetic stimulation of the retina or visual cortex, or by random firing of cells in the visual system (Merriam-Webster 2023). In general, after looking at something bright, you can continue to see an image of the object when. I can then fill in the gaps of my memory and refer to the photo from another removed one.
An apparent change in perception can occur due to physical characteristics of the eyes, such as astigmatism, where the cornea or lens in the eye has a different shape than normal. Cataracts can affect the perception of yellow, where it is achromatic and white appears yellowish; this results in a lack of blue and yellow in the retina and lens, intensifying visible red and green (Lanthony 2009, 56). It also tries to represent visual or internal sensations as seen in The Weakness: subway, apartment, pressurized phosphene and coffee cup, treadmill and half-closed left eye, bright day, floating.
I ensure that subtleties remain somewhat intangible, such as the unfixed images of phosphenes in the eyes or the projections of information behind a digital screen. For each new or frequently observed light, a new afterimage appears in the eye and will remain when looking around the space until it disappears.
INVOLUNTARY INTERLUDES
At the House on Willow Place, 2023, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 76 x 101 centimeters A place one frequents. At House on Willow Place it is structured around the sharing of feeling at home and the desire to find a place that feels like home. Some parts of the interior are pulled forward, like the window and the lamp, but still, it falls back into the reflection of a mirror.
The house sways off site, moving in and out of the background, barely holding a foundation for the world around it. One thing that remains clear in the mind is the object that transports itself. The images are closed and heavily overlapped and textured with tracks, as confined as standing in a crowded subway car.
Everyday chores are so second nature that they don't require an extra thought. The body switches to autopilot and the mind wanders to another place to pass the time. Sunken Solutions, 2023, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 91 x 122 centimeters A distant feeling, the way you want to go away.
In Sunken Solutions, the composition overflows with sensations of passing emotions and momentary contact with reality. As discussed in Bittersweet Lights, reducing the contrast between each image reinforces confusion, prompts a viewer to fill in the missing information, and suggests an incomplete memory or idea. Light moves silently through the scene and strong streaks of purple shadows overwhelm the composition.
Whether a place or object is experienced in real life or filtered through a screen, individuals respond to the same topics. Each painting deals with something from my own experience, but each subject remains banal to allow others to access their own sensibilities, even if it is not entirely familiar. My intention is to emphasize the overlooked familiar and to provoke the viewer into their own involuntary interludes.
LAPSES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Ethics of the Attention Economy: The Problem of Social Media Addiction." Business Ethics Quarterly 31, No. Visual Long-Term Memory Has a Massive Storage Capacity for Object Details." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 105, No. 34; Signs and Symbols: Art and Language in Art Therapy." Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University: Journal of Clinical Art Therapy 1, no.
The Affectivity of Symbols: Materiality, Magic, and the Limits of the Antisemiotic Turn.” Current Anthropology 59, no.
