The lecture with Nelson certainly piqued interest. It was hard for me to follow at some points simply because I do not know of some artists, but the quote at the beginning really hit me.
One of the overall discussions was the contrast between the mechanical and gestural. I was thinking about it walking out of the room, one of my favorite mediums - spray paint - was that mechanical or gestural? is it both? is it neither? I feel it’s a wonderful combination of both. This inspired me to do something with spray paint again, i was very excited. I went to find scrap pieces of wood again and this time I found this wooden piece with half of it already covered in white (might be primer) and with filled holes in it. It was perfect. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it but I had a good feeling with it. I decided to just utilize what I have. I spray painted, on top of some red ink and water of course, white spray paint to follow on from the already half white surface. Then I immediately am reminded of those thoughts that were running around in my head from weeks back about snow in Leamington Spa. How snow can conceal practically everything like an angelic veil. I kind of painted from that idea, marking abstract lines here and there, enhancing the qualities of the ink already engrained into the wood. One particular painting - Fox in the Snow by Courbet, one of my favorites, was in my mind also. Referencing other paintings is something I’ve seen a lot of artists do, so I went ahead and added a fox of my own in the same position, in the white. You could almost miss it if you didn’t look close enough through the abstract forms. What was really great about having the white, possibly primer, there already was that paint/water went on differently. The water sort of absorbed into the white and left a mark, like it was melting into it, just as real snow would have looked like. Also, the drilled holes reminded me of bullet holes, like the hunting of foxes and other poor prey covered in the white. I know that Courbet’s fox was in the middle of catching its prey, however the fox seems to me to be as much as a prey as a predator. The audience looks on in this scene of killing, the Natural World, in this peaceful snowscape. Courbet’s other snowscapes are also devoid of human presence, which I find rather fascinating. You could see it as the audience completes the picture, almost.
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| Courbet - Deer Taking Shelter in Winter |
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| Courbet - Fox Caught In A Trap |
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| Courbet - Fox in the Snow |
