Art History Numero Uno

Digital confusion

24"x36"

Acrylic paint on stretched canvas

For this project, I created two pieces, both with paint on a stretched canvas. I like both of them, I cant pick which one I like more because I like them both for different reasons. This project relates to my life because of the techniques I learned and used while creating them. Ive seen similar techniques before, and I knew I wanted to use similar techniques in these.

For these artist statements I will do one for each. I will start each with paragraph 2 and 3 since I did the first one above.

For my first piece, the spiral one, I used a more complicated mechanism than the second one. To create this piece, I started by trying to think of a way to spin the canvas since I knew that was what I was going to do for the piece. At first I though I could use one of the spinning scrabble boards since I knew we had one, this would've worked but it was at the other house. I then went down to the basement where the workshop was to think of something. I figured I could do something with the drill but I was unsure if I wanted to drill into the frame in fear of it splitting. I then decided I would do it, I just had to figure out exactly how. I attached three paint stirrers to the frame for added support. One on the middle framework, parallel to it, and the other two branching out from the middle to the border. I then measured the height of the canvas and found the middle and from there I screwed in a small block of scrap wood into another screw I put into the middle paint stirrer before I started the rest. I then took a three-inch screw and screwed it into the block and with bolt cutters cut off the part at the top used to screw it in. From here, I connected the drill to the end of the screw and I could now spin it, but I was far from done. I moved over to the vise and fit the drill in and for added stability added pieces of another paint stirrer in the space between the handle and the vise. Next I added two zip ties together and connected it around the trigger of the drill and around one of the pieces of wood. this allowed me to use the piece of wood it was around as a trigger. I tried spinning it and I was quite disappointed to see that it was very wobbly. From here I forgot a lot of what I did but Im pretty sure it was useless and a waste of time until I found out that the main problem was that the vise was not properly connected to the table. I then sprung into action and found some quark and cut it and fixed it under the vise to stabilize it. From here I added some more small screws to each corner and side of the frame and connected string to it this worked well and stabilized it. I measured with a level to see if it was flat on all sides and it was so I could finally get to painting. I used the acrylic art kit Mrs.Medsker gave me for this and some putty knives as well. I mixed my paints to make lot of different colors which was very fun and as the canvas spun I held the putty knife down to create spirals. When I was done with the drill part I decided to take a bit of a leap of faith and added lots of vertical and horizontal lines in different colors. I like the way this turned out a lot and I'm glad I decided to do that. If I was to continue this piece I don't know what my next steps would be without over-doing it.

For my second piece, I used a bit more simple mechanic, but a mechanic nonetheless. To start, I drill a hole in the ceiling beam in the basement, and screwed in a screw eye and bent it to the right requirements. For the canvas, I had already tried a couple of things on it. First I was going to try to make a city-resemblement in black and white but ended up spilling the black paint all over the canvas only after dropping my phone on the canvas and putting a hole in it. Yes, there is still a hole it the canvas, but it is covered and about five layers of paint. At first to fix the whole I took a luckily fitting thin piece of wood and stuck it in the corner where the hole was to give the canvas a surface to be on so that it was put back together. From here after spilling the paint I decided to paint the whole canvas black and go for a Piet Mondrian look minus the borders between colors. I tried this but Found that I didn't have enough paint for it. After a couple of days and I had art class again and after my paint had dried up at home, I got another kit of acrylic paint in hopes of going for the Mondrian look in primary colors. Instead, when I got home and painted the canvas black again I got new inspiration to do the swinging paint from a string technique. And now we get to where I have screwed in the screw eye into the ceiling. From here I attached a string reaching the floor and experimented with adding water to the acrylic paint to try and find the right viscosity for it to drip out of the cup at a steady pace. This didn't work since the acrylic paint wasn't water based so it didn't mix well. Next I found some white base wall paint and put it in the cup, this is what Ive seen in the videos using this style and it worked well. I then tied the cup id be using to the string and used another paint stirrer to put paint in the cup. I also drilled a hole prior to putting the paint inside. And finally I dropped the cup across the canvas. My first pass wasn't very good at all, I had the spiral I was looking for but it was small and only covered some of the canvas. I took yet another leap of faith from here and did it again from another angle. I was very skeptical whether or not to do it because it could either go good or bad, like many things in life, and my other painting. I perceded to do the same from several other angles. And one in particular hit a box and got messed up but it could've been worse. In general I really liked how it turned out and I would definitely do it again. If I was to continue this piece, I would paint the whole canvas black and start over again with a better angle, I think it looks good but could look better.

My inspirations for these project were pretty simple, for both of them I was inspired by abstract expressionism and I'm realizing now contemporary art was also an inspiration. But for individual artists, Vincent Van Gogh was an inspiration for the spiral painting for the colors he uses in his works. And for the black and white painting, Jackson Pollock was an inspiration for the splatter technique he uses.