Resolution

A new year's resolution? Not really. The word resolution means the act or process of determining or solving. This new year, I have an artistic situation that I need to bring resolution to.

In 2002, when I first started creating the Little Boxes, I was still painting in a completely different style. Those paintings were, for the most part, painted in the style of the old stuff posted on this blog last year, a sort of stylized abstraction. But I was busy revisited realism, and ultimately falling back in love with representational painting (I painted representationally before the abstract series, back in college.) So without really understand why, I was sort of ignoring my abstract notions.

But they didn't go away. I still sketch the same type of abstract people who populated my earlier work. I draw them on notes and scraps of paper. I doodle them on the corners of meeting agendas. I see them lurking around corners. They watch me when they think that I'm not looking. They won't leave me alone, and they know I'm not painting them. They want to know why...and I don't have an answer.

Well, I didn't. This last week of painting has given me a lot of time to think about my process. During that time I've arrived at an interesting conclusion: I refuse to paint in one style. To work in a definitive manner - to be only a realist or an abstract impressionist or a po-mo post pop whatever - is to create limitations, and I'm just not comfortable with that. This is not a magnificent revelation. I already knew I wanted to Richter it up a little and stretch out the idea of style (Gerhard Richter is a contemporary German painter, who's work absolute denies categorization. He'll paint completely nonobjective, and he'll paint perfect realism.) So I guess what I'm saying is that this idea of not accepting limitations or parameters applies not only to my style of execution, but also to my subject matter. Perfect superflat cartoons, lucious abstraction, thick gooey impasto, gently fuzzed photo-realism...the sky is the limit.

Attached is the last "abstract" painting I did. I think I painted this is about 2005, and then touched it up in 2007. I apologize for the poor quality of the image. As you can see, he loves ice cream. He has friends, and you'll see them soon enough.

Ice Cream, 2007

Acrylic, Collage, Spray Paint on Canvas