ALL OF OUR HEROES ARE DEAD…
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I’m working on a new series of abstract paintings for a solo exhibition at Watermark Books in May 2009. I finished two new paintings on Tuesday and I thought I would share them with you. Both paintings will be part of the Salon (Des Resfuses) Art show at Commerce Gallery and Redline Gallery this Friday. You can find more info about the exhibition at www.salonart.org.
I am proud to announce the launch of the new and improved dustinparkerarts.com, the online home of my graphic design and illustration portfolio. Be sure to check it out and give me your feedback.
WWW.DUSTINPARKERARTS.COM
I just set up a profile at dripbook.com. Be sure to check it out!
www.dripbook.com/dustinparkerarts
Be sure to visit www.PrettyFrank.com
Another quick illustration of Poncho….
Poncho refuses to be housebroken and she loves the taste of a fresh cat turd.
Poncho will bite off your fingers if you happen to be holding a cheese soaked nacho chip.
Poncho enjoys the smell of her own stink.
Poncho hates wearing clothing and will stand motionless like a gargoyle if you put a sweater on her fat torso.
Poncho is a terrible guard dog, unless attacked by a burglar wearing a gorilla costume.
Don’t ever attempt to lift Poncho off the floor or she will urinate on your shoes.
Poncho’s bark makes babies cry.
She is a disgusting mess.
This summer I’m teaching an abstract painting class at the Wichita Center For The Arts. The class is intended to be an exercise in creativity and an ego destroying experience. In other words, I want my students to free themselves from their own preconceived definition of art, and create art without allowing their ego to hinder the creative process. I want to throw away the paint by number mentality and encourage my students to jump out of their comfort zone. I want to completely change how they approach the creative process. I want them to throw paint. I want them to use power tools. I want them to draw with their feet. I want them to throw paint soaked tennis balls across the room. I want them to become children again. Free like Children. Free to create without fear and doubt. Free of rules and definitions. Free of ego.
The majority of my students will most likely be retirees that have taken up painting as a hobby, and have very limited knowledge or exposure to modern art. I’m guessing many of them are fans of Thomas Kinkade or Winslow Homer, and have absolutely no clue who Jean-Michel Basquiat or Robert Rauschenberg is. I want to expose them to artists like Jackson Pollock, Richard Diebenkorn, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Cy Twombly, Jim Dine, and many many others.
I want to show them that art cannot be be held to any set of rules. I want to show them what is possible when you let your creativity run rampant.
All creative individuals must endure creative blocks and must constantly refuel that creative fire. Sometimes we allow ourselves to get caught in a loop, and find ourselves repeating ourselves over and over again. We become comfortable with a particular method of working and we latch onto our precious rules and ideas, and we refuse to break way from that tried and true formula. But creativity thrives on change and experimentation and happenstance.
Last year I decided to experiment with abstract painting. I was stuck in a loop, and I wanted to break away from my tried and true formula and experiment with the idea of making abstract paintings. This was much harder than it sounds. Abstract painting was the scary monster under my bed that taunted me as I tried to sleep. I had no clue where to start, or where to end. Abstract painting was extremely intimidating because I couldn’t visualize an end product. There was no map to follow. No rules. No restrictions. In some ways this was very liberating because it gave me the freedom to experiment, but it was also frustrating because I wanted to create an end product that I could proudly show in a gallery.
Painting a representational portrait is easy. You shoot a photograph of a model and then you reinterpret that photograph with paint. Your end destination is clearly defined and the path to that destination is very clear in your mind. You might take a detour along the way but the end product is defined from the very beginning. The danger of this method of working is that you can easily get bored or get caught in a loop of repetitiveness. You must have a willingness and a desire to venture away from that predetermined end result. You have to take drastic detours and find a way to bring more spontaneity and happenstance and experimentation into the creative process.
Creating abstract paintings reminded me that I can create art without rules and restrictions. It reminded me that I have the freedom to change styles or work with different mediums.
I am currently working on a NEW series of abstract paintings for an exhibition at Watermark Books & Cafe. The exhibit is tentatively titled “Empty City” and will be on view May 27th - July 28th, 2009. So I have an entire year to procrastinate about this one. But I’m hoping that I will get plenty of time to play with paint doing demonstrations for my class this summer.
We shall see.
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