Hi Genevieve, I don't know if you remember this, but my first year at Iowa, Susan called on me to say something during your workshop. I was so shy, and I think I said that your paintings were just heartbreakingly beautiful. That was all I said. I was so embarrassed, but I meant it. So today I'll try to better articulate my thoughts ;)
These two newest paintings leave me wondering, as does most of your work, about your particular pairings. My brain is trying to figure out some thread between them, some relationship. They are so intimate--the way that little clay loop tenderly hugs the left side of the square clay object, but leaves the right side free...it is visually beautiful, and deliberate (without feeling contrived). I think what appeals to me about so many of your paintings is this carefulness....it appeals to the part of me that likes to line my foot perfectly within tiles when I'm walking down a hallway. Maybe we all have some obsessive compulsiveness in one form or another--- a part of the human brain that enjoys seeing things lined up, or symmetrical, ordered and paired. Your paintings also activate that instinctual human tendency to find parallels between inanimate objects and our own bodies, the way I read that cutout of the vase as a reclining feminine form, or the clay loop as embracing arms. It is psychological, and poetic. I'll be eager to read what you have to say about these, if you choose to.
Hi Genevieve, My name is Ian and I am a third year in the painting/drawing program. For me, the potential of these paintings lies within the relationships between the eye and the hand, and the possibility to expand beyond trump l'oiel and really move into the territory that these are suggesting.
In the piece with the vase I initially went right to the photograph, and spent a little bit of time just admiring the rendering and how the vase just kind of floats in the black of the photo. The clay piece seemed like some sort of umbilical cord, something that didn't quite fit and created a nice ambiguity. I didn't realize it was a piece of clay until I looked at the other paintings, then I instantly felt that piece of clay between my fingers and think about it's relationship to the vase. Those steps of representation between the clay, the photo of the vase, both of rendered in trump l'oeil, and then the wood. The clay has a hand feel, the wood seems painted. With the multiple levels of representation, I get the feeling of looking into two mirrors facing each other, like I can't really understand where things begin and end without writing things down... but I'm not sure if that is enough to really satisfy me. Not sure why. I initially found the other painting more interesting in it's ambiguity, but am now leaning towards the vase painting for the mental activity it's creating. Only seeing these two paintings I can only imagine them in a world about representation and clay and wood. That brought me to Catherine Story, http://www.carlfreedman.com/exhibition/catherine-story-angeles. Although her work isn't done from observation the canvas seems more like a portal that allows things to pass between reality and painting. I that it shares something with these paintings in representation, the hand and the eye. I can really only speak about how I would want to investigate this world, and my first impulse is to go out and by a 50 pound box of porcelain and head to menards to look at wood veneer to see what I could do blur that line you seem to be working at even more. I'm not sure if that would make sense for your work, but there does seem to be some sort of barrier between reality and rendering that both of these paintings are pressing up against in different ways and i am interested to see how wide that spectrum could be opened up.
I'm thinking about collections or shrines- the way we position the material world with our hands, without clear logic but with genuine intention. It has always been really fascinating to me, the way you make seemingly familiar objects feel totally strange and bizarre. I have always appreciated the care you put into crafting your materials- there has always been such a seductive quality to the surfaces. It reminds me of those weird moments when I have this urge to lick porcelain or eat paint. Haha.
These paintings remind me of that feeling you get when you walk into someone's bedroom or an intimate space that is unfamiliar. Every object or piece of furniture traces an extremely nuanced portrait of its inhabitant. And you aren't supposed to look but you can't really help it.
I am delighted to view and think about these paintings, and I'll try to offer a few thoughts. First, because of the binary situations you are often setting up, I can't help but think of intellectual exercises (e.g. "Question #3 on the Philosophy exam will be to compare and contrast Stoicism and Epicureanism . . ."). Because of the isolation of the haptic, tangible objects from their modest, stolid backgrounds - the paintings beg me first to engage in thought and ponder these objects as symbols or signifiers. The precision and cleanliness of the surface and the reduction of color encourage me to enter this dialogue with prudence. (Much in the reserved way Mark Tansey paints monochromatically to move from the sensate to the cerebral.) So all of that to say, your paintings are alluring in their illusion, but austere in their form.
Unlike some of your other paintings, these seem to be planographic (smooth) and don't employ actual, tactile textures. So again, through pure illusion you stimulate those sensory urges (as mentioned above: "I instantly felt that piece of clay between my fingers" "I have this urge to lick porcelain or eat paint"). This is different than the sensory response one might have to lick the frosting of a Wayne Thiebaud cake. The same bodily urges, but from different sources: yours conceptual and Thiebaud’s material.
Secondly, if you turn the vase painting on its side, it looks like a cat.
Keep up the good work. We have a number of your paintings in our house, and they bring goodness to us and our guests often.
