I started a painting on February 13 2012 but I couldn't figure out what I wanted to make because I had no inspiration. I wanted to do something innovative and edgy but I had not decided in my head what would that look like. So the canvas lay slathered with a bright pink background waiting for my hands to complete its meaning. Day after day as I sat in class listening to my professors I tried to find inspiration in their words, as well as the reading assignments and as my life has been confined to room 196 at San Francisco State for 80% of the week I sit on the left side of the room in the left hand desk, and stare at the light fixture that so often has entranced me with its sleek design that creates such an alluring pattern on the wall. There I sit week after week searching in the corners for my inspiration and yet I found nothing. When I least expected it to happen bam it happened like magic I was inspired, but not in room 196 as I expected it to happen I was inspired to add hair to the canvas in my Professional Practice class. I was captivated by the guest speaker Victoria May as she talked about utilizing the earth to die her garments different colors and also adhering to the possibility that the earth would not do as she expected and still accepting those mistakes as a positive. I also was interested in the way she used symbols and colors to represent other things as in using red yarn to represent blood in her installation called “Collateral Damage” commemorating the fallen solder’s. Also Soldiers have to deal with the pros and cons of such a vital material. In her piece titled “BDU Battle Death Uniform” she used the organza material to symbolically illustrate how solders have to wear this heavy itchy material to keep warm, but on the down side it can’t get wet because it is not soluble in water. In listening to her talk while presenting her work, like a light bulb going off in my head, I got the idea to sew actual hair on to the canvas creating a 3D element. In doing this I will mix my love for painting with my ability to create various hairstyles and mount the two together on one canvas. In the very act of listening to her I could visualize every element of the process as far as how I would sew a Styrofoam ball on to the canvas and begin the process of weaving synthetic hair right on to a net securely fastened to the crescent ball that will hold the weaved hair on to the ball which is holding all the other elements to the canvas. Later it became to clear to me that I wanted the paint to be 2 dimensional and as I had seen Jim Dine work “Blue Clamp” I realized that I wanted to have thick slabs a paint protrude from my canvas as well. I also realized that I need inspiration to create work when before I didn’t, and partly this is true because I don’t keep busy creating because it’s as if I lost the drive and it took my Professional Practice class to help me understand that I must and should always be aspiring to make something or I won’t desire to make anything.
Collateral Damage
Blue Clamp
