CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE
LINEAR PROGRESSIONS
An abstract submitted in partial satisfaction of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in
Art
by
Barbara Harvey
January, 1984
The Abstract of Barbara Harvey is approved:
Tom Fricano, Advisor
Dolores Yonker , Advisor
Marvin Harden, Ch~irman
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California State University, Northridge
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ABSTRACT
LINEAR PROGRESSIONS
by
Barbara Harvey
Master of Arts in Art
I have long been interested in the provocative
nature of everyday items that tend to be taken for
granted.
These are throwaway things that are compel-
ling because of their omnipresence and utilitarian nature.
Paper bags epitomize what Daniel Douke has
called "icons of expendability." 1
Images used refer to the concept of space.
A
paper bag is a container of space, that is, a form that
surrounds a void.
It also serves as a personal symbol
for contents of a less tangible more mysterious nature.
The bags in the pieces are shown close-up and
cropped, reinforcing the importance of the edges of the
paper to the drawn edges, and allowing the image to
expand, by implication, beyond its borders.
Additionally,
cropping the image allows a play of planes, producing
1. Kathy Zimmerer-McKelvie, "Modern ImpersonationsDaniel Douke," Images and Issues, Sept/Oct. 1983, Vol. 4
, No. 2, p. 14.
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ambiguous depths within the piece.
Space that surrounds or contains form suggests the
desert landscapes that evolved from the bag drawings.
A desert is a vast area of land and space that, because of low precipitation, cannot support a variety
of vegetation.
For that reason, it has become expendable
and utilitarian (like the bag), a wasteland used to
test bombs and build strip mines.
By the same token,
however, it is an immense temple where the few life
forms that are sustained become extremely precious,
and a quiet place for contemplation.
The later pieces merge all of these concerns.
The rudimentary form of the bag 1s retained but begins
to refer to landscapes that suggest chasms or canyons,
that is, monumental containers of space.
At this
point, the relationship between exterior and interior
space, or void as form, becomes more the issue.
LINEAR PROGRESSIONS refers to the formal aspects
of the pieces rather than to the imagery.
Linear
elements serve first, as a foil to illusion of any
pictorial depth or distance (like the scanning pattern
that reproduces an image on a TV screen), and second,
as bands or building blocks of form in and for themselves.
PROGRESSIONS refers to several things: the
process of line-making, by definition a progressive
one (a line is actually the progression of a dot
from one point to another); the process of repetition;
and the process of mark-making that embodies a build
up of tone, color and texture.
Progression also
manifests itself in the fact that the body of work
was realized serially; each piece progressed from the
concerns generated from the preceding piece,i.e.,
the change to handmade paper evolved from the desire
to create greater texture in the paper itself rather
than in the paint as had been done in previous pieces.
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The resultant surface affected the application of
paint which then led to other concerns and other
decisions, and so on.
These processes are slow and methodical and, as
such, become meditative acts.
It is the process
involved in reaching a meditative state of mind that
I hold most valuable.
It is in this state that
ideas are produced, discoveries made and energies
replenished.
Albert Einstein once said that the
state of mind which enables a person "to do work of
this kind is akin to that of a religious worshipper
or lover.
The daily effort comes from no deliberate
intention or program, but straight from the heart." 2
2. from a speech by Albert Einstein (1918) as reproduced in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,
Robert M. Pirsig, A Bantam Book, 1974, p. 97.
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Self, Contained, 22.25" X 30", pastel and graphite on
paper
Pandora's Bag, 24.25" X 30", pastel and graphite on
paper
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Sanctuary 2, 22. 25" X 30", mixed media on handmade
paper
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In the Void, 26" X 36" 1 mixed media on handmade
paper
Detail
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Chasm, 26" X 36", mixed media on handmade paper
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•
Abyss, 22.25" X 43.25", mixed media on handmade
paper
Precipice, 22.25" X 43.25", mixed media on handmade
paper
X
Portal, 15.5" X 42.5", mixed media on handmade paper
Detail
xi
Sanctuary 3, 22. 25" X 30", mixed media on handmade
paper
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