The Risk Of Dinner Theatre: Challenge Day 9

"Dinner Theatre" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 11' x 30" 

$650

My Challenge: Dare I Follow This Image?

I paint along side hundreds of artists from all over the world partaking in Day 9 of Leslie Saeta's 30 day painting and blogging challenge. That there are so many artists participating lends the challenge a certain camaraderie (not unlike what we experience in the collaborative art of theatre) as well as adding a certain amount of pressure (if you allow it), because so many artists are posting their paintings every day. Gotta keep up! 

I welcome the pressure to produce. It creates an interesting tension between my desire "to be idle," to paint for the joy of it, and the desire to please that turns painting into work.  So today when I decided to pick up this odd-sized start with a lot of bright paint on it, I immediately thought "what the heck am I going to do with this!" 

So often my first thought was to wipe out the color and to look for a scene. But before I got to obliterating the start, I took time to see the half circle in the middle of the page - and looking inside it I began to see a scene unfolding, not just in the center but on either side. 

The Start for Dinner Theatre

Theatre is a great metaphor for life and I immediately recognized the setting for the characters in this painting as a theatrical one.  The title became apparent to me early in the process when I was looking for an explanation for the character just left of center that is drawing attention from the two central figures. I immediately thought, "this is dinner theater!" And thus, early on I had my title.  

 I did not let the title or reason stand in the way. I was going to risk having some fun.  I immediately allowed for other characters to appear on the right and left, leading to the possibility of multiple plays taking place at the same time - or perhaps 3 different views of drama/life being played out simultaneously.  

I could have wiped the entire painting out at any time - there was some neat stuff under that paint - I did rub out on section on the left to reveal the mystery melodrama taking place on the left side of the paper!  But I decided not to second guess myself.  I decided to enjoy the return to the theatre. The truth is I've been looking for some of the more playful paintings to re-appear.  And now one has! 

In case you are wondering about me and dinner theatre... stay tuned. 

A Question of Eminence

"Eminence Claire" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 22" x 30"

The title of this painting is a play on the phrase "éminence grise," the phrase literally means "grey eminence" and is a reference to one who wields power without holding an official position. The figures in this painting wield power. They are not shadowy figures, they are luminaries: two in the open, center stage, and one more distant figure with the strongest light shining on it.

This painting more than any other made me feel like I was directing a play when it dawned on me that I could play with the focus of this painting - and thereby tinker with the narrative - by dimming or raising the light on the figures.  I had three bits of action on the stage - each attempting to take focus - and I had to ask myself who or what is this painting about.  I felt very attached to the smaller solitary figure on the right - upstage and distant from the rest - suggesting to me that this figure had significant interest and influence in what was happening in the world of the painting.  The central figures have the focus: they are taller than the rest, closer than the rest, in the center, one is in a red cloak, the other a white cloak. Eminence! And then there was a pair of lovers on stage right (left side of the paper), exactly where lovers should be according to stage theory (if you believe in theory).  

So I decided to play with the light.  I put the lovers in the dark by layering a transparent wash over them. The story may indeed be all about them but right now we are not to focus on them. We are to know they are there, but they are not the focus at this moment: the figures in the center are the focus.  At first I thought the figure in the distance needed to be played down because it could take focus from the central figures.  But I liked the balance this figure offered to the composition. And maybe this figure that is observing the proceedings needs to tug at the viewer's attention. 

So I started to play with the light on this distant figure.  First dimming it with a wash, and then bringing it up by lifting the wash. I did this several times before I realized that I get to create the framework for the story the viewer will create while looking at this painting.  Illuminated and in the background, the smallest figure appears to be the one with the most power.  

"Eminence Claire" is getting its first public viewing in Florida, at the Melrose Bay Art Gallery in Melrose, FL, in my solo exhibit, "Degrees of Separation."

Directing The Eye Through Composition and Word

"The End Of The Pilgrimmage" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 22" x 30"

Directing The Eye Through Composition

Artists use composition to focus and direct the eye of the viewer.  You might find as you look at this painting that you first look at the figure that is in the highest position, and then move to the large figure in the center and then to the tallest figure further to the right. And then you notice the long line of figures moving from the right to the left at the bottom of the paper. Then back up to the figure on the upper left.  

