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Posted on 6/21/2019 7:38:31 PM
By Donald Fox
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I’ve had a great many teachers in my life both formal and informal. Whether the lessons they taught were institutionalized (taught in a recognized, formal setting) or not no longer matters, though as an educator myself I see how the institutional format is mostly lauded within the larger culture but often dismissed by those outside of that formal culture as impractical and possibly subversive. Irony surrounds all of this, for we never know where true lessons arise until they do so. To learn a skill, however, we mostly think of following a regimen of learning that usually comes from trained experts, and depending on the skill or body of knowledge, the expert could be institutionally or experientially trained.
For several hundred years, artists typically became apprentices to master artists just as other craftsmen apprenticed to master craftsmen. The so-called trades still follow this process to some degree though there are now many schools that teach various trade crafts. Learning a skill in whatever setting can be a lengthy and arduous process, but the skill alone is not much value without the ability to problem solve, to think creatively, and to apply these along with the practice of the skill. For artists, this combination of applied skill and creative thinking is where meaningful, mature, and effective work springs forth.
Posted on 6/14/2019 11:04:34 PM
By Donald Fox
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Cloud Hidden, Door Open
Classical music contains many examples of theme and variation. Within most symphonic works, a melodic theme is stated and is then followed by variations that eventually return to the main theme. This structure is partly what makes classical music, well, classical. Composers may choose themes based on nature, emotion (especially romance), spirituality, architectural space, or many other human experiences including “pure” abstraction. Examples of these in order may be found in the music of Debussy, Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Stravinsky among others. The concept of theme and variation is also important to me since my life has played out in such a manner on many levels. Sometimes this was from conscious choice, but largely this is the way I have experienced the world.
My painting, drawing, and writing over the past forty plus years, both realistic and abstract, illustrate this fascination, and I continue to explore what some might label an obsession. I prefer to think of it as a calling. This most recent painting, Cloud Hidden, Door Open, is part of my Windows and Doors series and also relates specifically to several previous works that came to mind while I worked on it. The inspiration was a painting from several years ago titled Alternate Windows. Following its basic color scheme, I created a variation using a doorway rather than window theme. This led me to two other earlier works, Night Triangulation, the more recent, and Through the Door from roughly five years ago. Although the new work alludes to these earlier pieces, it also establishes a new statement as I continue to explore a potent theme with many variations.
Posted on 6/11/2019
By Donald Fox
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A painting is a kind of map that plays out across its surface and represents some subject either recognizable or not. A real map gives a schematic view of a geographical place, drawn to scale, and locates specific spots in proportional relationship to each other. A represented subject in a painting might be a landscape, a portrait, or an arrangements of objects. The lines or spots of color that create the image are like coordinates on a map and are signs that designate specific features. The viewer is oriented in space and time according to the artist’s rendering. Abstract images work similarly with colors and shapes and suggested space. Rather than a recognizable image being the arresting factor as in realistic painting, abstraction relies on emotional response to engage and hold the viewer.
Whether realistic or abstract, however, the painting differs from a map significantly. A map is a utilitarian object that serves to navigate its viewer from one location to another, to create an expanded sense of the external world. A painting, by contrast, utilizes symbol and metaphor to transform the viewer’s experience of reality. This may lead to multilayered understanding of both the external world and the internal world by altering the viewer’s perception of time and space and reality. A map shows the relationship of point A to point B. A painting illustrates what lies beyond the solely visual experience. The viewer might oscillate between the physicality of the painted image and the imaginative space into which the viewer is invited. This journey is unique to each observer.
