Entry 4

Most of my artistic critique was done for educational purposes, namely for the scholastic year and I cannot recall any informal critiques however I have judged artworks prior to knowing anything about the concept, theme, techniques and development of both the artist and the work itself. I think immediately judging an artwork is a normal thing, perhaps you’d call the artwork beautiful or ugly at first glance but through further inspection and research you find words that better suit the work such as bombastic or grotesque.

I recall an instance, prior to joining Mcast, back in secondary where I had started to gain the motivation and inspiration to both make art and learn about it, where the teacher had shown us an artwork by Jackson Pollock. My initial thought at the time was “I can do this easily. It’s a bunch of paint splatters” however I was still awestruck at the colours and the way the paint was placed onto the canvas.

I looked at many artists for inspiration at the time however the artists I know of and appreciate today differ from the ones I looked up to then. My knowledge of art lied in the plethora of Asian culture videos I would see as I had a great interest in Japanese culture, and still do but not to that extent, as well as the videos I would look for related to the creation of characters and comic strips.

I like to call this the youtube age where the word ‘cringe’ was iconic and Marzia’s videos were the most ‘aesthetic’ thing I could watch.

My mindset at the time was based on O-level standard academia where realism was the biggest hit you could draw because that would guarantee a pass mark and illustrations meant you were on thin ice due to the subjectivity of that pass mark. I now frown on the academic mindset as I held it until the year prior to starting my Bachelors, where my work ended up being realistic to pass and I despised every painting I created so I took on abstract as both a way to purely express what needed to be expressed and as a form of rebellion to academia.

Nowadays, Pollock is my 'subconscious reference' when creating an artwork in paint. Action painting is a chaotically beautiful process where the outcome as visually beautiful as the performance, as dark or as bright as the theme may be. I have a tendency to go for more vibrant colours in my work and lean toward his more colourful pieces, I appreciate the enormous scale in which he paints and the short amount of time that certain works take him, for example: Guernica being done in three weeks in oil paint.