Introduction

This semester was one of experimentation and research. Before I began the MFA-BLR program, my practice was engaged in an exploration of the idea of monumentalism as well as the concept of memory. I was also engaged in a search for my own visual language to express sacredness. This focus hasn’t changed all that much but I am currently focusing on various ways to create work that narrates these concepts to the viewer.

During the June review, Paul Briggs mentioned the aphorism “the medium is the message” which caught my attention and I began to review my work with this statement in mind. Initially, I accepted the statement at face value but have since come to question its broadness. I think a more accurate statement would be that art work “functions” best when “the medium amplifies the message”. But even this rewording doesn’t quite get to the heart of what I think is missing. Regardless, I began to closely consider the various mediums I use and what their contribution to the messages inherent in my work might be with the idea that I might be able to further tighten the relationship.

 

Obstruction and Experimentation

Also, during this semester, I specifically began to work towards more tightly aligning my drawing with my painting. My drawings have always been in service towards working out concept, composition, and value with the idea that, once I was satisfied, I would move forward into painting, But they contain a certain quality to them that is really inviting and very satisfying creatively. However, I’ve not been completely successful when taking these images into painting as I often lost the openness and “fresh” quality of the drawing when doing so. After a conversation with my mentor, Preston Wadley, and a conversation with Sharon Dunn, I set up an obstruction to work towards a more open paint style. The obstructions were two-fold and simple; I would use a reductive technique to create my paintings but I could only work on the painting for an hour. This served two purposes; first, it made me rely less on painting in detail and more on allowing the viewer to create detail themselves. Second, it made me approach the painting process in the same way that I approached my drawing process; toning the canvas and then wiping away paint to create the composition. In my drawing, I often tone the paper with several layers of hatch marks before using an eraser to mass in the subject highlights. This is followed by more graphite hatching to define the shadows.

The reductive painting technique held a number of surprises. I’ve been incredibly satisfied with what I’ve produced so far and am moving towards working in additive techniques that  don’t overwhelm the reductive layer but, instead, support it without closing it down.

This technique also allows me to take full advantage of layering to create complex narrative. Instead of nailing the painting down completely in the beginning layers, I am able to leave the painting open and allow it to move in whatever way that it wants.

 

Mentored Goals – Cumulative Narrative

Early in the semester, my mentor suggested I focus on cumulative narrative as well as complex narrative. My work has always been narrative in scope but is often focused on a single subject and, when grouped, my work suggests a linear kind of narrative.

 

Mentored Goals – Alternate Media

Aside from my painting and drawing, I’ve engaged in a renewed interest in small bead work. This is partially in service to my exploration of monumentalism and partially due to my continued push against the exclusion of “craft” from the fine art world. I consider the boundary between craft and fine art to be artificial. It’s there, in my opinion, to exclude work that is most often done by women and cultures outside of the Western world. I’ve begun to consider my bead work with the dual idea that, as a medium, it has an inherent message and that it pushes against this boundary.

 

Study Plan Goals

Lastly, I began and continue to work on an annotated bibliography. I started this document primarily to more deeply research Native American paints, pigments, and painting techniques and have morphed it into including articles on survivance and Native American beading techniques. I am currently doing a lot of research on Native American Ledger Art. The bibliography can be viewed here.

 

Drawing Highlights

At the beginning of the semester, I was engaged with drawing nearly every day and using it to work through concepts. Highlights of this exercise are shown below. To see other concept drawings, click here.

 

Reductive Exercises

Prior to this semester, my painting was centered on the Indirect method. However, I’ve found that this method can close up really fast. As a way to loosen up my work, I started painting in a reductive method. I created about a dozen of these studies before moving on to using the technique to create specific narratives. These are some highlights of that process. To see the entire selection, click here.

 

Project-In-Progress: “Strata”

Very early in the semester I became interested in this map of Montana, dated to 1851. This date is four years prior to the Hellgate treaty which was used to eventually remove the Bitterroot Salish from their area in the Bitterroot mountains and force them to relocate north to the Flathead Reservation. I obtained an antique copy of this map and created several copies of it from which to work. In these paintings, the map is left whole but is used as the ground on which the rest of the painting is layered. All of these paintings are “in progress” as I think about how to compound meaning through the media. Eventually, I plan to do a reductive layer on them similar to the top left painting in this grouping.

 

Project-In-Process: “Untitled” (Borders)

This project features the same facsimile Montana map from 1851 but, in each of the paintings below, a copy has been ripped up and then reassembled into the borders of a specific reservation located in Montana. This project is concerned with considering the violence of tearing up ground, of shrinking a large territory into a very small one, the impact of that action on a population, and the reassembling of the territory into a living space.

Below are the various grounds created; like the Strata project, above, they will eventually get layers of transparent oil. I’m uncertain what the subject matter will be. Like the previous project, I plan to do a reductive layer on these and have added some Photoshop mock-ups which I am using to work my way through that process. The final image is a mock-up of a possible frame/presentation method.

 

Beading

Along with the very large beaded sculpture I started prior to starting the MFA-BLR program and am still working on, I also moved back into small bead work in which I considered color relationships, ways of introducing movement, and using the medium to create narratives.