The Metamorphosing of A Save
This article will take you into the thought processes of an artist who allowed ideas to develop and change from a
point to a line and moved toward their final visual emergence as individual paintings of a Save.
Most artists can identify with this transformation of ideas but usually the morphing activity occurs so rapidly the
actual procedure becomes insignificant. With the Save paintings a time warp occurred which greatly reduced this
process because I was totally engrossed in what I did NOT want to paint in deep contrast to the standard positive
approach of painting something you would LIKE to paint.
A sub-title could be ”How Not to Paint a Vase” but that title seems way too pedestrian so it stays now as it is.
The starting point of this mental adventure starts exactly there.…at the Point.
In his book, ”Point and Llne to Plane” Wassily Kandinsky gives detailed examinations of these unseen forces or
voices present within any painting or drawing. He calls them the three primary
Planes that are the basis for the construction of a painting. He explains the beginning of any drawing is when the
pencil first touches the paper and makes its mark. In the Visual Arts that point can remain in its initial round
shape, have endless sizes and colors which lend themselves to many uses, especially in design work. It can also
force itself to form many irregular shapes while still maintaining its point status. For an artist the most important
characteristic of the point is when it fulfills its endless potential and extends itself outward to form what is termed a
Line.
On my sketch book page I first created a point and then let it flow outward and upward into a line with a pleasant
contour that I enjoyed following. I drew another identical line and placed the curving lines in opposing positions
facing each other but not touching. As usual when this proximity occurs the mind will begin to merge them
together and the lines will appear to take the form of a shape. This time the mental shape looked like a vase.
Being an abstract artist I certainly didn’t want to form or draw a vase with those gentle flowing lines. They needed
to have the freedom to present themselves as individual lines and not be used to have a finite concrete objective
existence.
How could I enjoy the lines and not have them objectify a vase?
As I began to ponder what makes a vase a vase I countered each vaselike attribute making sure that it was not
represented.
First a vase is a vessel with an opening at its top where things can be placed inside. To stop that concept I drew a
line across the top of the two vertical lines.
Because the bottom of a vase is closed and flat it can stand alone and hold liquids and objects. So this
visualization was stopped by drawing a lower line between the two vertical ones to make it appear that any
vaselike perception would be of instability and could not give the impression of being able support a vaselike
form.
A vase is three demential. This thought was negated by making an empty place or opening in the middle of the
four lines that would establish this as a flat space and not round.
Then the lonely horizontal line at the top asked to have something put on top of it.
Now each Save has its own activity happening on its top horizontal line.
To hold the four lines together so the painting could appear as one whole non-vaselike shape I painted different
colors in between the four linear boundaries.
What was I to name this arrangement of lines? In deference to the continuous attention I had given to a vase I
decided that word should be represented but not as a vase since this drawing really was not of a vase. Using the
letters in the word VASE I named each drawing a SAVE distinguished by it color.
Here are two Saves. All five are in my gallery.
A Mobile Line
I was asked to accompany such a line for a visit to an art
museum where he had been included within different paintings
for many years before the museum closed. This line had the
ability to extended itself so far beyond its point that it could now
enjoy its freedom through its own unrestricted movements.
As soon as we arrived at the museum he looked down the
large gallery that had been so familiar. When he crossed over
himself he formed a shape. In this shape he caught many
memories of colors and events from the past. Then he
wandered to the corner where a sculpture once stood. He
again crossed over himself and formed almost the same shape
and color his favorite sculpture had represented.
After a while he realized it was time to be moving along and left the museum through a window opening. He
hesitated several times but finally turned around for one last look and formed another shape that was full of
clearer and more detailed memories, Not being one to linger he then happily took off by himself for more
adventures.
These paintings are hanging In my gallery.
To view them and get more information click here.