If you aren't a fan of abstract art, I feel you, I actually do, because I have been a visual artist since I could hold a crayon, and it always eluded me, abstract art. I of course had sparks of moments with works by Dali or Picasso, close to abstract, but still including recognizable figures in most cases. Jackson Pollack I now get, but am not a huge fan as yet.
I say as yet because I came to Rothko later in life, late in mine, any way, at age 48 (I am now 54), when I went with my partner at the time to see a show of this very period of his work which ended in the multiforms, at the Portland Art Museum in 2013 or 2014 (? have to check...). Beyond being blown away by the work in general, at the multiforms things changed - the very air changed. The quiet somehow became more quiet, which I am certain was a relief to my girlfriend, as I am a talker, and I learned that day that at museums, she is to be left on her own, and she needs silence, which I now completely get, like how I now get Rothko and the multiforms.
We walked into the room of the large multiform paintings at the end of the exhibit. I walked right up to one. At the time, I had no knowledge then that Rothko felt it best to view these large paintings was to stand fairly close to them, 4 feet or so. I was just pulled in, it was intuitive. Because when you see them first from a distance, as you approach them, the colors don't quite add up to what you are seeing in normal paintings. They are dense and complicated, and your brain must know what they are composed of, so you wander closer. And you feel emotions bubble up inside you, slowly or quickly, depending on the piece. He stripped everything that moves a person in a painting down to pure emotion.
My girlfriend sat on a bench and quietly cried. I would later come to learn that this is common when people view Rothko's work, he himself has talked about it; "I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions - tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on - and the fact that lots of people break down and cry when confronted with my pictures shows that I communicate those basic human emotions… The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them. And if you, as you say, are moved only by their color relationships, then you miss the point!” Which is interesting that the color relationships did draw me into the emotions, which took over from there. Different for everyone, I suppose, in some ways. I am one who is affected mentally and psychologically by color - which ties it to emotions for me, so it makes sense.
What is interesting is that this girlfriend at that time in my life, the one who really introduced me to Rothko in a way I never had even before seeing the work in person, didn't consider herself a visual artist (she was/is a lawyer) but she was (she also didn't consider herself a musician but can sing, or a poet but writes nice verse - I don't tend to date artists, but closet artists, or in this case, subconscious artists - I don't seek them, they just end up being that kind of person, which makes sense) and once, we did art together at the same time, which I love doing with anyone at all, it's always magical, and she whipped out this beautiful, balanced, expressive abstract painting. Bam. I was baffled.
My art is detailed, and based almost always on reality, or at least the vast majority was until recently, very recently. See some of my work here on blogger: https://wayneflowerart.blogspot.com/
I draw some weird shit sometimes, but it is almost always figurative in some way. Either way, I feel I am a decent artist. But when I took painting classes, I always ended up drawing with my paint brushes. It was frustrating. And when I tried to do anything abstract, painting, drawing, whatever, I just couldn't get there, like a language that eluded me. The closest I ever came to decent, balanced abstract work was the backgrounds I did in my heavy collage period during the mid '80s. So for a time, I gave up on trying.
I recently began cranking out artwork at a frenzied pace, I was obviously using art as a therapeutic method to cope with the stress of world events, a staple throughout my life. And it worked. And the crazy thing was, pretty much everything I produced is not bad (considering these are just sketeches, mind you). This is unusual for any artist. Bob Dylan talks about the period of his music (which happens to be my favorite of his) between Bringing it All Back Home and Blonde on Blonde (time frame from memory, basically the mid to late '60s stuff) that he doesn't know where his ideas for lyrics came from, it didn't feel like they were from him, he said it was like he was channeling it from somewhere...else. And that is exactly how I feel about this prolific, therapeutic stretch of art creation, which has now greatly slowed.
Today I share only the abstract stuff (and will later share the non-abstract sketches from this prolific period), abstract expression being what I had begun a journey to discover just prior to the pandemic and sheltering in place, and I was making small inroads. This burst of art and reading the Rothko book unlocked the rest, and I am excited to see where it leads me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is my favorite Rothko piece from the '40s period I am referencing, called Rights of Lilith - Much of this period was influenced by mythology and its symbols, and the sea.
The following images are sketches from a sketch book, 8 inches x 5.5 inches, using different colors of Sharpie pens, fine ballpoint pens and pencils. All artwork by Wayne R. Flower
Prints of other work available (I have a PayPal account - Support artists!): https://wayneflowerart.blogspot.com/
God Playing Dice - Title inspired by Einstein's famous response to the premise of Quantum Physics and probabilities making up everything; "God doesn't play dice."
Much of the work has been very microbial, for lack of a better term, and during a virus pandemic, it makes sense. Other themes that subconsciously emerged were reproductive imagery, like sperm and egg or sexual organs, and some menstrual imagery (more of that in later entries). How it played out each time was that I would draw these themes subconsciously at first and then see a clear idea or image emerge, then I would roll with that and embellish it, as I went.
I like the colors in this. I was soaking paper towel and then wiping on the paper. I had a silver Sharpie, which was fun.
After the fact I labeled these as different 'inner galaxies', for instance the frantic one in the right corner is my 'Inner Chaos Galaxy' and in the center is my 'Inner Creative Spirit Galaxy.'
One of my favorites as it was a bit of a breakthrough for mixing colors, shapes and movement. The silver, gold and bronze Sharpies are fun to work with and slightly metallic looking.
As I have been working at home a lot, it seems I subliminally drew a computer monitor here! It kind of freaked me out when I realized that.
My first real breakthrough - But note that there still had to be lines. Slowly letting go of lines... - - - ~ ~ ...
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