This slideshow continues the "drip playing" series...by sharing some more works, which were created as a form of escapism and creativity during the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 pandemic. These were created using alcohol inks mostly and a common digital image editing software. These were created on translucent synthetic paper, white synthetic paper, and black cardstock respectively. Even though many of these are abstract, I see these as pseudo-explorations of forms. And there is the interplay between the physical material / analog and digital.
8. Dilution and Concentration
• A continuation of the exploratory:
• This work is a continuation of the exploratory in earlier slideshows using both
material (alcohol inks, water paint pens, and both synth and regular
paper)…and some digital applications.
• I got stocked up on more translucent synthetic paper again.
• I am seeing what changes when the paper size changes.
• Partway through the work, my home office scanner started showing
banding again, which was a pretext for trying digital means to apply
transparency patches, burn, spot-heal, and to engage in digital
editing.
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9. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• Many of the paintings start out looking more gloriously and peculiarly
lurid than what happens after the inks and paints dry…and then are
scanned.
• I’m much more comfortable with works going through an “ugly” phase (or
multiple such phases) … before finalizing to an equilibrium state. (It’s always
easier seeing how others go through this and having confidence that they’ll
pull it out…than I feel for myself. The safety net of having paints dry into less
vibrance…and having the extra layer of the poor scanner…makes it easier to
just go with it. Alcohol inks dry so fast that control is somewhat illusory.)
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10. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• Some lessons I’m working on for myself:
• I want to know when to stop. There is a point beyond which any additions
start to “muddy” the work (and the pigment). It is becoming clearer when
sparseness might work better than excess.
• I am trying to learn about white space and how to use that more effectively.
• I am seeing how layering of the various inks works.
• Each work combines feeling and thinking. One without the other does not
fully work.
• I want to think ahead from the beginning and not just riff the entire time. I
am understanding why some line up their paints and inks, and why they have
a plan for what color goes where early on. But I also want to be able to just
“go with it” where possible.
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11. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• I am learning how to make a visual that is “of a piece” without too
much artificiality, where possible. Where this is a real issue is when I
combine various types of inks and paint pens and alcohol markers and
so on.
• Digital means are sometimes needed to integrate disparate media
(which feels like a “cheat” for the material parts).
• The power in any creative space is the solving of the constraints.
• However, visuals are about illusions, so I use what I need to get to what I
want.
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12. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• That said, I still like the “accidents” and the roughness…and am leery of too
much digital editing (although quite a few of the digital versions go through
several steps of distortion before converging on a final state).
• There is a lot to be said for imperfections and seams.
• There is a lot to be said for serendipitous accidents and “errors”.
• There is a lot about being inchoate. Visuals help fill some of those inarticulable
spaces.
• Sometimes, experimentation is about a “brute force” exploration of every knowable
possibility and mistake.
• The respective material mediums have “give.”
• The art space is open to interpretation and is relatively “forgiving” in the
informal aspects.
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13. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• Every work is a product of its time. In the present moment, with the
challenges of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, these are a diversion from
work and the stresses of the world. These works offer a way to attain
“second wind” in difficult moments because of the surprises along the way.
• These works also initially stemmed from the need to create decorative visuals for an
online academic journal that I co-edit. (Open-shared visuals and clipart only go so
far.)
• As a writer, I adore words (and concepts and stories)…and I hope some of
that comes through even in the simple word selections.
• There are some implied little stories (or little states of being) in the visual
labels and related visuals.
• But please, these are doodles, so don’t read too much into anything.
• If there is a silly interpretation, go with those.
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14. Dilution and Concentration (cont.)
• Along the way, I am learning about the materialia and the technologies.
• Each has various “affordances and enablements.” Each has a “nature.”
• There is strength in moving along with the nature. There is strength in moving
counter to that nature (to de-nature the medium), to go against the grain.
• It always seems to be that what I am “painting” is to the viewer and how
the human visual system works. It is not really about the visual but the
person.
• The lessons (for me) are two-fold:
1. Try.
2. Have fun.
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