pamela fraser blog

january 16, 2012

2012-01-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

january 15, 2012

2012-01-16T18:56:00.000-08:00

december 31, 2010

2012-01-02T13:25:00.000-08:00

November 7, 2011

2011-11-08T10:58:00.000-08:00

october 30

2011-11-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

october 29, 2011

2011-11-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

october 28, 2011

2011-11-01T07:55:00.000-07:00

october 20, 2011: notes on shapes

2011-10-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

October, 2011

I’ve been making what is basically the same painting for some time now, forty of them now over 18 months. I’ve had one exhibition with them in January of 2011. In that show, I installed them in groupings, configurations in such a way that it was difficult to tell if they were individual paintings or an installation, or subsets within a larger installation. (pics of a triptych below from that exhibition).

In early 2010, I began this work thinking about claims to universality that first generation abstractionists had. Specifically, I began this work as a playful response to a 1923 Kandinsky’s questionnaire. In it he had hoped to ascertain an innate correspondence between color and form common to all. He believed he was conducting a rigorous scientific inquiry relating formal painting elements to what he believed were universal responses. His research used subjects who all fell into the same demographic-German student population in Berlin- and did not take into consideration cultural factors or relativity in color and shape associations..

These works on paper, roughly laying out the idea for a body of paintings that used the arrangement of Kandinsky’s diagram questionnaire as a template, but substituted all kinds of color for the strict primary palette,, were the beginning of what has become a larger investigation. At this point my color choices were basically random.

By June, I had begun several canvasses, and was considering an installation strategy of hanging them 2” apart in a kind of “firing line”, and creating a rhythm with the varying sizes.

As I made more, I began to realize that hanging them so close together deemphasized their individual identity, so I decided this strategy was not working, and began to try different arrangements.

As I developed these, some of them into diptychs and other, triptychs, while some remained individual. This process was done intuitively, and I began to be interested in what variances made some “work”, and others “not work”. For an exhibition at a university gallery in Illinois (The College of Dupage) , I installed the works in a manner that was occasionally ambiguous as to whether some works were individual, diptychs, or triptychs. (I am looking for those installation shots but can’t find at the moment).

What I’ve become more engaged with, as I've worked, is less the Kandinsky diagram that was the original springboard, but rather the lightness and quickness of the works, continuing my interest in the meaning and ethos of a light touch, as well as my interest in the legibility of colors, how they “mean”, and how one can manipulate meanings. In each work, I try to combine colors in such a way to cancel any commonplace associative reading out. I’m engaged with the idea of making an image that is not readable, hoping that that highlights the constructed nature of such associations. I’m also interested in how much the paintings change in feeling and tone based on the color choices. Despite the fact that they are the same composition, these choices, as well as the incidental things such as amount of water in a batch of paint, amount of pressure as paint is applied, choice of brush that makes neater or messier edges, alter the paintings drastically from one another. I often worked with the idea of subverting the expectation of autobiographical in painting, whether it’s been painting in the third-person, or now working with colors to undermine expectations. If three colors make a “scheme”, the colors I choose are chosen only on the basis that they don’t add up to a commonplace association. The cartoon robot face that the composition makes was at first accidental, but has also become quite important to me. It gives each work a sort of expression, a tone, which is partially based on how the "face" reads. It gives them a ridiculousness despite their strict confines.

Kept working on individual pieces, thinking of them more individually, but also related to an On Kawara type of seriality; the same but so very different, and also gaining meaning through accumulation and relation to others.

And then came the first larger scale version.

After completing this painting, I thought my Blaffer installation could be five large works like this. I was interested in how more extreme the simplicity of the paintings became at this scale. I am currently at work on the other four. But while I kept on making individual 24’x24” versions, I began to consider an installation strategy of only this 24x24 scale, about 25-30 of them for that same show. This would give an opportunity to have more variety. The more of them there are, the more the repetition, the differences within the sameness, is apparent.

Here are some snapshots of the smaller ones in a straightforward linear hang. Ideally, they'd be spaced a bit further apart from one another.

The paintings maintain individual identity more this way, than in the prior College of Dupage install, where there was ambiguity between individuality and installation.

At the same time, I would make an occasional ‘one-off’, a painting in the series that deviated a bit. I wasn’t sure what to think of these at first, an kept them, but aside from the rest.

At the same time also began adding gradations into some of the shapes. (autumn trees and their gradating colors gave me this idea.) In some of these very recent ones, i truncated my own gesture (truncated gestures being an important part of my work in general), and shape making. The bottom triangle becomes even more mouth-like as it becomes a simple one-stroke line.

These moves made me consider what installing in a less strict fashion might do. Instead of 5 large paintings in the same format with the same level line, or 30 smaller paintings in the same format; with the same level line what if I hung different scales together, as well as having these newer varieties, the gradients, the thin line ‘mouth’ ones, hanging all together? Have not played with intermixing works in the studio yet, but these accidental combinations-works hanging around the studio- contributed to the idea.

