hidden and strange

So today I went on a trip with some classmates to the Newark Museum in Newark, New jersey. We saw a painting show on South American Abstraction, which was interesting, but we also took plenty of time to see the 20th century painting wing. Their collection wasn't huge, but it provided a wide variety of differing american painters.

One of the paintings I responded to the most was one of Philip Guston's. I never used to be so into his paintings, but seeing his work evolvethroughout his life is something that has interested me way more than seeing the work of many other artists. Such a drastic change in style and content requires a great amount of reasoning, and I find this change fascinating.

His earlier abstract paintings brought in lots of money, and established his carreer as making paintings that were almost "too beautiful" for the time. Despite his popularity he switched to his more cartoon-like style which seemed to better suite, which I find to be magnificent.

After reading this article I find his work even more interesting yet, as the reasoning behind his transition was a lifelong battle. If your interested, check out this article. I found it very fulfilling:

http://www.aestheticrealism.org/philip_guston/philip_guston.html

finding your artistic self

finding your own process - it's hard!
How can one claim a particular way of working to be theirs? Can we share a process? I bet someone else has the same process that I do. So I guess that means just forget about being the super-orignal artist you thought you were!
"my" process is pretty messy right now. Just a cluttered pile of this and that, a collage, if you will. A bunch of drawings, paint, some trash and dust. Dandruff and bodily fluids. I could defend myself and call it an intelectual collage of smartness, but I don't think that's the case.
In art school there is a lot of pressure to find your own voice and process because that's what real artists do. Or at least the successful ones. I'm a litle scattered right now and that's kind of my process. Working into the remains of what was there before. Painting over, into and starting over completely. Realizing what I am not, the hard way, but still not finding what I am. Wow, that sucks. haha

Here is a link to an interesting article about the artist Nathan Oliveira. His paintings are great, and I wish that mine were more like his. In the article it talks about his development as an artist throughout his life, defying trends in the artworld, and his lifelong process as an artist. Reading this about him and his paintings makes me feel a lot better. :)

http://www.ebsqart.com/ArtMagazine/za_195.htm

So I've been looking for some inspiration and have been trying to see how other artists work. This interview with Francis Bacon really moved me and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are two parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x10BjZa-lyk

I think reading interviews with artists is a great way to understand a little more about their work, but to hear the artist speak and see their manerisms is a whole other story. The great artists that have come before us were all real people too, not just myths and legends. Francis Bacon was as real as it gets, and in this interview it is so inspiring to me to see what makes him tick, and to hear how he goes about making a painting. Enjoy! (notice how he opens and squeezes out the paint from a new tube!)

Welcome

Hello and welcome to trashpick!
This blog was created to document and share the progress in my artmaking, and to share things that I'm currently reading or looking at with everyone else. I've never had a blog before, so here goes nothin'!

To get started, here are a few images that I've made. These first 5 images are all portraits, which I think is a nice way for me to introduce myself to the world wide web.