CALIFORNIA STATE U.PJDT.ERSTIY J NORY.t"KIDGE
CAPITv'ES OF A SHlJri'ERED K'lE
I(
An abstract submttted in part:i.al satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of
Naster of .f.\_rts i.n
Art
by
2ariira Joan Goj_dman
/
J·anua.ry, 1980
The Abstract of Sandr-a Joan Goldman is approved:
Tom :F'riccirJ.o, Advisor
7Jjrry McM:illa11, Advisor
Robert vonSternberg, Comnittye ~cbaL-r::T~.an
{j
Cal:tfornia State Ur...tversity, Nortbridge
ii
DEDICATION
To Ben
iii
ACKNOW.wEDGEMENT
1hanks to Arthur Takayarra for the forrnulas and helpful
suggestions and to J er.ry iY!ci•UllEm for his encouragement a11d for
introducing my
photog~:aphs
to .Arthur's processes .
iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
DEDICATION
iii
ACKNOitJLEDGEl'!EJ.\JT
TABLE
iv
OF CONTENTS
v
ABOUT THE PHOIDGRAPB.S
1
ABOUT T"tlE PRTh'TS
5
CONCLUSIVE PURPOSE
7
PHO'IDGRAPHS
8
19
PRINTS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
24
v
.ABSTRACT
CAPTIVES OF A Sli1JlT"liRED rYE
by
Sa:ldr3. Joan. Goldman
fv"fa.ste.r of 1'\rts .in Art
AP.DUT THE PHO'IDGPJU?HS:
As the ,::;butter of a. camera moves 1...'1 a fraction of a
second, it n1:1.kes perrm.J.'1ent a moment :L.'l. time.
'I:he images become
trapped in gestures tru1.t sigr..ify some kind of er.!J.Otion or attitude,
whicrt otherwise mig,.'lt not be seen at all because of the fleetir!f';
time involved.
Because the camera has trti.s capacity to capture and
record) . the viewer rnay experience a res_t)onse to the representation
of an ewot:Lonal or C:.ltmospheri8 quality iJ1 the subject of the work.
Intense
f:~elings
are reprod;.1ced in journalistic photograprzy where the
ce..mera has often replaced the written word as an e:x'})ressive instrument
of communication.
Howe'Jer, a viewer's response to the expressi,,re :linage
1
2
need not be tied to a
repre~3entat.ional
form of art.
In certain
paintings and sculptural constructions the :image that comnunicates
strongly to an observer nuy not represent a specific physical object.
A painting can be an evocative combination of form and color which
may
SUf~est or create
an environment or atmosphere that a
viewer can .feel as an expressive image.
se~Bitive
.An artist is free to choose
the style best suited to e:A1Jress nis or her own requirements, or to
invei.-lt a new style, the only restriction bei.YJ.g his or her :Lmgination,
skill and previous exper:tence.
I bave exercised rny ow11 artistic prerogative.
graphs are concerned with internal realities.
M,y photo-
They are not intended
to document, record events or make social statements.
They deal
with visual estheti8s and are about the art of photography.
might be surprised to learn th'lt they are photog:t'aphs at all.
A viewer
In ma.-rzy
respects they do not resemble traditional photography and yet their
derivation is traditional in the sense that a calJlera h::.1s been used,
a negative is ro.ade and a print is derived from the negative.
"It is the miss:nn of the artist to give e:x.-presslon to the
eterl'l.al ele.uents of D..ature, to w1fold its inner beauty. The artist
tells of nature in that he mal:ces th:1.ngs visible. . . He shows us a
great(=~r sirr;pler nature--one free of all details that have no mearir,g.
He gives us a work tlo.at is based uron the linlits of his experience,
1
hi:.3 heart &'1d h:i.s spirit . . . . "
The term
l.
n abstract 11 ,
understood as somethmg abstracted
:B'erdinand Hodler, "The JVT.ission of the f.u."tist I!, in E:ri_c Prot ter
ed., Pain~t:;I's on r~~i!";:ting, The University Library, Grosset &
D..l.P~ap, Nev; York, 19b3, p. 158
3
front nature, has always been a matter of controversy, perhaps because
of the implication tr;at to "abstrdct" something is to lessen or demean
it.
Nevertheless, while literature and the visual arts of painting
and sculpture have been conceived tr..roug..hout history as it11.itative
arts, music and architecture have always been recogn._tzed as abstract
arts.
