Ynotartblog's Blog

Having never been much above 50% satisfied with any art statement I have ever written, I think the best statement is no statement. I personally feel that to be true. Leaving it in the hands of the viewer is most agreeable to me. Whatever the response. This being totally a personal preference. Nothing absolutist here. Only me being me.

However, people (me included), organizations, committees, jurors, friends, others need or are heavily inclined to want some explanations for why or what or is that a? or confirmations of their responses or a simple, understandable please listen to what I have to say I don’t have anyone else to speak with or how or strongly desire to make connections to you name it. Good reasons. All.

And here I am…a questioner. I will always have questions to ask even when I am done asking. I like knowing and following a line of questions to get to that place of knowing that, of course, leads to another path of questioning to arrive at another place of knowing. As a person who loves hearing detailed (very) accounts of processes, art or otherwise, I empathize with people’s request for art statements. But – I don’t feel that – again, personally speaking, I don’t feel that art statements are that useful in experiencing, in knowing a work of art. Do we need an art statement from Giotto? Leonardo?

Many, however, are needed by me to exhibit my work…

So I confront what seems a monster task and try to refrain from going too far back in time to explain what and why and how and so on and on to write statements on my creative process. I try to remember to make it simple and truthful and not all artspeaky. I am trying (not there yet!), and I want whatever I state to convey that art or this artist is not something other than. Making/creating is my way of saying hello to everyone, Isn’t it amazing to be alive?

Below is my latest attempt at an art statement to be sent off to the Inter-Society Color Council Conference 2025 exhibit Color Shifts, which has accepted the painting Sounds of Blushing.

THE LATEST ART STATEMENT:  Geometric abstraction distinguished by vibrations of color are foundational to my art making process. Together geometry and color make visible my reflections of being in a vast universe. Give weight to the reality of the unknown. Point to the immensity of space that surrounds each second of our lives. Voice the constant hum of wonder. Accept the ambiguity of I am here and Where am I?

The planes and lines in my work exemplify the geometric concept of infinite extension fired by color embodying a theoretical range of endless potential that I envisage expanding off the edges of the support…moving continuously in all directions. Planes of color, boundlessly expanding. Sometimes repetitive use of geometric form and color patterns are used to assert a rhythmic constancy of the unknowable. 

My imagined realities conceptualized with geometry and color symbolize an acknowledgement of what is unseen, what is unknown, what is experienced. Mysteries. Color is chosen to propel the geometry with a multitude of voicings.  Color is everything. Holds everything. Speaks and sings. Color shifts. Is this then that. Together color and geometry generate a visual musicality. Alive. A fluidity of hope as endless variations of form and light unite to reflect an awesome presence.

In an article I wrote entitled Thoughts On Lines As Defined In Plane Geometry And As Experienced Drawing* in which I attempted to understand my act of drawing a line on a rectangular block of color, I concluded that the drawn line/s are symbolic. As I reread the ending paragraph of that article, I realized that in writing about lines I also was describing color. What follows is a rewriting of most of the ending paragraph in which I replace the word “lines” with the word “color.”

…Symbolic of mystery (where will it continue to?) and beginnings (what will come next?). Color articulating space, marking space, pointing to space, building on space. Color defining paths, forms, and patterns of sound, words, images, and emotions that rise and fall and wiggle [vibrate]. The breadth of color!

The end of this art statement.

*Published on medium.org and on ynotartblog.wordpress.com