Pam Cardwell was one of the few artists that stayed at the artist house at the college this semester. received her BFA in 1994 from Virginia Commonwealth and her MFA in 1998 from the University of Pennsylvania. She has spent a lot of time in other residencies at colleges, including one that she did in 2006 where she did a series of drawings. She states that this particular work reminds her of the work that she's been doing while staying at our own campus. From here Cardwell started to explain how she loves the water, coast and rocks. Even in the Dominican Republic, she used water crayons, water acrylics and took natural shapes that she saw in these particular areas and then sketched them so she could re-work them later in her studio. "...it became like imaginative projections" Caldwell said. From this, when Caldwell re-works her sketches into larger paintings, she works from rhythm. I think this i particularly interesting because her current works seem to simulate the flow and fluidity that certain pieces of music make. As stated earlier, the lines, shapes and colors that Pam is working with incorporate her love for the water, though she states that she was also influenced a lot by the artist Arshile Gorky. The similarities between the two artists paintings is astounding. The streaks of color and distant shapes that seem to represent distant landscapes and environments are perfectly matched, even though Gorky's work is from the early 30's and 40's and Cardwell's work is much more modern. One thing that Cardwell is working on with her current work is fresco's, simple colors, but with huge scales of size. She also stated that she wants to use color and line as an emotional content. I think that this is important with her work because different colors can have different meanings. When working with cool colors a painting may seem somber and somewhat depressing, but when working with warm or earthy tones, a painting may have a brighter mood associated with it. When looking at Cardwell's work, although interesting and beautiful, I don't really see any resemblance's to my current work and her's. Besides' the fact that she is a painter, I can somewhat see similarities between her rough edges and the rough, vintage feel that I want to incorporate into my instillation and photographs. Though, her work really incorporates a lot of color, which is very important to her, but my own work rarely involves color and when it does, the faded and washed out tones reference a dull and dirty environment. I think it would interesting to see her incorporate places such as landfills or polluted environments into her paintings, to see just how she would re-work these areas with "dirty" atmospheres, instead of areas with water and beautiful scenery.
Geo 12, oil on canvas, 24 x 24", 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment