The 1987-1988 painting "Moiré Study I" shown below is something I would like to write a bit about here. One interesting aspect of this painting was not discovered until several years later, following it's completion.
Some twenty years later, in 2007, I experimented with painting with less focus on structure -- which I often felt as "constricting" or (quite literally) "locked" and defined by set geometric boundaries. This is not to say I disliked the predictable "structure" of forms -- often with color and tinting and/or shading. Rather it was that I instead wanted to incorporate ideas which acted as a counter-point to STRUCTURE itself -- namely CHAOS.
The painting below represents my first attempted shift to include a more EXPRESSIVE and dynamic "line" which quite literally randomly ran though a very exacting pattern of various structures. The title for the painting below is -- and you might expect -- "Structure and Chaos."
On close observation one can see there is perfect symmetry in 8 diagonal bands (beginning with the two slightly dissimilar tinted red squares in the opposite corners) moving sequentially toward the center from band to band - yellow, then green, etc. So far, this design continues to be described in terms of its "pleasing to the eye" structures. Additionally, there is another pattern (not readily visible) involving five thin 1-inch bands which run perpendicular to the previously described set of diagonal bands
Before color was added to the pencil-lined drawing on this 32 x 40 inch illustration board, I added ONE scribbled line using a pencil taped securely to the end of a long wooden dowel. While listening to some favorite symphonic music by Phillip Glass, I waited for a particular section to "answer" a previous section's built up. At that point, I quickly (without much thought or reluctance, ADDED the squiggled line to the whole piece. It was continuous and rapid! From this point on, it was simply a matter of (yes) numbering the various areas defined by the chaotic scribble throughout the more structured piece. Below, we can see a timeline for the section I am referring to in the symphony. For interested readers, I would suggest trying to open BOTH the YouTube music AND the text I've written below in separate windows side-by-side so you can "follow along" to the point of the added expressive curves. It's a bit tricky, but also possible to do this!
0:00 - A beautiful
symphony begins.
0:56 - Low piano music
"enters."
1:24 - High piano notes
join in.
1:51 - Very beautiful
violin symphony begins.
2:20 - Beautiful harp
music begins.
2:47 - Beautiful
sub-melody piano solo begins.
3:05 - Symphonic
"traveling" music begins and repeats once with variations.
3:37 - Building begins and
intensifies. Powerful!
4:05 - Key Change!
Building continues and repeats once.
4:42 to 5:20 - Beauty!
Release! (followed by beautiful, slowing, descending notes). The painting begins!
5:22 - Marching.
Repetition begins.
5:49 - Unexpected raised
chord and / or key change. Repeats.
6:26 - Building again with
dissonance. Descending. Powerful.
6:45 - Descends again.
Graceful, beautiful with some last, high notes
7:06 - Ending nears. Piano
notes at closing. Noticeably delayed single last note of piano: twice.
7:43 - The end.
I titled my post "The Genesis of Structure" today because "Moiré Study I (the first- mentioned painting) was one of the very first examples of my more structural interests in design. There was another structural influence in my work in these early (larger) painting days. An artist -- named Victor Vasareli intrigued me particularly because his work was very structural. One example of his large canvas paintings (in oils) is shown below. In these days, I was a bit obsessed with this artist. The questions of how he was able to produce such pieces fascinated me.
It was not until years later when I began to incorporate more "chaos" into otherwise geometric and structural works. Another somewhat psychological reason for later additions of curves and flowing lines with accompanying tinting, related to my own life itself. I HAVE been drawn to the "safety" of recognizable forms, like squares, triangles and circles. I've related to them as being"organizational" forms with logical and predictable boundaries. Often they would "fit" perfectly and be seen as parts of a logical and predictable whole. Life (for me) if painted with these structured symbols SEEMED pleasing to look at -- and still do! Yes, over time, I began to take into consideration all the random and unpredictable influences in our lives. The Genesis of Structure evolved into both Structure AND Chaos in symbolic form. It was my desire to express the free-flowing designs to include both. Life is not "linear!" It is a collection of changes -- sometimes abrupt and often beautiful if viewed in light of our own destiny into the unknown.
