{"id":11654,"date":"2019-01-07T10:27:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T14:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/?p=11654"},"modified":"2019-10-21T14:01:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T18:01:56","slug":"new-year-new-art-new-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/archives\/11654","title":{"rendered":"new year, new art, new approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe most interesting paradox of creativity: in order to be habitually creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative, but good planning alone won\u2019t make your efforts successful; it\u2019s only after you let go of your plans that you can breathe life into your efforts.\u201d
\n\u2014 Twyla Tharp<\/p>\n

\u201cYou take what you know, you take things you are comfortable with, and you throw them into a situation of new things, of things you are uncomfortable with, and, all of a sudden, new connections happen. And then your goal as a creative must be: of having the skill to carry it home without breaking it.\u201d
\n\u2014 Christoph Niemann
\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brandon Long<\/a> is making a name for himself as an assemblage artist<\/a> in Kentucky. He manages to juggle this with being a blogger, an active volunteer, and his full-time role as an outstanding family man. On top of that, he holds down a challenging, \u201cmulti-hat\u201d position at our local Community Arts Center<\/a>. This past autumn, his request to exhibit at their annual winter invitational arrived like clockwork: show the public an entirely new work, no jury evaluation, just put something at the leading edge of your creativity on display. There can\u2019t be a single regional artist receiving that call who doesn\u2019t value it as a rare opportunity.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d been thinking for much of last year about another immersion into larger works \u2014 not always a comfort zone for a self-described \u201cminiaturist.\u201d Add to that several months of recovery from a knee injury which limited my standing time. I reckoned I was overdue for a boost in the scale of my studio work. When it came time to plunge in, I realized it also was the perfect chance to reassess my current methodology. I wanted to explore a way of developing an abstract composition that was different for me. Could I combine and balance both a rational and non-rational process? By now, I had more than a decent foundation in each, but had never fused them in as mindful a manner as I considered possible. <\/a>It didn\u2019t turn out to be complicated at all, and yet it was a new approach for me, after more than twelve years as a dedicated collage practitioner.<\/p>\n

Deciding to make three works at horizontal, vertical, and square proportions, I began with thumbnail concepts in my journal, moving from tiny doodles, to color sketches, and from there to rough collage miniatures. The activity was deliberate, but I tried to hold it at an intuitive level. After that, I moved to the typical task of preparing the \u201cstretchers,\u201d although nothing would be fabricated from scratch. I found a nearly fifty-year-old, unpainted canvas in remarkable shape. I stretched Pellon\u00ae fabric over a discarded picture frame. I paid almost nothing at a flea market for a castoff \u201cstudent-esque\u201d painting that needed some reinforcement, its canvas re-stretched, plus lots of primer. <\/a>After sorting categories of available paper scrap into flat boxes, I was ready to explode into routine sessions of Merz<\/em><\/a> assembly, with an occasional reference back to my preliminary ideas. When probing to the heart of intuition like this, a collage artist stumbles upon strange dynamics. For instance, there are times when you\u2019ll ignore an emotion that says \u201cthis doesn\u2019t belong,\u201d only to press on and discover that it totally \u201cworks\u201d with the next layering of ingredients. Perhaps this is more characteristic of collage maximalism than collage minimalism. I would accept that fully, but it\u2019s fascinating to remain aware of the \u201cjoust\u201d between whether to trust feelings or trust pure impulse, and to discern the difference. Finally, there came a point when I introduced the hard evaluation of a visual critique, before finishing with intentional refinements \u2014 and even that final stage allows for spontaneity.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not always easy to know when a piece is done, and maybe it never really is<\/a>. Eventually, an artist has to claim victory and sign the damn thing. I ended up delivering two works to the Center for the \u201cNew Year New Art\u201d show, and let Brandon pick one that fit best. It was the square, the one I called Harmonic Squall<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Please give these four details your scrutiny. Let me know what you think, and, if you find yourself in the area, attend our opening reception this Friday evening. It\u2019s always the first good party after New Year\u2019s Eve!
\n <\/p>\n

\"Harmonic<\/a>     \"Harmonic<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Harmonic<\/a>     \"Harmonic<\/a><\/p>\n

four
\ndetails
\nfrom
\nHarmonic
\nSquall<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"Harmonic<\/a><\/p>\n

Harmonic Squall<\/em><\/strong>
\ncollage on recycled canvas by J A Dixon
\n26 x 26 inches
\navailable for purchase
\n 
\nPurchase this artwork.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe most interesting paradox of creativity: in order to be habitually creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative, but good planning alone won\u2019t make your efforts successful; it\u2019s only after you let go of your plans that you can breathe life into your efforts.\u201d \u2014 Twyla Tharp \u201cYou take what you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,273,30,171,412,1,157,253,244,8,22,18,111,78,63,35,172,56,9],"tags":[417,414,90,308,416,415,310,413],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11654"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11654"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12899,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11654\/revisions\/12899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/jadixon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}