Time For Thought

It has been a very stimulating week for me mentally - but not too productive in terms of painting. (I have the ground work laid in on a new painting but it is not too interesting for the moment. I've done some more touch ups on the First Aid picture and will probably do some modifications when other images of the series start to develop.



I somehow managed to get myself assigned additional work that none of the other students have to do and am now responsible for a ten page theory paper on political art. Harrumph. I'm sure this means I'll be boring people to tears with thoughts on this issue over the next several weeks. Sorry.

On my mind at the moment is the portrayla of the marginalized and how to avoid making this spectacle. How do we show subjects that we do not usually show with out turning it into a situation where we are turning them into a spectacle and thus reinforcing the attitudes of the justness of marginalization. My teacher Clea has been doing slightly distorted images of marginalized people - but I think it reinforces the oddness of them and does not counteract the tendency to see normal as the beautiful, clean and proper.

On another note, I had an interesting experience in the studio yesterday. One of my former students popped in to look at what I am doing. He had taken a film theory class with me years and years ago and now he is a local painter of note who teaches art here. We discussed my struggle to realize my style and this elicited the remark that he can clearly see my style. Of course that may be what I have been afraid of all along, since I hate the kindergarten quality of certain of my paintings. Perhaps I need to embrace it – but I would like to be able to produce something that is less coloring book and more full of grace. It is delightful to have a former student now in the role of teacher. What a delicious inversion!