along came a spider

In every man's life there is a point that you come to a cross roads. a fork in the road... not a literal fork  actually in the road, like sticking out, no a conjunction, a split,  or the high road and the low road. it decided to delve into the world of dar and dangerous art, gothic punk, trying to focus on fear and what triggers humans to flinch at the site of certain things. i spent days researching and drawing small spiders, snakes, sharks, and chickens. i went to the otago university science library and the museum animal collect... aptly named the animal attic. heart and soul went into producing true fear, to strike into peoples brains.... well on discussion with my art tutor, whom i respect very much, it was decided that I CAN NOT DO SCARY!!!! this made me really perturbed, but there was nothing i could do about it, so i went back to the drawing board....... 

 

Ode to sandpaper

It was by pure chance that i discovered what the application of sandpaper would do to my experimentation. It seemed a weird concept taking off what you just put on.... how could this possibly have any advantages? would it destroy what i was trying to achieve, would kill the idea of purity, and cleansing form. yes actually it did. but it added a new dimension to the art, that of texture and introducing in a sense "the old" with "the new". Putting these paintings alongside my previous works of the edgy modern paintings that were that directly related to Mondrian and his work showed almost complete universe if you will.  but at the same time become some what tongue and cheek in the whole matter. poking fun at many things from the De Stijl movement, to retro-ism and kiwiana. WHAT HAD I BECOME!

The minimal minimalist

like william tell i overtured!i went nuts with small squares of reds, long oblongs of yellows and rectangles of blue, every stroke of black made me challenge what i was thinking. to think a single stroke of black challenging the mind. but my hunger did not end i need to absorb more knowledge of how to compose work, like GALATUS DEVOURER OF WORLDS!
i stood back from my new project [being that of supremacy over abstract art.. in the form of lesser supremacy] "what if i took away from what was already somewhat minimalist?" there seemed to be more sense in statement than i thought. [not that i realised at the time but this is exactly what my mind and soul was to need in the not so far future]
so i started a series... of two paintings... [i am unsure how any paintings is needed in a series, so lets just say its a minimalist series] which was a single underestimated line and a block of stark color.

when i had finished i was astounded as per the response that these paintings were receiving. my mind was confused, why can something so little in quantity stir so many feelings not just within myself but from other people as well. it was not terrifying but it was something close. it was the feeling of "heck what the hell do i do here", you know, like the first time you make love to a woman, or the first time you see a giant moth. it was to this i decided that i should consult the De Stijl manifesto [possibly my new religion, i figured bhudda would not mind saying my faith around] so as i knew what i should be feeling..... incidentally it told me to relate this back to the individual and then to the universe as a whole. dividing, yet bringing together the old and the new.

IN THE BEGINNING -insert deep god-like voice here-

it started not too long ago, in the foreseeable past [assuming one does not have any form of memory problems]. things for me started to change, my perspective, my drive, my life's energy. they all began to play havoc with my brainal steam; my mind was a flutter with only gods know what. my life become chaos as i was tossed into  a problematic work force and a world of art i thought i would never truly understand. after all who ever really understands what art is all about.... i was somewhat scared at the power of suggestion that art had, especially art of an abstract nature. i could not comprehend why a stripe or a block of color could have a heavy weighting behind it. it was to this i decided to delve deep, deep inside the world of abstract art.

i contemplated "where does one start? who has always had a strong hold on me? what artist has grappled the my base of my soul and tugged at it like jaws on a nude swimmer?" the answer was simple. from the moment i first laid my eyes on "boogie woogie" by Piet Mondrian in my 6th form year i could not function in the world without art around me [ one should also be aware that i have my mother to thank for my mass interest in the art world as she is one of my great heroes, inside the art world as well as out of it]

For this reason i decided that i should start my painting journey looking at how best to investigate form and composition through color and line. due to my self indulgence of over doing everything; i set myself the boundaries of only using black, white, and the primary colors. it was from here i start producing very mondrian-esk style paintings.

it did not take long before i started to appreciate the importance of where and when it was necessary to place a line or the fragile  and somewhat fine line of where color should be placed. i started to think that this form of art was, for lack of a better word, elitist.... and i liked it.