process book and a finished statement

As part of my review, I had to make a little book about my art process. It was weird compiling a little book about myself.



Here's my finished artist statement:

Intent
I am attracted to art which strives to find some kind of absolute truth even as it acknowledges the impossibility of attaining this goal. With this sympathy in mind, I have set out to build my own artistic practice around an analogous contradiction; I want to try to build a living presence out of evident paint. For me, “Living presence” means something which seems to possess its own subjecthood-- something which seems to look back at you. “Evident paint” is paint that never gets lost in illusion. It is always more or less honest about its physicality and unremarkable nature.

Content
These paintings are an exploration of broad existential questions which result from facing these contradictions. They reflect how it feels to live life without the assurance of truth and with a constant sense of the inevitability of death. What is on display, then, is the attempt to come to terms with this meaningless negation through a passionate display of feeling. Like the subjects that I depict, we act and react to meaninglessness with immediate tenderness, violence, and necessity.

Subject
I have chosen to depict “natural subjects” -- hybrids of what I actually see outside and the visual languages through which I am conditioned to perceive them. I believe that they manifest specific instances of some of my broader questions and contradictions. I am fascinated by groups of birds or the way that dogs behave in a pack, for example. I anthropomorphize; these creatures seem undeniably alive like I am, barking, chirping, and flailing all over. But they are also always irrational, alien, and existing almost exclusively in the moment. When the precariousness of life is highlighted along with this passionate activity, the disparity between absolute truth and the reality of physical limitation seems especially palpable.

Visual and Technical Explorations
I started this project by developing strategies for depicting natural things that emphasized their temporality. My palette, for example, was conceived as a formal parallel to this temporality: a field of neutrals disrupted by brief flashes of bright, electric colors. But eventually, the ups and downs of the painting process began to determine most of what the image will look like. While I may have rough ideas as to where I want a picture to go, I make progress by trying to respond to the best strokes that are already there; to edit out what is hindering them and to build an environment that is the most suitable. A subject comes into being not through deliberate rendering, but through the subtractive process of painting out the contours around it. This is how the paintings develop their own voices.

Influences and Context within The Field
The visual language of natural history has been extremely helpful as a formal and conceptual parallel. There is a competition in this language between scientific taxonomy and aesthetic appreciation, and because of this neither desires are completely satisfied. I have spent a great deal of time with natural history dioramas and illustrators such as John James Audubon, Charles Wilson, and Carl Linneaus. I have also been attracted to the watercolors and ink paintings characteristic of Japanese Zen Buddhism in the 18th and 19th centuries. What I am attracted to in this work is the emphasis on the living essence of the made object over the depiction of one that is “real”. Kao Ch’i- Pe’i’s set of “hand paintings” on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts was especially influential. Other artists whose influence is pronounced in this project include Elizabeth Neel, Katy Moran, Cecily Brown, Luc Tuymans, Walton Ford, and Gerhard Richter.

artist statement

I had a lot of trouble defending my artist statement in my critique last night. This is it, and I thought I was pretty exact in it, but apparently not. If you watn to let me know what you think, I'd be delighted.



I began making these paintings because I wanted to try to build a living presence out of evident paint. I chose birds as my subject matter because their often bright, ethereal coloring and seemingly collaged, feathered bodies make them feel impossibly alive. This presentness was what appealed to me the most. I wanted to make images that contained feelings close to those I have when I think about the phrase “swansong”. While life inside the painting may be tragic and insecure in its randomness, that life exists exuberantly in the present through punctuations of genuine emotion, as humble and as fallible as the point of origin may be. This humility is also what leads me to use “evident” paint. For me, this means being transparent about the physicality of what I am doing and the unremarkable circumstances out of which I am trying to make something remarkable.

The ups and downs of the painting process determine most of what the image will look like. While I may have rough ideas as to where I want a picture to go, either from a conglomeration of photographic sources and drawings or from a composition of my own conception, more often than not I try to facilitate the occurrence of those accidental marks that seem the most alive. I have accordingly found myself editing objects into being more often than I have found myself deliberately rendering them.

I have always been attracted to paint by both its physicality and its natural propensity to create illusion. What has kept me continually engaged in the process is trying to navigate the necessary contradiction between these two characteristics when neither one dominates in an individual image. These types of paintings hold my attention the longest, and they are the ones that I aspire to make.

The artworks of John James Audubon, Katy Moran, Elizabeth Neel, Andrei Platonov, and David Berman are some of my current inspirations for this project. Natural observation has also proven an essential tool. Notation (photographed or sketched) of tree bark, branches, and leaves that I encounter in my daily walks through the neighborhood helped me to flesh out the somewhat “awkward” compositions which Initially attracted me to many of Audubon’s watercolors. Most importantly, my paintings rely on the incomplete but tangible structures of birds and creatures that I bring into my studio from past experiences. Using primarily my memories of a bird in flight over a photograph or a drawing allows for me to focus on making a living painting rather than one that just acts as a depiction.



John Bell

Things lookin' niiiiice.

I had a critique yesterday, so I had everything looking nice. Here are some photographs of what got shown.

hawks.

This one is basically done, I think. I just need to make some touch-ups to even out the background.




Because these paintings go through so many phases, I thought it would be nice to capture this one, cause I don't know if it will still be around in a couple of days. I like it, though, so probably, though I need to work on my colors.

there were these three ovals...

I am working on three paintings from the same source at the same time. None of them are done yet, but there are a lot of different things I feel about them. I wanted to post this up... any comments on a favorite, or anything, let me know!

New Painting

Here's the painting I am currently working on.



I like it much better than this painting. I think I killed it.

MCAD!

It's been a while, but I am officially a Minneapolis resident! I have my studio up and running, and so far everything has been going well. My mentor is Howard Oransky... and I am really excited by the conversation we have been having. Here are some photos of my space.