Reshaping and Recovering: Painting as an Existential Meditation
Reshaping and Recovering: Painting as an Existential Meditation
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Date
2004-05-12
Authors
Reynolds, Susan
Advisor
Kehoe, Patrice
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Abstract
My paintings evolve from a series of re-configurations. They develop through a system of painting and repainting, shaping and reshaping and coding and decoding.
This system reflects not only my intention to develop meaningful, compelling work.
My painting process reflects my determination to find purpose in life in general.
The spirit of the work is childlike. It is intentionally simple in its approach to
abstraction. Children's toys and science textbook imagery are appropriated and
playfully transformed into formal elements. A construct of layers and fragments, the
work functions like a puzzle. It is my existence that I seek to understand, to piece
together, and it is by painting and shaping the canvas that I make my findings visible.
Throughout this thesis, I intend to explain how my painting process mirrors
the spiritual introspection I engage in both inside and outside the creative act. In
order to shed light on how I make this connection, I describe the methods, the
influences and the references that form and inform my paintings.