Creatively Thinking

"Figuring It Out"  Artist Christine Alfery Watercolor and Acrylic on Paper. Wassily Kandinsky continued. How to Be an Artist, According to Wassily Kandinsky For the past three posts I have been making comments on an ARTSY EDITORIAL BY RACHEL LEBOWITZ JUN 12TH, 2017 7:07 PM. This is post 4 on "How to Be an Artist, According to Wassily Kandinsky." Lesson #4 Inject rhythm into your painting, like a musical score. It makes sense that Kandinsky would link rhythm to his work. His lines and mark making are very gestural. And it makes sense that Kandinsky would say as he did in #1 that art expresses the inner world of the artist, and not artistic trends, and in #2 where he states that an artist should not paint things, but paint in abstract form. Kandinsky was an abstract expressionist.  Again though I return to the concept of the abstraction. A materialist would conclude that the concept of the abstraction or abstract art is a frill, an indulgen...

How to Be an Artist, According to Wassily Kandinsky ARTSY EDITORIAL BY RACHEL LEBOWITZ JUN 12TH, 2017 7:07 PM   Lesson #2. Don’t paint things. Paint in abstract form.                 Don’t paint things, but rather paint in abstract form, the editorial by Rachel Lebonwitz went on to say, “Monet’s now -iconic haystacks were an early influence on Kandinsky, who was struck by his own inability to identify the real world objects that the forms referenced. At first taken aback by this disconnect,” which I must admit I too have been taken aback, “Kandinsky soon embraced its possibilities, eventually insisting upon art that was not only abstracted but entirely non-representational.” And again Rachel Lebonwitz refers to the artists interior world, as if that world was an abstract form, that perhaps is “simplier” or different than the real world. Perhaps more imaginary and "non-repres...

There are five lessons here from Kandinsky - I will just comment on one today. "Kandinsky did not intend for his theories to be prescriptive. Artmaking, he insisted, was about freedom. Nevertheless, there are several lessons that artists should heed if they are to meet Kandinsky’s requirements. We start with five below." https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artist-kandinsky Lesson #1: Express your inner world, not the latest artistic trends. I totally agree that artmaking is about freedom. Two points - here the concept of freedom - if art is about a collective freedom then it isn't about the artists inner world? I think the point here is that the artist, does not have the power to create entities out of a void, the inner self being a void as the inner self is only interesting to the inner self and very subjective. This subjectivity makes art everything and anythings. In order to entertain the notion of freedom along with the self the notion of freedom n...

When I begin working in the visual space of abstraction where imaginaries and concepts are floating around, I attempt to create a visual space where my free will makes choices as to what I want to see and what I want others to see.  That is where my training comes in, I have learned how to help others visually read the imaginaries, the concepts that float around in that abstract visual space. These concepts are real – a beautiful reality, they are objective, so others can see them also. They are not nonobjective. This for me is the struggle when I come to a blank white sheet of paper, to look for and emphasize in my work those concepts for which I believe in – independence, individuality and freedom and hope that others can see them also.  This is the challenge of my work.  These are the subjects in my work. The piece I recently finished.  “Tightrope” Which is part of my Precious Jewels series.  Let me know if you can visualize, independence, individuality and...

My current thinking seems to be asking the age old question,  "What is art?"  I don't know why I say my current thinking. I have been asking that question ever since post modernism with all of its relativity. Not only has art become part of the postmodern movement, it has also become less precious. It seems that everyone accepts comments such as "anyone can make art" and "it's all about your own personal interpretation or how one sees things."  I believe art, aesthetics, are all about personal interpretation. That does not make art relative and subjective. How can I say that? Everyone is unique and all “art” is unique.  If an object is not unique, original, and one-of-a-kind, then it isn’t art.  The idea, the concept and their uniqueness is art.   Just like one person is unique to themselves and to their own individuality, “art” is unique to itself and its own individuality.  It does not depend on collective thinking.   NOT everyone’s i...

New Work.  "Trip To The Beach"  20x60 Mixed Water Media  A Unique Original. Does Art Matter Any More? The foundations that I have and that I work with when I create a work of art are always challenging me.  For example, the notion of all art being subjective - as an expressionist I used to live and die by that notion. But, lately I have noticed that the foundations that I was taught many years ago don't work for me anymore.  I ask myself why,  I build from my history and values to try and figure out if art matters any more or not. The notion of expressionism has changed for me. The word was once linked to independence and individualism.  But individualism and the struggle by others to capture my soul and my uniqueness and formulate it into their notion of selfness and subjectively have altered the notion of individualism as unique to individualism as anything goes - in particular the arts. So, I ask, "Does art matter any more?  Is art ...

“I saw the rainbows in my studio and I danced with them.” When I paint, my aim is not to try reconcile the conflict between chaos and order – to soften the hard edges of disorder and find a harmonious center or whole and then to soften the hard edges of disorder or make everything monochromatic. I believe that life is not that way. We become disillusioned when we try to make it something other than what it really is.  Life is bumpy and playful. It can be a marvelous ride if we don’t try and make it something that it is not.  When I look outside and watch the wind blow the tops of the trees, I ask myself,  "How in the world could I capture that movement, that dance without destroying its beauty?"  My aim when I create is to honor the movement, the wind and the differences in it.  These differences, this otherness like the wind is unique, individual and independent. Yet, at the same time, it is part of a whole - a whole where not all things fit together like...