Saturday, December 26, 2009

Pathfinding (slide show)

preliminary sketches and initial paintings




a lot more to be done with this project during the rest of the winter and into the spring

Friday, December 25, 2009

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Saturday, December 19, 2009

100 Waves (slide show)




from the solo show in 2006

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

2 Drops 2 Thoughts of Water (slide show)

(requires Flash)




slide your cursor over the bottom of the window to see the navigation buttons
going to full screen mode is very cool

(acrylics are either 12" x 24" or 12" x 12" and the screenprints are 22" x 22")

I was invited to an artist network, and made this slideshow for it (their software does a nice job).
Feel free to share this with people you think might enjoy it.
(the actual works are for sale, of course)

If you don't have a Flash Player on your computer, here is a link to a simple HTML slide show that should be easy to navigate
http://www.scottbarnesart.com/contactsheets/2Drops2Thoughts.html

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Artist Statement Generator

Ever notice the reoccurance of the same, seeminly purposefully confusing words in artists' statements?

http://www.playdamage.org/market-o-matic/

http://www.pixmaven.com/phrase_generator.html

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2009/12/artists-statement-generator.html

Some of it is genuine; a real overlap of intent and the commonality of the language attempted in art itself.
Some of it is learned artspeak leftover as a kind of artschool hangover when the entire purpose of academia was to be more negative than supportive.
Some of it just might be a result of a purposely collective database of common terms and phrases that sound smart because they are pure obfuscation.
(the definition of obfuscation is, itself, worth looking into)

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Monday, December 07, 2009

transparency and overlap (thickness) repost



still trying to figure out where to go from this point.
It has certainly informed my work over the past three years,
but I want to engage this very simple idea more directly
with the two materials in this series of sketches

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Saturday, December 05, 2009

experiment with different backgrounds for the water paintings
Leaving a field of raw canvas is good. It denotes an unfinished and unknown quality to that which is beyond the main figure.

Might be worth using gold or copper for a ground to tie the concept of the unknown, the spiritual, the holy, into the same sense of fear and awe found in old Byznatine art.

Blue would be the western version as evidenced by the mystical quality (and expense of) given to the sky in Renaissance art,

and by the meditative blue color field painting of Yves Klein.

Probably the most interesting thing (to me) about the International Klein Blue is that it is beyond the color gamut of computer screens, thus cannot be represented accurately. The same can be said of many hues of real gold. Which brings me back to the original idea: using color (or nothingness) as a stand in for that which cannot be fully known in conciousness; either because it is not yet experienced, or is simply beyond our ability to understand.

Friday, December 04, 2009

Emination (currents?)

death and rebirth

mostly thinking of the representation of holiness, godliness, the spirituality which cannot be defined, and how it is represented in art by abstract patterning and precious materials (which today are represented by certain colors like gold or blue)

but, the radiating lines of some divine power need to be noted
as well as the emotional content of the curving gestural lines of the figures

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Tuesday, December 01, 2009