The easy and natural path for the western eye to follow is from left to the right, the way we read. And so that figure up there on the left is perhaps the starting point of travel through the painting.  The figure in the center - the center being a hot spot - would dominate the painting were it not for the height of the figure on the upper left or the size of the figure to the right of center.  There is a balance and a tension between these three figures. Who they are and what they represent may not be specific but they are in positions - on the page - that suggest they have more authority or power than the other figures in the painting.  

Then we come down to the figures starting on the right side of the paper. They seem to be moving left, or rather, our eye is traveling left with them.  This travel goes against the grain - the opposite way of our reading habits - and this makes that movement strong, giving these smaller figures some strength of focus.

Directing The Eye Through Words

How the viewer looks at the painting can also be affected by the title. I came up with three possible titles for this painting.  Let's try each one out and see how it affects the way the painting is viewed.  

"Above and Below"

If the title is "Above and Below" the viewer is encouraged to see two levels and to make sense of it - the top and the bottom, the big guys and the little guys, the spiritual and the human... there are countless possibilities.  It focuses on polarity.

"Degrees of Separation"

The title "Degrees of Separation" allows the viewer to look a little more deeply into the painting. For example, it might lead first to an examination of the separation between the figures below and each of the figures above. And subsequently to an examination of the ways in which the upper figures are separated from one another - higher or lower, closer or more distant from one another. It also would lead to an examination of the obvious degrees of separation between the figures on the bottom as they relate to one another, and how they might relate or not relate to the figures in higher places.

"The End of the Pilgrimage"

This title does all that the previous two do, but adds some new direction for the viewers. It adds character and plot and meaning in a way that the other two titles do not. When I think of this as a snapshot of the end of the pilgrimage - that is, the pilgrims/travelers have arrived at their destination - I am led to look at the figures at the bottom in all of their positions, and I see that the positions indicate a state of being for each character - an attitude.  At the same time the figures above them also take on more human characteristics. What are they thinking now that they have their audience before them?  Are they a part of this or are they looking for something else?

Maintaining Ambiguity

I try always to allow plenty of room for interpretation of my paintings.  What this painting is really about is something that only the viewer can decide.  Though a "pilgrimage" is generally viewed as a journey to a sacred place - the pilgrims in the middle ages would travel great distances to view the relics of a particular saint - a pilgrimage does not have to be solely about the sacred.  It can stand as a metaphor for any journey of great import that we happen to be on.  What happens once we get where we are going?  The end of the pilgrimage is something to consider.  

Care: The Essence Of Making Art

"Care" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 10"x 10"

There are over 400 artists in Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 Challenge. What could possibly possess them all to do this online thing?  I'm sure we all have our reasons, but there is one characteristic, one motivating factor that applies to each and every artist in the challenge. Care. They care about art. They care about self expression. They care so much about their art form that they paint every day and make time for it every day. And, at one time or another I would imagine they have had to deal with the question, "Why."   

I am sometimes overwhelmed by what I see as tremendous care in a work of art - a novel, a painting, a chorus, a play.  I think about how the members of the National Symphony Orchestra have spent a lifetime mastering their instrument, spent countless hours in rehearsal, alone and with others, preparing for the concert. I watch them to see them listening and enjoying, to see them paying attention to the conductor, to the page.  And they do all of this to be a part of making music.  It's a stage full of care.  And so it is with any fine or performing art.  If you take the time to think about the care that each artist, whether an amateur or a great master, puts into the work, it's simply breathtaking,  Care is of the essence.  

My painting today - this 10th painting - was one that gave me a time.  They all do actually, but when it was finished and I had to title it, I was briefly stumped and feared that the painting didn't make sense.  But the central figure seemed to have a benevolence about him and is directing it toward the couple on the left.  The figure on the right seems to be burdened with concern.  And it was then that I realized that this painting is about caring.   The setting is theatre-like, and there's no surprise there, considering my attachments to the theatre.  

Hopefully the painting manages to rise above the literal and can be seen as allegorical.