2. Next Steps

(1/11/22) On the 1st of November after having painted one of my wooden boards with pink and red enamel paint, I was trying to place the next piece of the puzzle. 

This came in the form of some dried liquid latex and sofa cushion filling. 

When I got into the studio on this day (1/11/22) I was feeling a mental block. I had felt this somewhat during my commute on the train, but had merely dismissed it as tiredness and told myself that once I woke up a bit I would be fine. Surely enough the mental block persisted and I found myself hunched over in a chair, looking at the paintings I had started (at least I had started), feeling the nausea of existential dread soak through me (melodrama implied). 

I do usually expect this mental block during the start of a new project. Especially in the early stages where the paintings have so much possibility it is difficult to tell what way they will go. Never the less I decided to take myself for a walk, in an attempt to clear my mind of the noise and chatter and gain a degree of clarity. 

The walk seemed to work and when I got back I set to placing some latex and pillow filling on the board in an abstract manner. My thinking was that if I put some things down and re-arrange them and play with them for a while, something worthwhile will surely come from it. I eventually got a formation going that I enjoyed, so I built on it. I remained unattached to it as I knew I would be burning the latex at some point in the near future, so the mound I made was a mere placeholder for the burning mess that would take its place. 

Below is a picture of the latex and pillow filling I had formulated. 

I felt a shift in my optimism after I had out the latex and pillow filling down on the board, because the painting began to draw close to the image I had in my head. 

An artist I have admired for a long time and who has informed my desire to experiment and explore materials is David Lynch. Not his directorial work, but his paintings. Below I have attached some examples of his work that could be seen as closely relating to the direction my work is going in so far.

Lynch’s work mixes a few elements such as abstraction, figurative pieces representing body’s and their innards, houses and scenes, but all in a disjointed and dismembered fashion. A lot of his work has a sense of depth and fantastic texture. The construction of his paintings, both in a literal sense and figurative as his work can often implement sculptural leaning elements that stick out from the surface he works on. This draws similarities with my work as I am using elements that are abstract, three dimensional and heavily textured. Lynch’s paintings are often atmospheric and have a narrative quality either in words painted or images implying a happening. His paintings are often set out like a scene with intentional depth that draws a viewer in as well as deters them, with the disturbing and sometimes abstract representations in his art. I draw inspiration from this push and pull with a viewer as I want my paintings to be interesting and beautiful. But in the other hand hold something more subversive and ugly. As beauty and ugly are subjective matters it falls to me to decide where them two definitions stand and represent my interpretation of the two. The use of different and intense textures is something that I have grown to realise I am driven by when creating a painting, and Lynch creates very rich, dirty and deep textures in his work. With forms often protruding from the surface he is working on with a mix of unknown materials used. An example of this is found in the images I have added above, with smears, drips and forms reaching in every direction as if an explosion has occurred. 

During the day I would toy around with the other board that I have. Adding paint and texturing paste to its surface to build an interesting texture if nothing else. The direction of this piece is unclear to me at this point, but in order to create a depth and interesting texture I wanted to start on it any way I could. Below are pictures of this piece.

After this studio session I felt an odd mix of dejection and determination. To get these pieces to a place where they communicate the images in my head as much and as clearly as possible. But I had to keep bringing myself back to the fact that I had made progress, and not let myself be too hard on myself. Afterall, these things take time. 

More Later 

John Hancock x