William Park mentioned that he had one of those epiphany moments in his 40s where he felt abject depression thinking that he might grow old and never be the artist he would like to be. He said he began painting that day and hasn't stopped. He didn't take the time to get formal training but felt that the more he could paint, the better it would get. He's now in his 60s and his method surely worked. You can see the mastery of each brush stroke, scumble and abstraction that occurs as an aside to his main subject. He also advised students that the importance of "knowing when to stop" when working on art is a big mis-nomer. It is often when he has pushed beyond the point of no return where he feels he learns the most.
Kristin described herself as more of a constructionist, dealing with concepts and making the artwork in whatever way possible to get at what she wants to express. She confessed to learning things the hard way. When her sewing on a piece involved getting up and moving around to the other side and then back to the other side over and over because her arm wasn't long enough to reach where her needle and thread had to go, it indicated a maximum "arm's length" width of a piece. She also talked about Noticing! One work is a lovely "backside" view stretcher bars and the canvas stretched on the other side, not facing out but facing against the wall, with a maze of other sticks and marks that work just right. She kept noticing how nice pieces looked on the back and went with it.
My contribution: I tagged onto what both of them said and pointed out some examples of pushing beyond finished in some of the new wire/paper ceramic sculptures I'm showing there.
The students asked thoughtful questions and it was a treat being with all the artwork again.
The LBCC Invitational Show at the North Santiam Gallery is up through the end of February.
