A Beautiful piece of Poetry.
This man and composition was chosen from a number of stills from video footage. He appealed to me because of his look and because of what he had to say and how he said it. The man recited a poem he himself had composed about his life. His words and language were plain and simple but with these plain words he created something of great articulacy, intelligence and depth, a work that because of the uncomplicated language, was accessible to all. This encouraged and reassured me by re-emphasising to myself exactly what I am aiming for. I want my own work to speak in an uncomplicated way, to be direct and popular with the viewing audience, in order to reach as many people and as wide a range of people as possible.
The objective for my own work has always been to speak in the same uncomplicated way but to carry depth, weight and emotional meaning. I want the viewer to be able to appreciate the work purely on a visual level, but also, if they wish, if they feel the need or have the will, to be able to enter in and think of deeper meanings and find other emotional levels to the work. The approach to this piece was to be as minimal as possible, to tell as much as I could with as little visual information as possible. It was a nice idea, but the man’s face told its own story, and I could not force my own structure on it. In this case I had to go with it and let the sitter lead the way for me. More of the composition was painted in than was first intended, but the work is better for it. There are still areas of the face left unpainted, but the viewer has more than enough other visual information to fill these in for themselves. I feel the work is easily strong enough to be exhibited and has enough about it to be a stand-alone piece if I choose it to be.
My Space.
Degree show spaces have now been allocated and my own plans can be drawn up. Wall space is in short supply, but I am happy with my lot. Having hoped to display two large scale pieces decent viewing distances were required and that is what has been provided, one wall 3 metres wide, another at a ninety degree angle to this at about 4m wide.
The large works are both oversize head and shoulder portraits approximately 1.2m wide by 1.8m high. Square on viewing distances of at least 3m were needed to observe the works in their entirety both individually and for them to be seen in one view together. The 3m wall can accommodate both the works and the viewing distances comfortably.
The works, two very different faces were conceived and designed to work together, to both compliment, spark off and create a dialogue with each other, therefore the reason distances were so important to me. With technical aspects covered it is up to me to deliver my conception.
The second wall is to carry many more works in entirely different arrangements to create a contrast with the more ordered structure of the first. I feel it is important to the subject matter to try to grab and hold the viewer’s interest with the many different styles, approaches, surfaces and sizes of composition I have been working in. The aim is to plant some kind of idea in the audience of the scale, complexity, diversity and randomness of the issue I am trying to portray without actually spelling it out. The space is being prepared, the work is progressing at a pace and soon will be ready to be considered, edited and hung.
“I didn’t want the best players, I wanted the best team”
Today I was thinking of the process of choosing suitable subjects for portraits. It isn’t always easy, not everybody has a face for it.
Choosing people to paint for this project has been even more difficult, and has increased my workload in actually finding suitable people. The weight and breadth of the subject matter is not expressed in any one face of the many individuals I have encountered, it cannot be.
With limited wall space for my degree show the problem of addressing the variety and sheer amount of people affected by homelessness was beginning to trouble me. With the wall space available to me I would only be able to hang about six standard sized portraits and each face would be crucial, they would all have to be very strong in appearance and this in itself would be a misrepresentation of the issue of homelessness.
It was when researching contemporary portraiture that I found what could be the answer. Street artist Jef Aerosol found one solution to a different problem of how to bring street art into a gallery setting by exhibiting a large number of small portraits in a cluster, group or montage. This artist’s problem was one of how to keep some of the freshness and throwaway nature of the work in a more rarefied gallery atmosphere, the chaotic and seemingly random arrangements in size and style of portraits he chose were a very effective solution. Yes I had a different problem to this artist, but his solution to a different problem could also work very well for me. In choosing to exhibit a larger number of portraits in this way I would at once be representing in some way the number and variety of the people I needed to be painting. Not every portrait would have to carry heavy meaning all by itself, the weight of the subject matter could be carried collectively, some could be light, some could be barely working as individual portraits, but when displayed together they could be much more powerful.
I gathered together many of the smaller pieces I had been working on and tried them in different numbers and arrangements. Most worked well, but some worked better than others. The arrangement that I was most pleased with was one where all the faces looked directly out at the viewer. I found that when looking at this one, I felt a strong emotional reaction which I simply did not get looking at any one of the portraits on their own. I could not get away from or ignore them and provoking this reaction from the viewer was one of the very earliest aims of the project.
All in all this exploration has seemed like a real breakthrough and has given me plenty to consider when it comes to exhibiting.
A Tissue?
Ok so I tried this small drawing on a tissue used by a friend for cleaning up around the studio. Not wishing to endorse negative stereotypes about homelessness I felt I still had to deal with them and address them in some way. There are some perceptions out there about homeless people being dirty, disposable, society’s waste and the used tissue of course can be seen as representing all these things. Obvious maybe, but direct too. Could it be effective though? Started by gluing the thing down in my sketchbook, then drew a small portrait on it in pencil. It turned out as crappy as the tissue it was drawn on! Hated it, tore it away and………liked what was left. Worked over it again, this time with marker pen which somehow seemed in tune with both the destructive and constructive nature of my tearing. Having previously created on cardboard by tearing I was pleased that this translated to my used tissue. I believe the work has some potential and this work or similar works may be worth showing.
Tommy
The source image for this portrait was selected after carefully viewing hours of video footage. Initially I look for people whose character, stories and experiences interest me, but with that in mind, these being portraits, they must have a face and a look. With all the will in the world a person’s humanity won’t be captured if their face does not convey it. The man portrayed is called Tommy. He lives in a rough shelter in woodland and talks of the cycle of no permanent home and a lack of work. No home means no job and no job means no permanent home.
The tone and manner of his voice is warm and without bitterness. His unusual appearance adds to his appeal. Long curls frame an older face and cascade down from beneath a battered cap. He is well kept and clean, giving a clue to some pride and self-respect. Tommy expresses his frustration at watching the world going on around him without being able to take part. Although his look and expression is non-confrontational it still has power. His pride and resilience is evident. He speaks without self-pity but his face tells of his frustration at the constant battle and many losses that his daily life entails.
Tommy’s view is averted from the viewer as though looking to that world that at this time he cannot be a part of. I chose this faraway, contemplative look from many stills I had taken from the video source as I thought it captured well the disconnect from the rest of the world that many unsheltered people speak of. Tommy’s full story is not told so how he became homeless is not revealed. This helped me to paint him in a nonjudgmental way and retain a certain amount of the neutrality I have been aiming for. I hope to leave the viewer to draw their own conclusions about the work and the people portrayed. The conclusions they draw will possibly have as much to do with their own background, knowledge and life experience as those of the people portrayed.
