Sunday, December 20, 2009

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Some photos of the senior show

Bill Pariso's work and artist statement all together

Erick Knudtson's work and artist statement in one image


My work is both, an examination and reflection on how society’s values and active norms influence ideas about truth. By truth I mean to encompass: what is moral, what is perceivable, what is reality, etc. Through my work, I examine society and the human, which make up the whole. I also search to unearth the extent society plays in the construction of my identity. The examination and questioning of societal and individual subjective values are integral in the search for an objective truth. I must break through both ideological and subjective thought in order to obtain objective truth, which I realize is possibly unobtainable.

In my investigation, I must look first into my perception of the world around me, my humor, thought processes and my ideas about life and death. Since my concerns deal with life and its surroundings, it is logical for me to be interested in portraying naturalism. However, I am not interested in forming an entirely naturalistic composition or figure. I represent subjective truth by altering the skin tones of the figures in my paintings from that which is normally perceived. This is my mode of commenting on perception’s intangible qualities.

In addition, my process directly influences the scale of my work. I consider myself most comfortable with an approximate life-size scale due to the mark a particular brush size makes and the room it allows for blending the paint. I work on my image in a single obsessive compulsive, ala prima application until I feel that the particular portion is completed. In some cases, the image may be painted with full realization and in others the image is painted then destroyed by smearing the paint or by dripping turpenoid, making the paint run. I use these different styles to show how certain figures in the paintings reject fallacious societal values and the blurring represents their denial leading to transcending those values.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Monday, November 16, 2009

color IQ test


picture-2There are four long rows of little color chips that are not-so-different, and you just have to drag them around and sort them.

picture-1

I got a 4, not too bad since 0 is the best possible and 1200 something is the worst.

Give it a shot and see what your color IQ is.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Art Bar show with Erick Knudtson, Sept. 11 2009






UPCOMING EXHIBITS:

ANIMALS
JUNE 19 - JULY 30

DAN WEBER
JULY 31 - SEPT. 10

JEREMY UGLOW
SEPT. 11 - OCT. 15


This coming month, September, I will be having a show with Erick Knudtson in Milwaukee at Art Bar. The address is 722 East Burleigh St. Milwaukee.
If you can, it would be great to have you come to the opening. I'll be back on to update with times and what ever information I haven't posted.
If you would like to go and give Art Bar's website out;
-http://www.artbar-riverwest.com/default.asp?page=art

The show officially opens; 9:00pm Sept. 11th

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Artist Statement

An individual of a social group portrays a certain façade that can be read and analyzed by another. A viewer looking at a particular image can have a very different reaction than another. Even if this reaction remains internal, an individual’s upbringing will shape independent conclusions of what they see. A goal of my work is to convey a particularized emotion for an individual viewer. There are emotions that I wish to evoke and I paint with that intention. As the artist, I am separate from the viewer’s decision on what it is that the viewer truly sees. I am just as interested in what they see portrayed and not as concerned about whether the viewer has “gotten” exactly what I had set out to represent. The subtleties between the difference of opinion and intent from the viewer can allow just as much interest as a direct read within the work.
My work reflects an examination through questioning society’s values, active norms and mentality on how life “should” be. In this process, I also search myself for the same questions and answers. My paintings tie into my perception of the world around me, my humor, thought processes and my ideas about life and death. Naturalism has always been a great interest of mine, however, I don’t depict a naturalistic composition or figure. I use ambiguous colors to depict the human form to keep from identifying any particular group and to merge them all together, excluding no one. The color also represents ambiguity in what is “true” or what I perceive to be true and what is to come. I work on my image in a single obsessive compulsive, ala prima application until I feel that the particular portion is completed. My process directly influences the scale of my work. I consider myself most comfortable with a near life-size scale due to the mark a particular brush size makes and the room it allows for blending the paint.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Word of Mouth

There is an excellent article in word of mouth on consumerism and the corporate logo/slogans that is called "Selling (out) the revolution" which you should more than definitely check out. This is the website and there is also a link on the left of my page here that you can click on as well. http://mouth-of-word.blogspot.com/2008/10/sellingoutthe-revolution.html