Painting Transplants: Processes in Healing

Abstract

My thesis work consists of a body of diptych paintings on paper. Conceptually, I seek to investigate how bodies, as boundaried forms, experience the boundarylessness of energies and moods. Through a three-step procedural framework, these pieces investigate ideas of shared energy, boundaries of the physical body and holistic healing. The first step consists of pouring ink or watered down paint onto paper. The second step includes acrylic paint, ink, colored pencil and oil pastel to create various patterns and layers as a reaction to the initial spill. The third step is made up of what I am calling ‘transplants.’ In this final step, I cut shapes out of the paper, swap them with the corresponding piece in the diptych and suture them in place with embroidery thread, disrupting and shifting the composition. I use transplants as a metaphor for how we intentionally rearrange our perceptions of events in order to integrate experiences and grow towards health. The emergence of a process with somewhat predetermined steps has allowed me to be present and focus on visual concerns while in the studio. This work has emerged out of abstract expressionism. Specifically, the work of Helen Frankenthaller is discussed, as well as contemporary artists Alexandra Grant and Carrie Moyer.

Description

Keywords

painting abstract art, abstract painting

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