It may be for this reason that early abstractio!1..ists
continuP 1 J y offered mu.sieal ang.logies for their abstract paintings.
Various efforts have been Trade to fJnd a more satisfactory name
for art that is no!1i.'Ditative, such as "nonobjective", though to
my knowledge none res been fou:nd.
The :Linages I capt1.n"e are undulatirJ.g
rt.~,ythms
where
flattened forms contrast against art indication of deep space.
Water is an ever chmJgil;g liquid, essential for most plant and
a.nirrz.l life and the most widely used of all solvents.
imagery rnig.'lt be viewed as colored water.
pa.intin.g with a c<-l!l1era.
The
I like to feel that I am
'There is a sensuous quality tr.a.t results
from the treatment o1' the su:rface as well as the use of color.
Initially these photog:-caphs ar·e black and white.
Through various
ehernical processes of ble2d:ling and toning, they are transformed
L"lto color .
"Once in a. lifetirne, perhaps, one escapes the actual
confines of the flesh. Once in a lifetime, if one is lucky, cne so
merges \•lith sunlight and a.J.r and :r'lL.'1Y1ing water· that whole eons, the
ecns that the mountains &id deserts lmow 3 m:i.g..'lt pass in a sin.gle
<-lfter:::1oon without discomfort. The mLnd has su.Yik away into its
beginnings mnong old roots and the obscure tricklil1gs alld movings
that sttr inanimate things. Like the charmed fairy circle into
which a rrJ?.Jl once stepped, a'1ct t<,pon emergence learned that a wf:,oj_e
centLJ.t"Y has passed in a. single ni.ght, one can never quite define
4
this secret; but it has something to do, I am sure, v-Iith common
water. Its substance reaches everywhere; it touches the past a'1d
prepares the future; it moves 1..n1der the poles and wanders tt.d.nly
in the heights of' air. It can assume forms of exquisite perfection
in a sno-;.rflak::e, or strip the living to a single shining bone cast
up by the sea. 11 2
A certain amount of chance and accident is also accepted
in this method, sometimes even courted; for a photographer, like a
politician, tends to truze credit for anything worthy of praise tnBt
happens during their administration.
The viewer's eP.gagB'7lent w'i.th
these ilrages usually ir1volves a conscious interaction with the
photographer's sensibility.
The substantial distincitj_on, then,
is between treating the external world as a given, to be altered
only through photographic means (point of view, framing, printing,
etc. ) en route to the final :image, but rather as raw rraterial to be
itself JTl..anipulated as rru.ch as desired prior to the exposui"'e
of the negative and the
2•
resultir~
iiT.age ta_Ken captive.
L.;ren Eiseley, T'ne Immense J 01.L.YTiey, Random House, Inc • ,
New York, 1957, p. ll
J
_ABOUT THE PRINTS:
"Traditionally, prints have been viewed as multiple
. :L!'.::tges produced from a plate. The plate is an intermediary-~
a flat~ hard, rigid surface that contains the picture or message.
This i111age receives ink and the inked image is transferred to the
paper by pressure. T'ne process can be repeated many tixnes to
pr·oduce nearly exact copies.
For half a millennium tr..is definition remained valid, but
contemporary developments have stimulated a much more expansive
view of the meaning of printrnaldng. Today, a print is more likely
to be dei'ined as a two-or-three dimensi.ona1 image or form made by
a process or comb:L."18.tion of processes that rr..a.y ge repeated to
produce multiple copies or even unique pieces."j
Printmalcing was the natural investigation tr1at follmved
in my search for a continuum of visual esthetics.
otl12r, possible more tactile
sUl~faces
color th..at could be integrated with
and less
rr~
Looking for
ll~ited
ranges of
in1agery, led me first to
photosilksc:r•eeening and finally to photoetching, using as rna.llY as
siz plates.
Multiple plates involve problems of' registration
as well as raving to deal with all the other variables such as
methods of inkirig, d:r•ying t:L'lle and consequent stJTh1lcage and
stretching ot"' the paper.
I decided these would be U;Ylique prints as oppcsed to
"1'"'"-.
a l:LYfD..ted. ealvlOn.
