ABSTRACT SHREDDISM                     |
The advent of photography ushered an era of creative destruction. Instantly capturing a scene with the precision and accuracy of the observer, the photograph challenged the traditional role of the painter. Thus, photography radically transformed the world of painting, offering a source for artistic liberation and segue into modernism. A primary tenet of modernism was to break away from painting as representation of the world and to show how painting represents the subconscious of a painter. Abstract Expressionist Artists such as Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, and Joan Mitchell exemplified this artistic revival. Rather than using the painting surface to depict an objective representation of the external world, these artists used the painting surface to create marks that express the inner self to the external world.
The marks I have produced were made through the process of skateboarding. These photographs show the aftermath of the process of wearing down the board and are framed to show the abstract marks that have accumulated over time. By considering the skateboard as an artistic tool much like a paintbrush, I am able to represent the mental and physical subconscious self through the accumulation of marks and scratches that I create when skateboarding. By capturing and digitally enhancing the boards, I bring out the painterly aspects held on the surface. Through meticulous dodging and burning, I make the marks and scratches appear like brush strokes and other painterly marks. I edit the colors to appear like raw paint that is being worn away. To further blur the lines between photography and painting, I have printed with archival inks on canvas and stretched these canvases on stretcher bars. I intend for these works to be seen not just as images but rather as objects that take on the form of paintings. |
