Kerry's Gallery

[Kerry]

this one makes me curious...and I think if I saw it in a gallery I would come back to it again....why "Blood in the Water"? I see the red...so uniform and neat...not at all like blood would be in water...so I would think on it and try to feel it more...

I love abstraction because different people see different things in the painting. I like to encourage this and for that reason, I prefer not to give my own personal meaning to a painting. A friend once told me that when she looked at "Blood in the Water," she imagined she was in a plane flying over Sydney Harbour at night, with all its little bays and inlets, looking down at the lit-up city from high above. Another friend who didn't like it said, "Humph, blood in the water, that looks about right!" She explained her comment to me by saying that she thought it looked like what she regularly saw when she looked in the toilet bowl. Told ya, it's all open to your own interpretation!  

[southendmd]

I love abstraction because different people see different things in the painting. I like to encourage this and for that reason, I prefer not to give my own personal meaning to a painting. A friend once told me that when she looked at "Blood in the Water," she imagined she was in a plane flying over Sydney Harbour at night, with all its little bays and inlets, looking down at the lit-up city from high above. Another friend who didn't like it said, "Humph, blood in the water, that looks about right!" She explained her comment to me by saying that she thought it looked like what she regularly saw when she looked in the toilet bowl. Told ya, it's all open to your own interpretation!  

Isn't that why some artists prefer not to "name" their work?  So as not to influence the viewer. 

[injest]

Isn't that why some artists prefer not to "name" their work?  So as not to influence the viewer. 

I hate when artists don't name stuff! I need a starting point...

[southendmd]

I hate when artists don't name stuff! I need a starting point...

I know:  "Untitled #231" doesn't do much for me!

"Blood in the Water" is so much more evocative. 

[Kerry]

Isn't that why some artists prefer not to "name" their work?  So as not to influence the viewer. 

Exactly right, Paul. Alas, I'm not courageous enough to do that. I recently finished an extremely elementary, Mondrian inspired abstract and was tempted to call it something like "Composition 9A," but I chickened-out and called it "Seaside Folly" instead!      

[injest]

I know:  "Untitled #231" doesn't do much for me!

"Blood in the Water" is so much more evocative. 

to me, not naming it makes me think the artist didnt' really put any thought into it. Like he just threw some paint together and didn't care...

I remember once going to an exhibit and seeing this HUGE square hanging on the wall, done in red. One shade of red...no texture nothing..and what was it named? "Red"

 

at the same exhibit there was a room size piece....thousands of clay figurines in shades of beiges and oranges with crude mouths and eyes...I sat and stared for a long time...it was like beings rising from the earth...filled me with a strange longing, anticipation...I LIKED how it 'felt'..

on the other hand I was walking down a corridor there and there was a painting on the wall that SCARED me...I dont' know what it was about it..but I literally was scared, I didn't want to look at it, I didn't even want to be on the same aisle as it.

that to me is what abstract art should be about...feelings...

[southendmd]

Exactly right, Paul. Alas, I'm not courageous enough to do that. I recently finished an extremely elementary, Mondrian inspired abstract and was tempted to call it something like "Composition 9A," but I chickened-out and called it "Seaside Folly" instead!      

Sure enough.  I share your interest in Mondrian.  In fact, I saw a marvelous retrospective of his work some years ago, and if I remember correctly, he actually titled his works with "real" names--"Broadway Boogie-Woogie" comes to mind.  The viewer feels the rhythm of the city, for example.

[southendmd]

I found it!  "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" is more interesting than "Study in Primary Colors 17".

[Kerry]

I know:  "Untitled #231" doesn't do much for me!

"Blood in the Water" is so much more evocative. 

You'd probably be very disappointed if I told you what "Blood in the Water" is really about. Sometimes, when utilising the technique used in BITW, I randomly apply the paint to the canvas in anticipation of a spontaneously serendipitous result. It's not possible to do that with such abstracts as "Isis in the Midnight Brightly," which requires as many preliminary sketches and careful execution as is needed for the detailed completion of a portrait. To be perfectly honest with you (and I'm going to break my own rule here), I painted BITW years ago after grisly reports emerged in the media about someone being eaten by a crocodile in far northern Australia. As simple and mundane as that. It is sometimes better to allow your own imagination and the romance of the paint to do the interpreting, without allowing cold hard banal reality to get in the way.

[Kerry]

I found it!  "Broadway Boogie-Woogie" is more interesting than "Study in Primary Colors 17".

I agree! I  looooooooove Mondrian!