I
"~Tar,ted
a r:v::tarnorphosis to occur l·vithin each,
Ti'lerefore, I decided to block or conceal parts of' the imc.ge and to
m?J-ce multiple images withi.Yl. each print.
This was accomplished by
IP.a..t{.ing each print a kind of game in wr.tich the pieces or
3.
·Thelma B. Newman, Tnnovative
New York, 19'17, p. i
Print~:eJci Il€;.'
Crovm Fublishers, Inc.,
6
compcnents were moved, changed or modified in some way.
mne
squa:r'es v-Titr..in a larger squaJ:,e were chosen to be the vehicle.
Potentially, there were thousands of numerical possibilities
witrxin this nine-unit square.
'lhe plates were sometimes
used in reversed order to achieve shifts in colors, and
some experiJnentation with metallic pigments in combination \'lith
the inks was tried.
Collage was also introduced to fu.r·ther
embrace the idea of changes or shifts.
Clearly, multiple perceptions consistent vlith each
other, buildir,g upon each other, or opposed to each other,
can be formed by a single viewer in the presence of a work which
poss.esses the formal organization to sustain interest.
No~o~r
arises the problem o.f how they B.J":'e fused into a unified
experience.
11
'Clostire' is the term the Gestalt psychologists use
to explain the tendency in all htur.an perception to seek
completeness of structure and meaning. . . . The perceptual energies
of a viewer are i:.l~ways organized to endow unstable forms with
stability-that is te> complete the.'TI, to bring about closure-.
because only then can his d.:_scomfort 8..'1d tension be dissipated. "4
4.
EJ.mund Burke Feldman, Varieties of Visual Experience,
Hctrry N. Abrams, Inc., PUblishers, NeW-Y'ork, p. 366·-
7
p '
CONCLUS~v~ PL~SE
In addition to virtuosity and
lS
a desired and
importar~
L~spiration,
continuity
element in the work of any artist. If
one idea grows out of another, each succeeding generation of ideas
can be depended upon to open new arenas to explore.
And each succeed-
ir.,g generation of work will r.ave a life of its ov-m independent
of wh..at went before it, .fresh and newly inspired, but all links
L~
the chai:1 of the whole> ever enlargL'lg and growing
~~vre.
:;
'
:i"·
Beginn...i11g vdth the captive images carefu_lly
p~anned a.~d
photogr>aphed, I have seen this PJ:?Cess occur, first with the
black a.."ld white prints, then the chemical manipulation to color,
then t:.:Jdng it another step into photoetching, but always majntaining
a continuity and opening doors to other avenues of expression.
8
PHOTOGRAPHS
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CAPTIVE # 43721
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CAPTIVE # 71450
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CAPTIVE # 34522
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CAPTIVE # 12611
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CAPTIVE # 11301
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CAPTIVE # 56776
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CAPTIVE # 48891
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CAPTIVE # 20404
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CAPTIVE # 38334
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CAPTIVE # 87659
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CAPTIVE # 43721
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CAPTIVE # 71450
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CAPTIVE # 34522
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CAPI'IVE # 126ll
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CAPI'IVE # 11301
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CAPI'IVE # 56776
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CAPriVE # 48891
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..
CAPI'IVE # 20404
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CAPTIVE # 38334
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CAPTIVE # 87659
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PRINTS
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ARTIST'S PROOF OF CAPTIVE·# 91234
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ARTIST'S PROOF OF CAPTIVE # 91235
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ARTIST'S PROOF OF CAPTIVE # 91236
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ARTIST'S PROOF OF CAPTIVE # 91237
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...
ARTIST ' S PROOF OF CAPTIVE # 91234
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ARTIST ' S PROOF OF CAPTIVE # 91235
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ARTIST ' S PROOF OF CAPTIVE # 91236
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•
•
ARTIST ' S PROOF OF CAPTIVE # 91237
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey, Random House., Inc., New York,
1957
EdmLmd Burke Fel.dman, Varieties of Visual D::per:ience, Hc:wi'y N., Abrams,
·Inc. , Publishers, New York -Ferdinand Hocller, · "The Mission of the Artisc", in· Eric PI"otter, ed. ,
Painters on Painting, fue University Library, Grosset & Dunlap,
Nev-1
York, 1963 ·-----·
Thelma R. Ne~vman, J.r.n.ovative
New York, 1977
·
Pi"intmald~,
Crmv-n Publishers, Inc.