So I’ve come down to three choices:

1) 5 large paintings

2) 25-30 small paintings

3) looser installation, configurations with shapes paintings, and possibly works from other series.

october 18, 2011 (iphone shots)

2011-10-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

september 16, 2011

2011-10-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

september 3, 2011

2011-09-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

(35), in situ

(39), 20x20", 2011

(38), 20x20", 2011

( 37), 20x20", 2011

(35), 24x24", 2011

(36), 20x20", 2011

august 18, 2011

2011-08-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

(31), 22x22"

(32), 24x24"

(30), 24x24"

(34), 22x22"

(33), 22x22"

august 17, 2011

2011-08-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

june 2011, ceramica suro at casey kaplan

2011-08-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

March 28, 2011

2011-03-28T21:31:00.000-07:00

march 1, 2011

2011-03-01T14:17:00.000-08:00

February 28, 2011

2011-03-01T09:15:00.001-08:00

december 15, 2010

2010-12-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

7, 16, 2
ditto

24" squares together fade into 20" squares, then fade into 16" squares.

12

11

15

14

13

16

november 30, 2010

2010-11-30T09:53:00.000-08:00

november 27, 2010

2010-11-27T14:44:00.000-08:00

november 4, 2010

2010-11-07T18:53:00.001-08:00

october 19, 2010

2010-10-22T08:03:00.000-07:00

october 12, 2010

2010-10-12T13:26:00.000-07:00

planning cologne

2010-10-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

Three Times a Lady, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on dibond, 8x10"

Can't Keep My Own Secrets, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas, 20x20"

This Is Not the Story You Think It Is, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas, 24x24"

The Boys Upstairs, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas, 16x16"

not yet titled, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas on panel, 7x9 5/16"

not yet titled, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on polypropylene,11x14"

not yet titled, 2009, acrylic and acrylic gouache on polypropylene,10x13"

not yet titled, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on polypropylene, 14x11"

not yet titled, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on polypropylene,11x14"

not yet titled, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on polypropylene,14x11"

not yet titled, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on polypropylene,11x14"

not yet titled, 2009, acrylic and acrylic gouache on polypropylene,10x11"

not yet titled, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on polypropylene,4x6

details:

Work on Paper (none yet titled)

1. 4”h x 6”w

2. 10”h x 11” w

3. 14”h x 11”w

4. 14”h x 11”w

5. 14”h x 11”w

6. 10”h x 13”w

7. 11”h x 14”w

8. 11”h x 14”w

9. 11”h x 14”w

10. 11”h x 14”w

Paintings

1. Three Times a Lady, 2010, crylic and acrylic gouache on dibond, 8 x 10”

2. Can’t Keep My Own Secrets, acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas, 20 x 20”

3. This is Not the Story You Think It Is, acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas, 24 x 24”

4. The Boys Upstairs, acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas, 16 x 16”

5. not yet titled, 2010, acrylic and acrylic gouache on canvas on panel, 7 x 9 5/16”

september 28, 2010

2010-09-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

september 24, 2010 (color frame project mock up)

2010-09-23T14:38:00.001-07:00

june 24, 2010

2010-06-24T13:31:00.001-07:00

june 14, 2010

2010-06-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

june 3, 2010

2010-06-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

may 28, 2010

2010-05-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

may 27, 2010

2010-05-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

May 19, 2010

2010-05-19T12:05:00.001-07:00

april 30, 2010: golden at artchicago

2010-05-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

april 16, 2010

2010-04-23T17:42:00.001-07:00

april 16, 2010

2010-04-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

March 24, 2010

2010-03-24T10:46:00.001-07:00

planning the amsterdam works on paper show....

...and two new paintings, and two new loose chart works on paper.

(this one is oil on canvas)

like the relationship between this painting and this work on paper.

March 19, 2010

2010-03-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

2005 piechart

new oil with 2009 piechart

february 15, 2010

2010-02-15T14:34:00.000-08:00

february 10, 2010

2010-02-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

pro shots

2009-12-27T12:24:00.001-08:00

december 18, 2009

2009-12-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

november 13, 2009

2009-11-15T09:18:00.001-08:00

november 2, 2009

2009-11-02T12:33:00.000-08:00

October 24, 2009

2009-10-24T12:49:00.001-07:00

October 21, 2009

2009-10-21T17:23:00.001-07:00

october 7, 2009

2009-10-07T14:16:00.001-07:00

september 30th, 2009

2009-09-30T16:29:00.000-07:00

september 20, 2009

2009-09-18T12:58:00.001-07:00

september 15th

2009-09-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

september 11th, 2009

2009-09-13T19:16:00.000-07:00

july 27, 2009

2009-07-29T13:32:00.000-07:00

july 21, 2009

2009-07-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

drawings today

2009-07-09T13:24:00.001-07:00

july 7, 2009

2009-07-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

please excuse any repetition of pics, and grab whatever you think best. i have some notes scattered throughout the post that may-or may not- be useful.

the green painting is in progress.

the idea for the show is to include snowflakes, arrows, and pie-charts

this is not a work, but just figuring out which snowflake motif to use in the first two snowflake works.
am preparing canvasses and panels for these, and the other arrows and pie-charts.

below is a wall of drawings, some of which relate to the arrows, pie-charts, and snowflakes. this is preparation for an
upcoming cologne gallery show of work on paper.

the work on paper is always quite loose. i do not want to show it with the proposed works, but include it here as what's going on in my studio at the moment. also, the last three drawings are arrow ideas so relate specifically. i'd like the color schemes and patterns
used to have a stylistic and taste range.

arrow ideas