1/30/14
This journal entry consists of linguistic brainstorming for titles of my new drawings. Typically, when I am titling my work I will sit down with it and write out almost small stories about my feelings and reactions to the finished piece. Sometimes this journaling will involve memory of the experience of making it, or purely a secondary reaction to its finished appearance.
“Counterintuitive”
This is one of my favorite drawings of the bunch. It must be the counter-intuitive quality of weight/sense of gravity in the application of pigment. It seems the most mysterious, the most hidden and concealed from the viewer. It’s tangibly gross in its texture. Clumps of raw sienna and dirt browns combine seamlessly with brilliant ultramarine blues. There is scratching, ripping, crusting, crumbling, cracking, blending scribbles of language across the surface.
“Dark Humor”
This piece has a sharp and definitive darkness to it. The weight of that thick impenetrable darkness looms off-center, asymmetrically mounted on the surface of a pure white plane of space.
“A Brisk Rhythm Conceals All Sadness”
The motion in this piece is fast, eye-catching. It has a brisk rhythm in the strokes of color and line that adorn its surface. The energy of motion, the swiping of action. Though at moments the pigment is weighty in its application, the strokes contain enough energy to negate any feeling of gravity, propelling this image into the space, making it airy and free of the boundaries of gravity.
“On Its Way To Being Consumed”
The subtleties of this surface are spectacular. Hues and tons of white blend and bleach the surrounding colors. Thought the center of blue is bold, it is difficult to tell whether it is a focal point or whether it is an image of its way to be consumed by the paling qualities of the white, milky haze.
“Grinding My Teeth”
So grounded, yet with such a feeling of action and movement. The variations of blending tie all colors together into a harmonious palette. The subtle shifts amongst the bold lines give complexity to the image. This surface contains a wealth of textural information.
“Can’t Stop Obsessing Over Those Closed Shapes”
Bold, frantic energy. Angry motions obsessing over closed shapes. These marks are then altered with a soaked over layer of cloudy, watery white ash. The boldness of the central red make speaks a power held not only through color, but also through viscosity. And yet in some ways the circular motion directly next to it, in orange, evens out the balance, even though it is a shallow mark on the surface.
“Exquisite History”
Another of my favorites! The palette is daring and both popping as well as harmonious. It’s interesting to see colors that are drab and faded pinks and brown blending together with brilliant blues and magenta’s. The depth of layering in this image is mysterious, exquisite. Though the pigment, a history of graphite pencil lines are silently revealed; an excavation of prior thoughts and marks. The rawness of those lines in conjunction with the further applied and manipulated paint make an atmospheric image.
“That Scratch of Aggression”
Bold color is my first thought. Bold shape. The blending creates a feeling of melting, a consistency of butter. The layers are smoothed and spread over each other, blending: an inevitable treat for the eye. The scratching aggression is apparent on this surface – anything but silent. There is a fresh contemporary feeling to the palette. Luscious, closed shapes.
“Nauseating”
The color is ecstatic! Brilliant, eye-catching and nearly nauseating yellow. Yet somehow the tones of gray and black assist in hushing down the yellow to an experiential point. The shape is heavy and looming and appears to be held up by the gray mass of swooping motions. Line upholds the gravity of shape. Scratching reveals a darker shape concealed beneath the warming yellow.
“Just A Slight Abrasion”
Toning down on colors, this image relishes on soft earth tones, with occasional pops of color. It is a quiet image in palette, and yet its linear strokes are anything but silent. The surface is an apparent struggle, as pigment and pastel fight for clarity and viscosity. Though the surface is rather flat, the smudging of pastel and scraping of paint entices the viewer in for a closer look.
Kal L. Cloonan 