ANTILOG_29Dec14a

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ANTILOG_29Dec14a

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22:09 2014-12-29

* Have been working hard on multiple aspects of my "Magnum Opus" for the last several months.
* Am trying out new techniques in visual design. Am also studying visual culture, material culture as thoroughly as I can.
* My documentation methods have been lacking. I have tried to be as meticulous and systematic as possible in my documentation practises over the years and yet find that I'm still not thorough enough.
* For instance, experiments in visual arts done in the Atelier need to be inscribed in the appropriate Laboratory Notebook. I have the notebooks, I just haven't been keeping proper records.
* I need to continue what essentially has become a Longitudinal Study of myself as a self-portraitist, as well as just a professional painter proper.
* This is important so that I can keep track of my "Growth Landmarks" I am calling them. You know in your life, in the enterprise that you practise, you have "growth spurts". These need to be documented. It's part of the general "Archive-Your-Life" attitude and methodology.
* I did this earlier today:

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22:33 2014-12-29

* Over the last month or two, I have been doing experiments in painting. First of all, I spent the last several months, almost a half-year, "Reinventing Myself". That took some time and for most of that period, I wasn't the most prolific artist in the world.
* I still did some work, but not as much as I usually do. So now a month or so ago, I began producing again at full volume, and that's partly why I realize now how important documentation is.
* For instance, I have been looking at "textures" in painting. I made a few paintings recently on this subject of Textures. Here, have a look at one of them:

* The idea is to paint a surface, a canvas in this case, with a treatment that makes it look like it could be an old wall with flaking paint.
* The concept is that this is something we see in everyday life, concrete walls or things of the sort that are "aged" or "used", i.e. have fallen victim to "wear & tear".
* Now, it is my contention that what we call "Patina" in the arts, is precisely this "wear & tear", that is, the visible "effects" of it.
* My idea was to paint what looked like "Old Surfaces", whatever that means.

* Here is a digital example of something I made last August, 2014.

* Here we can see the "Texture" of which I speak, the "Texture of Old Surfaces".

* It looks like it might be an old piece of cloth or something.

* The general idea in this series of experiments is to try to UNDERSTAND HISTORY. I want to grasp WHAT HISTORY IS, what it is that makes things look old, what it means to be old & withered and tearing at the seams. I want to study HOW PATINA WORKS and how it GIVES VALUES TO THINGS.

* As they say, All solid things turn to air. I just want to understand the underlying processes involved.