Thursday, July 31, 2008

Calligraph 3





54 x 48 inches 2008

Lines

The purpose of this blog is to pursue some thoughts and ideas about skateboarding and its influence on my paintings. The paintings are not about skateboarding, but the connection has appeared in my work, and I am enjoying the impact immensely. It affords me a measure of play in the studio, as if I have found a way to skate while working on a serious endeavor.

In its essence, skateboarding is not a sport, but an art for individuals and collectives. It transforms walls, handrails, curbs and empty swimming pools into possibilities. These seemingly mundane objects are describers and delineators of space- skateable terrains that provide skaters with opportunities for finding lines – graceful, expressive ways through the built environment.

Creativity is essential in finding a good line. A skater must imagine what is possible, and then charge, follow impulses, respond, adjust and flow. A good line is fluid and allows a skater to maintain or accumulate speed, giving opportunities to use the elements of a space, missing as few of the objects as possible. In the end, a good line expresses the skater’s personality, style, attitude and unique energy. Watching skate videos, without interviews, one can identify different attitudes and personalities of skaters through their expression of lines. A classic comparison is Duane Peters’ aggressive, unplanned, impulsive runs to Tony Hawk’s controlled, technical runs. One emphasizes expression, the other technique. Both are amazing in their own ways, and both accurately depict these skaters personalities. Painters, also express their values through what they are doing and not doing on a canvas. Who they are comes through the work, they are showing you what is important to them.

Through a process of exploring color and light and spatial illusion, I have developed forms that carve through an unknown space and lead the eye around the flat surface of a canvas. The canvas is the terrain and space that I am finding lines on and through. As I carve these forms into ambiguous space, I am after fluidity and a dynamic that grabs viewers and pulls them in. I am trying to find the possibilities and limits of the canvas and its interior. While painting the forms, I am constantly asking myself where to go, whether to curve or angle, advance or recede and when to stop a form. Every form has a unique quality with varying degrees and combinations of speed, grace and agression. The canvas is the bowl or the street scene. The forms are the actions and the ways through the space.

Allowing skateboardings' influence into my work has given my studio activities new life and energy, much like it began to do for my life as a kid in 1985 when I got my first proper skateboard. Growing older and perhaps less daring, my approach toward skateboarding is more or less being minimized to essences: gliding, turning, and accumulating speed. Having been raised on backyard mini ramps and curbs, I feel so lucky to now have a concrete bowl just three miles from home. It is the perfect way to explore these essences and then head to the studio with loads of adrenaline. In the bowl or studio, I seek my limits-- limits of ability, knowledge, stamina and fear. When I can identify those limits, I push beyond them, while trying to maintain a degree of control. The trick is staying on the board.

Mike Cohen from SF finding his lines. Click on photo to enlarge.

Calligraph 2 54 x90 inches

drawing 1.08, 2008, silica and urethane on paper, 11 x 14 inches

Typograph 2, 2006, silica and urethane on canvas, 16 x 26 inches