I'd like to type through something that I've realized more as my time away from painting grows. It has something to do with me generally not 'feeling at home' for several years now and whenever I'm not there I can't seem to paint. I only say that to say that whenever I see your work Genevieve I'm reminded how imperative it is for me to find a home, which has always coincided with painting for me. It's driven me to leave Iowa and see as much of the world as my loan checks would allow me. I think because of this short circuited sensibility in me, that's central to your work as much as any other I know, that I've started to write poetry. Whatever this is it seems to be an incredibly distinct and incomparable Uiowa quality. Unapologetically sincere, genuine, personal, and poetic. The things that matter most that so much inaffectual art I've wanted to trip over lately lack; schools and galleries full with hands off mdmf, mirrors, plexiglass, and bored geometry.
Frankly I always catch myself avoiding elsewhere rhetoric, like now, because yours is one of the few images left where I can continually enjoy being lost like in a forest, grandmother's upstairs. a terrified serene tranquility self-description's linguistic affect irreparable lapses of time could bury it after 6 months submission clarity and bliss ended. they quit; and after a 6 hour headache it mended a mystical allegory under the guise of another.
if you haven't check Denise Riley's Impersonal Passion/The Words of Selves.... and this is interesting.. http://thepoolexhibition.com/
Thank you everyone for the comments. They are all so personal and made me feel re-united with the making of these pieces which happened some time ago. I guess this is a good place to reveal that I can no longer paint due to permanent nerve damage that has slowly developed down my left arm from an accident I had my last year of grad school when I feel down a flight of stairs. I experience excruciating pain whenever I paint and so haven't. This of course led to the worst bout of depression I have ever felt in my life and it has been hard to come out of. I woke up nearly blind one morning and also have pain all over my body, which has not yet been explained except for some very hard to explain neurological malfunctions. My next operation will be to have a rib removed to see if this releases some pressure on the damaged nerves but I am told that I will never be able to reverse the damage that is already there. I don't even know what to say about any of this really other than just reiterate what doctors tell me but the idea of living the rest of my life like this needs no explanation amongst present company. I am still too hurt to talk about it eloquently at this point. I am just so devastated and sad, so sad that this is how things are ending out for me. Being able to at least participate in this once a month certainly makes me forget for awhile. Thank you once again for taking time to do this. Sorry about the ranting, I am still in the god dammit phase of feeling like a victim, which is totally boring and awkward for those on the receiving end so I do apologize.
I hope you can understand if I remain in denial forever about you never painting again. I'm very serious about that.
You said down your left...how about your right? What nerve was damaged..in your spine? Have you always written poetry or just since not painting? ..Realize I'm sounding like a groupie here but I care about you.
Hi Genevieve,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you remember this, but my first year at Iowa, Susan called on me to say something during your workshop. I was so shy, and I think I said that your paintings were just heartbreakingly beautiful. That was all I said. I was so embarrassed, but I meant it. So today I'll try to better articulate my thoughts ;)
These two newest paintings leave me wondering, as does most of your work, about your particular pairings. My brain is trying to figure out some thread between them, some relationship. They are so intimate--the way that little clay loop tenderly hugs the left side of the square clay object, but leaves the right side free...it is visually beautiful, and deliberate (without feeling contrived). I think what appeals to me about so many of your paintings is this carefulness....it appeals to the part of me that likes to line my foot perfectly within tiles when I'm walking down a hallway. Maybe we all have some obsessive compulsiveness in one form or another--- a part of the human brain that enjoys seeing things lined up, or symmetrical, ordered and paired. Your paintings also activate that instinctual human tendency to find parallels between inanimate objects and our own bodies, the way I read that cutout of the vase as a reclining feminine form, or the clay loop as embracing arms. It is psychological, and poetic. I'll be eager to read what you have to say about these, if you choose to.
Hi Genevieve,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Ian and I am a third year in the painting/drawing program.
For me, the potential of these paintings lies within the relationships between the eye and the hand, and the possibility to expand beyond trump l'oiel and really move into the territory that these are suggesting.
In the piece with the vase I initially went right to the photograph, and spent a little bit of time just admiring the rendering and how the vase just kind of floats in the black of the photo. The clay piece seemed like some sort of umbilical cord, something that didn't quite fit and created a nice ambiguity. I didn't realize it was a piece of clay until I looked at the other paintings, then I instantly felt that piece of clay between my fingers and think about it's relationship to the vase. Those steps of representation between the clay, the photo of the vase, both of rendered in trump l'oeil, and then the wood. The clay has a hand feel, the wood seems painted. With the multiple levels of representation, I get the feeling of looking into two mirrors facing each other, like I can't really understand where things begin and end without writing things down... but I'm not sure if that is enough to really satisfy me. Not sure why.
I initially found the other painting more interesting in it's ambiguity, but am now leaning towards the vase painting for the mental activity it's creating.
Only seeing these two paintings I can only imagine them in a world about representation and clay and wood. That brought me to Catherine Story,
http://www.carlfreedman.com/exhibition/catherine-story-angeles.
Although her work isn't done from observation the canvas seems more like a portal that allows things to pass between reality and painting. I that it shares something with these paintings in representation, the hand and the eye.
