Safran

de Niverville 1 Barbara Safran de Niverville Peter Rostovsky, Faculty Advisor 1 December, 2012 Discoveries: Second Semester Summary During my second semester at the Art Institute of Boston, I have explored my methodology, my materials and my research to a much greater degree than ever before, producing a variety of projects which are each unique. As I reach the end of the semester, I have identified several concepts that will guide and animate the future progress of my work. One of my goals has been to simplify my projects and to open them to multiple interpretations. I have found that I can be successful at creating work that combines elements of abstraction with figuration. Suggestion is more effective than illustration in achieving the kind of response to my work that I would like to engender. In my essays and studio projects, I have also grappled with the complexity of humanitys relationships with the natural environment. Towards the end of the semester, I have rediscovered several concepts of Japanese aesthetics, which will enhance the fusion of my research and my studio work. At the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston in January, I studied Charlene von Heyls series of black and white sketches, which seemed to be preparatory exercises for her stunning abstract paintings. Modeling von Heyls approach in my studio, I began a series of ten sketches, drawing shapes inspired by plants in black, white and monotones on watercolor paper. Although experimenting has always helped my work, my mentor commented that the final drawings seemed very arbitrary. The flatness of the images and their lack of light presented other difficulties. These issues in my work had already been brought up during the critiques of my second residency, so I resolved to address them in further drawings and paintings. I chose to work on paper and canvas in order to utilize their surface textures as well as their adaptability for shipping. I began to work in larger formats, using acrylic inks and transparent washes on paper. I soon discovered with Intrusion (30 x 22) that I needed to have a clear idea of the image I was beginning or I would lose the spontaneity of the paint by overworking it. I struggled with the visual of my concept for Intrusion because I had not fully integrated it into the image in preparatory sketches. The value of the project has been the experience rather than the resulting artwork. Leavings (30 x 22 acrylic on paper) was a much more successful work in terms of its concept, its execution and the final result. With this piece, I had a strong visual idea to begin with and therefore I avoided overworking it. The acrylic inks adhered to the paper and maintained their spontaneity as more washes were added; the pictorial elements contrasted and complimented each other. I moved on to larger paintings on canvas, beginning with an approach similar to that of Leavings. I stained the Abundance canvas (36 x 48) with acrylic inks and painted a huge yellow blossom inspired by invasive plants in my garden. I covered this very literal image with drips and began to infuse more chance and spontaneity into the piece. Once again, my tendency to overdo an effect became apparent and I subdued some areas to create more depth and light,

Safran de Niverville 2 while abstracting the blossom somewhat. This approach led me to Pods (36 x 48), which also began as a literal sketch and later benefited from the addition of drips and splatters. While using these techniques, I referred often to reproductions of paintings and drawings by Jennifer Bartlett, Peter Doig and Pat Steir. I also looked at work by Luc Tuymans, Sigmar Polke and Tim Hawkinson. Before beginning my current painting A Weed is a Treasure (72 x 40 acrylic and oil on canvas), I created an irregular texture on the substrate surface with modeling paste. Using the latest of four sketches based on weeds growing around abandoned metal objects, I used a rag, a calligraphy brush, and two oil sticks to develop the image. Working this large allowed me to use my entire arm and to view the whole effect while standing back. My objective with this work has been to enhance the sketchy mark-making and rough textures of the surface while maintaining their suggestive qualities. In terms of technique, I have found the rag as a mark-making tool to be very useful in eliminating extraneous elements. In addition, the limited color scheme of dark grays and browns, with small amounts of blue and black, has allowed me to concentrate on the pursuit of the imperfect and unfinished. There has been a concern voiced during my critiques at AIB and by my mentor this semester about the color relationships in my work. I am now convinced that working with oil sticks and oil paints will enable me to create greater depth and subtlety in my projects. Although I enjoy the convenience of the acrylic paints, and I have experimented with many different acrylic mediums and techniques, I have become frustrated by their flatness and opacity. I will continue to use acrylics to establish initial tonal and color areas of a project, then, switch to oils for its further development. Plywood, used as an art material, reveals its essential, fibrous qualities within a highly processed and industrial format. It can be viewed as an allusion to humanitys attempts to control and shape the natural environment. Curves developed in my sketchbook from the notion of humanitys attempt to contain the vitality of vegetation. After several variations in the sketchbook, the project became a three-panel low relief in carved and sanded plywood. I planned the work using nuts and bolts as connectors to facilitate shipping the work in separate pieces and assembling it later on site, requiring experimentation in order to arrive at the final project. I had lost the material quality of the wood under several layers of acrylic paint, so I decided to erode the paint with coarse sandpaper. I have found this strategy to be successful in improving Curves. At the same time, I collected scraps of rotted wood, tree bark and rejected pieces of torn lumber, which I have arranged in different combinations as experimental bas-reliefs. My most recent plywood project in progress, Gyro, combines painting, bas-relief and carving.1 Throughout the semester, research for my essays has continued to influence the content of my studio projects. My strong interest in plants and the natural environment has led me to investigate the works and writings of Robert Smithson. I have found his ideas regarding natural 1 View my blog at www.safranundercurrents.blogspot.ca for photos and discussions of all of my studio work this semester as well as links to my essays.

