Hill and Rectangle, The Page (Canvas)

Hill and Rectangle, 20" x 16", oil on canvas

The Page (Canvas), 13" x 10", oil on canvas

First I would like to draw your attention to the very fine exhibition by painter Barbara Grossman currently on view at Gross McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia through October 6th. [127 S. 16th St., Gallery Hours: Tues. - Sat. 10-5]

Second, this post is regarding intellectualism. These two paintings, while pastoral, have a particularly intellectual bent. They have the color impact of Blue Hydrangea but also comment on the artistic process. The title The Page references the blank page of a writer and parenthetically, the blank canvas for the painter. Blankness is an infamous stumbling block. The page‘s physical geometry in Hill and Rectangle cuts through the landscape but also structures it. Sometimes I work on two pictures at once but inevitably I am continually faced with the problem of how to approach the next. Sketches can get me started but I think in color and the iPad art apps like Sketchbook Pro and Brushes are helping.

Hill and Rectangle celebrates the excitement of possibility and creativity. The rectangles in both pictures are confrontational, a standoff, and are large like heads, a face-to-face showdown. The white rectangle in The Page (Canvas) seems like a character. the space wraping around it, giving the sense of a standing figure, a three-dimensional albeit thin form. The gray squiggly line arching above it is like thought bubbles or curling smoke from a cigarette. I don't smoke but smoking and thinking have a history of connection like the painter Philip Guston painting himself smoking and tons of famous writers like Raymond Carver, Ayn Rand, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jack Kerouac, and contemporary David Sedaris. I just like decaf coffee, less angsty and maybe I'll live to make more work.

The importance of intellectualism and society parallels that of intellectualism in art. Some artists embrace the idea, i.e. conceptual artists, while others are reactionaries such as the Dadaists (they think it’s all nonsense) and German Expressionists. Expressionists, both German and American Abstract, had sources in emotional catharsis and the subconscious. Art critics like Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg wrote their interpretation of the Abstract Expressionists’ intellectual underpinnings.

Wikepedia provides a guideline for intellectualism:

"Intellectual’ can denote three types of persons:

1. A person involved in, and with, abstract, erudite ideas and theories.
2. A person whose profession (science, medicine, literature) solely involves the production and dissemination of ideas.[1]
3. A person of notable cultural and artistic expertise whose knowledge grants him or her intellectual authority in public discourse."

I am particularly interested in number two with regard to spreading ideas as ideas can change people's perceptions. Intellectualism is currently Obama's problem with popularity. The general populous is feeling disconnected from him. It sees to many that he doesn't have strong feelings nor can understand their situations. This is despite his family's economic state while growing up, reflected by living in a two-bedroom apartment in Honolulu and his father's origins of a village in Kenya. His American mother, Ann Dunham, earned a Ph.D. in economic anthropology and rural development, relevant fields to the current economic state of America. She set a family standard for education. It is ironic to punish someone for living to their full potential, developing themselves, achieving graduation at Harvard and becoming president. Charisma can carry a long way toward relating with people, however, like the frequent statement that George Bush was someone the average person would like to have a beer with. The Right plays up this buddy-buddy attitude, an example is McCain's use of "Joe the Plumber" in his presidential campaign. I for one want a smart, articulate, lucid president who is going to carefully think through his actions. Obama not only sees the struggles of the American people but is working to lift them.

As far as painting goes, my job is to clarify my vision through the medium. I'm not going to solve any big problems but can impact people personally like poets and painters do. Thanks for taking the time to look.