I can really only speak about how I would want to investigate this world, and my first impulse is to go out and by a 50 pound box of porcelain and head to menards to look at wood veneer to see what I could do blur that line you seem to be working at even more. I'm not sure if that would make sense for your work, but there does seem to be some sort of barrier between reality and rendering that both of these paintings are pressing up against in different ways and i am interested to see how wide that spectrum could be opened up.
I'm thinking about collections or shrines- the way we position the material world with our hands, without clear logic but with genuine intention. It has always been really fascinating to me, the way you make seemingly familiar objects feel totally strange and bizarre. I have always appreciated the care you put into crafting your materials- there has always been such a seductive quality to the surfaces. It reminds me of those weird moments when I have this urge to lick porcelain or eat paint. Haha.
ReplyDeleteThese paintings remind me of that feeling you get when you walk into someone's bedroom or an intimate space that is unfamiliar. Every object or piece of furniture traces an extremely nuanced portrait of its inhabitant. And you aren't supposed to look but you can't really help it.
Love the work Genevieve
Genevieve,
ReplyDeleteI am delighted to view and think about these paintings, and I'll try to offer a few thoughts.
First, because of the binary situations you are often setting up, I can't help but think of intellectual exercises (e.g. "Question #3 on the Philosophy exam will be to compare and contrast Stoicism and Epicureanism . . ."). Because of the isolation of the haptic, tangible objects from their modest, stolid backgrounds - the paintings beg me first to engage in thought and ponder these objects as symbols or signifiers. The precision and cleanliness of the surface and the reduction of color encourage me to enter this dialogue with prudence. (Much in the reserved way Mark Tansey paints monochromatically to move from the sensate to the cerebral.) So all of that to say, your paintings are alluring in their illusion, but austere in their form.
Unlike some of your other paintings, these seem to be planographic (smooth) and don't employ actual, tactile textures. So again, through pure illusion you stimulate those sensory urges (as mentioned above: "I instantly felt that piece of clay between my fingers" "I have this urge to lick porcelain or eat paint"). This is different than the sensory response one might have to lick the frosting of a Wayne Thiebaud cake. The same bodily urges, but from different sources: yours conceptual and Thiebaud’s material.
Secondly, if you turn the vase painting on its side, it looks like a cat.
Keep up the good work. We have a number of your paintings in our house, and they bring goodness to us and our guests often.
thank you,
micah
I'd like to type through something that I've realized more as my time away from painting grows. It has something to do with me generally not 'feeling at home' for several years now and whenever I'm not there I can't seem to paint. I only say that to say that whenever I see your work Genevieve I'm reminded how imperative it is for me to find a home, which has always coincided with painting for me. It's driven me to leave Iowa and see as much of the world as my loan checks would allow me. I think because of this short circuited sensibility in me, that's central to your work as much as any other I know, that I've started to write poetry. Whatever this is it seems to be an incredibly distinct and incomparable Uiowa quality. Unapologetically sincere, genuine, personal, and poetic. The things that matter most that so much inaffectual art I've wanted to trip over lately lack; schools and galleries full with hands off mdmf, mirrors, plexiglass, and bored geometry.
ReplyDeleteFrankly I always catch myself avoiding elsewhere rhetoric, like now, because yours is one of the few images left where I can continually enjoy being lost like in a forest, grandmother's upstairs.
a terrified serene tranquility
self-description's linguistic affect
irreparable lapses of time could bury it
after 6 months submission clarity and bliss ended.
they quit; and after a 6 hour headache it mended
a mystical allegory under the guise of another.
if you haven't check Denise Riley's Impersonal Passion/The Words of Selves....
and this is interesting.. http://thepoolexhibition.com/
I hope you're well.
-T
Thank you everyone for the comments. They are all so personal and made me feel re-united with the making of these pieces which happened some time ago. I guess this is a good place to reveal that I can no longer paint due to permanent nerve damage that has slowly developed down my left arm from an accident I had my last year of grad school when I feel down a flight of stairs. I experience excruciating pain whenever I paint and so haven't. This of course led to the worst bout of depression I have ever felt in my life and it has been hard to come out of. I woke up nearly blind one morning and also have pain all over my body, which has not yet been explained except for some very hard to explain neurological malfunctions. My next operation will be to have a rib removed to see if this releases some pressure on the damaged nerves but I am told that I will never be able to reverse the damage that is already there. I don't even know what to say about any of this really other than just reiterate what doctors tell me but the idea of living the rest of my life like this needs no explanation amongst present company. I am still too hurt to talk about it eloquently at this point. I am just so devastated and sad, so sad that this is how things are ending out for me. Being able to at least participate in this once a month certainly makes me forget for awhile. Thank you once again for taking time to do this. Sorry about the ranting, I am still in the god dammit phase of feeling like a victim, which is totally boring and awkward for those on the receiving end so I do apologize.
ReplyDeleteLove G
I had no idea.
ReplyDeleteI hope you can understand if I remain in denial forever about you never painting again. I'm very serious about that.
You said down your left...how about your right? What nerve was damaged..in your spine?
Have you always written poetry or just since not painting? ..Realize I'm sounding like a groupie here but I care about you.