|
|
|
|
|
|||
I was a senior in college when I had a little epiphany that struck me as a unique subject for a painting. The idea is that no matter how detailed our understanding of the universe becomes, no matter what belief system you subscribe to, no matter how you break the nature of existence down, there is no more fundamental unit of existence than existence itself; something, anything, be it object, action or idea, either isn't or it is. Okay, so it's not exactly rocket philosophy, but it was still a fun realization, and provided an interesting challenge in the artistic expression of the concept. After several sketches I eventually decided that the simplest way to illustrate it, and one that wouldn't visually suggest another theme in anyone's mind, would be to create two white boxes, one empty ("isn't") and one with a black box inside it ("is"). So my painting, which was entitled "Untitled (Isn't/Is)," was composed of the following: two all-white, 5-foot by 5-foot canvases mounted side by side, with a 2-foot black square in the middle of the right-hand canvas. Probably didn't take me more than an hour altogether to construct it, an effort that was echoed by my painting teacher, who asked if it was a finished piece when I brought it out for critique. He and the class actually liked the painting once I had explained it, not that it was going to be winning any awards. Ultimately those canvases got reused for other purposes, but I was always glad I made that concept a reality. For a digital simulation of the painting, click here >
|