Safran de Niverville 3 processes and entropy, in particular, to be helpful in focusing the theoretical direction of my work. Contemplating the erosion of inorganic materials outdoors and the cyclical aspects of plant life has also helped me to redefine my methodology. I have reflected upon the interplay between technology and the natural environment as I considered Ann Haraways essay The Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and SocialistFeminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Her provocative text points out the complex social and cultural implications of our civilizations dependency on electronic technology. In combination with my essay on entropy, I began to look at rusted scrap metal and the growth of invasive plants as representative of humanitys industrial production seen against the vitality of vegetation. Although the scrap heap has only been hinted at in A Weed is a Treasure, this concept was the initial idea behind the painting, and one that I may develop further in other projects. My investigation of entropy uncovered what seemed to be a contradiction in simplified physics: the notion of a completely ordered, closed and static system containing a maximum of energy for its own degeneration into disorder. Thus, order and disorder exist together in the same entity, a paradox related to Asian concepts of wholeness. A rediscovery of several Japanese aesthetic principles has refreshed my approach to studio practice. I now realize that striving towards the simple, wabi (the aesthetic of economy and poverty in the Japanese Tea Ceremony), sabi (lonely beauty in haiku poetry) and yoj (the emotional aftertaste in poetry) (Saito), will guide me in simplifying my work. A general housecleaning of the mind will help me to advance my pursuit of the incomplete. (Suzuki 135)2 I will stand back from my artwork and analyze the simplest way of shaping an image. A synthesis of artistic intuition and solid research will improve my studio work, allowing it to breath and broadening its layers of meaning.

2 See Hoover, Okakura and Amagasaki for full discussions of these concepts.

Safran de Niverville 4

WORKS CITED Amagasaki, Akira. Art Outside Life and Art as Life. Asian Aesthetics. Ed. Ken-ichi Sasaki. Singapore: NUS Press, National University of Singapore. 2010. 30 53. Print. Haraway, Donna. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge:1991. pp. 149 181. Web.17 Sept. 2012. <http://www.egs.edu/faculty/donna-haraway/articles/donna-haraway-a-cyborgmanifesto/> Hoover, Thomas. Chapter 9: Zen and the Ink Landscape. Zen Culture. Random House. 1978. Web. 14 Nov. 2012. <http://www.booktrope.com/chapter/zen-culturechapter-9-zen-and-the-ink-landscape/> Okakura, Kakuzo. The Book of Tea. New York: Dover Publications. 1964. Print. Saito, Yuriko . The Japanese Aesthetics of Imperfection and Insufficiency. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 55.4 (Fall 1997): 377385. Art full Text. Web. 14 Nov. 2012 Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginners Mind. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc. 2006. Print.