Sunday, April 19, 2009

Running man

One of my most successful paintings of recent years has been reviewed.


Update: I like both flat pictures and structured (impasto). Flat is easier to make and to distribute digitally, so it makes sense to do impasto when working on canvas.

Why is it stressing to me to do creative things? Not sure, but it seems like it is undoing old hard-packed emotional energies. Which is therapeutic and wonderful, but it easily goes too fast for me and becomes painful. So I have to do it in moderation.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like it. Why no signature? -Eric

Aniko said...

Cool! :-)

How does it feel like to be reviewed?

Timo Lehtinen said...

I too like this one.

You should do more.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thanks, guys.

I very much hope to do more.
(It's very stressful, though, to me.)

It's quite flattering, reviews like this.

I struggle to make signatures which are not distracting from the picture. Every little element in a picture changes it.

paul schmidt said...

Kind of a minimalist review. I'd like to know why you decided to do in this with the impasto technique. If the reason was simply to give it the "expected" look (what's necessary these days for it to be considered "art") then that's not enough. She has made wild guesses about your influences, but what are these really? If there is no emotional connection, as she says, what are we to get out of it? I look at it and feel nothing.

I'm legitimately interested and am not "trashing" this work or review, but would genuinely like to know.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I have no clue if impasto is currently "in" or not, I just use whatever I am interested in at the moment.

The connection is not emotional, it's about energy. I'm not too interested in emotions.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Update: I like both flat pictures and structured (impasto). Flat is easier to make and to distribute digitally, so it makes sense to do impasto when working on canvas.

Why is it stressing to me to do creative things? Not sure, but it seems like it is undoing old hard-packed emotional energies. Which is therapeutic and wonderful, but it easily goes too fast for me and becomes painful. So I have to do it in moderation.

Anonymous said...

An artist should be able to explain exactly why they did everything. Why this technique, why these colors, what it depicts (the meaning rather than just what it appears to be), everything. A decent critic would tear you to shreds over what you've said here.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Well, there's another school of thought which says that if art could be expressed in words it would have no reason to exist in the first place.

Anonymous said...

An artist should . . . decent critic would tear you to shreds . . I really enjoyed this hilariously absurd comment! Was waiting for the disclaimer - but that would of course spoil the effect. . .
-Eric

Alex said...

I always thought art was an instinctive reaction. Techniques used are just what tools the artist has.

I use pencil and a mix of shading techniques, not because that's saying anything, it's just what I know how to do and control.

Art conveys feeling, illustration conveys meaning?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I think so, yes.

Although I think they both pick up more impact if they have both.

Anonymous said...

"I really enjoyed this hilariously absurd comment! Was waiting for the disclaimer - but that would of course spoil the effect. . ."


I love it when people say things like this, but then decline to say what exactly makes it absurb. Eric didn't say because he doesn't know. I invite him to try. Now that would be hilarious.

Eolake didn't do much better. You should be able to say why you chose the colors you did, the technique, why a painting in the first place and not something else, what you're trying to get across to the audience, what you felt, etc.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I could do all that, very easily. But for one thing, many inspired artistic choices (as opposed to intellectual ones) are made on instinct, not logic, and so the logical inspiration would be an after-rationalization.
For another thing, each little explanation would lock down the interpretation of the work a little, and I don't think that's a good idea.

Anonymous said...

I doubt you could do it very easily. You and no one else here even understood what I was talking about at first until I explained it, dumbed it down.

Instead I was mocked for stating what is expected in the art world.

Do you not want your work to become better known? If you don't, then keep doing what you're doing. If you do want a larger audience you will have to do what I've said and more. It's expected. You might not agree with it but it's what you'll have to do. Maybe you're okay with all your art being thrown in the garbage after you're dead.

Where's the response from Eric btw? He's been strangely silent. I thought he'd have wanted to take me to school. I guess I was right about him too.