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. 

Making Art: The Unavoidable Risk

"Onward" by Jim Carpenter, Watercolor and Acrylic on Paper, 22" x 30"

"What am I afraid of? It's only a piece of paper!" 

We hear so often that it is essential to take risks in art making, and yet I never really had anyone tell me what the risks are.  That is, except for the young theatre director who told me that the improv she was having her actors do was intended to make them feel so totally foolish that they would get used to the fear of looking foolish.  I concluded that the risk in art was that you could end up looking like a fool. Since then I've added: fear of being wrong, fear of not conforming, fear of being an outlier, fear of being rejected, fear of failure, and last but not least, the ever awful fear of ruining a $3.50 sheet of watercolor paper.  

Authenticity: Inevitable Risk 

Once I stopped painting pots of flowers and started to paint from a more intuitive place, I began to deal with the risks of authentic self-expression.  I see enough of the images that I carve out of the paint to see a theme, and to see what are becoming almost stock images that appear over and over again in a similar stage setting.  In this painting, "Onward," there is the familiar figure in the robe, the light shining from some other source, a sense of movement toward or focus on or of being transfixed by the light, figures in the light, in front of the light, out of the light.  

I don't want to explain the figures. I choose not to try to explain what these images might mean to me.  I want them to remain a visual metaphor, one unlimited and undefined by words.  And besides, isn't it risk enough just to present the images?  

Writing a blog is every bit as risk-taking as painting if you are going to be authentic and publish it on the Internet.  I write because it is in the writing that I discover the lesson that creative experience holds for me.  And I write the blog to build fortitude in taking ownership of my work and the themes that are reflected in it.  Might it also encourage a reader to explore the benefits of writing a blog which serves as a tool for self-reflection and illumination?

Onward: To Turn Toward

This painting was started over a year ago, when I was exploring returning to watercolor and applying some of the techniques I use when painting with acrylic. Eventually I added acrylic to the watercolor painting before abandoning it to the "unfinished" pile. Here is what it looked like when I returned to it.

In my "finishing" I wanted to put the emphasis on the tall central figure, and take the emphasis off of all of the other figures.  I grayed-down the gold and warmed up the gray, darkened the darks and lightened the light around the central figure.  I also covered the other figures with an opaque acrylic wash.  

As I took each step I could see the other figures losing their pull, becoming secondary characters for the moment, and allowing the story to be focused primarily on the figure in the robe.  However,  the other figures are an essential element in the composition and the narrative, the role of each suggested by their posture, their placement, and their substance.  

"Onward," which comes from the Old English root "weard" meaning to "turn toward," seemed a proper title even before I looked up its etymological meaning. 

Creating Narrative Through Composition

"The Gathering" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Crescent Board, 12" x 20"

When Icons Aren't Enough

Some of these figures are beginning to feel like old friends. I've seen them before in my other paintings. Thus the title, "The Gathering."  

When I began this painting I imagined the figures were long-buried icons being uncovered.  I used various gel mediums, including crackle paste, to get the effects of ancient crumbling walls and plaster. This is the painting I started with - the one of the 30 that I said I was going to "finish" in this 30 day challenge.  

So when I picked the painting up again I began to work on fleshing out the figures.  I added combinations of metallic gold and bronze and quinacridone gold. 

Eventually I found that having the figures on the wall as adornment simply wasn't enough to satisfy me. I wanted to put the figures into an environment in order to create narrative.  I wondered if the original artist put them in an environment.  I thought: "Well when the artist painted this on the ancient wall did he have them in a scene or were they just icons on a gilt wall?"  

Yes, I know that sounds a bit crazy, but remember I was "a theatre person" for a good number of decades. Stanislavsky rules! Creating characters and back history and putting yourself in the situation of the character are second nature to theatre people. Still, sometimes it's important for me to remember that I really am the painter of my paintings!  I'm the decider.

The Environment and Narrative

The environment does not have to be literal. It can be figurative - simple - abstract space.  Where the figures are placed in that space and how they are positioned is what creates story. 

I put figures in an environment in order to create narrative, and as you can see, I also take figures out to help the story along. Taking out one figure created a large space between the first figure and the second, adding weight to both.  

 

Although we don't have a lot of details, a story is there for the telling.  You can imagine that the figure on the left is benevolent, judging by the tilt of the head, and by its being positioned on the left side of the paper. There seems to be a conversation of sorts going on between the two figures on the right. But it is the central figure who is the strongest - that is, the central figure takes the most focus. Although it would seem that all of the figures are engaged in their own activity, it is the figure who is closest to the viewer, closest to the center, and with his full back to us who catches our attention - because of where he is and how he is positioned in the space in relationship to the other figures.  With his back to us he generates additional wonder and mystery.  

PS. I had a few good laughs at myself while writing this blog post. I had not really thought about how I slip into theatrical modes of thinking when I paint. Stanislavsky would be proud of my liberal use of "what if."  

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. 

Vision

"Vision" by Jim Carpenter, Acrylic on Paper, 9"x9"

Day 12 Painting #9 in the Painting Challenge

What coincidences can I dream up today to go with this painting?  It's painting #9 and it's 9" square, an oddball for that, but I plan to mount this on a 10" square canvas.  The painting seems to be true to the theme that is unfolding itself. Each painting seems to be a piece of some greater whole.  

The central figure is one that simply appeared in the paper as I lifted the paint. Well, not so much "simply" as "after much searching, backtracking, lifting, painting, lifting, painting, lifting."  

I'm very much interested in the decision making process.  When do I finally say "this is it" and leave it be?  I was tempted to go at it again, but sensed that it was my own fear of taking a risk that was pushing me not to accept this painting as it is right now.  I like this figure in the center of the painting and the figures that fill in the right and left of the painting. Some one needs to be seeing the figure in the center, and the figures on stage right and stage left serve that purpose.  They are sufficiently solid and by contrast give that illuminated figure in the center a "not really there but really there" character.  

The word "vision" seems appropriate for the title.  It can mean the ability to see, which is served by the characters on the right and left. And it can mean the object being seen, the character in the center of the painting. It can also suggest things of the imagination, things one dreams about, and can carry connotations of the supernatural, the spiritual, and the mystical, all of which are possibilities regarding the illuminated figure.