The arrival of warm weather and the continuation of painting weird stuff...

The warm weather has arrived, just in time!

I must sheepishly admit that it's been a while since my last post, which was probably at some point in January or February. I will be better about this.

I had pretty much gotten into the swing of painting so much in a short amount of time that the idea of throwing stuff up on this blog seemed, unduly, to be something that could altogether throw me off track.

I got carried away!

Sorry!

I feel like I've been taking bolder steps with my work ever since bringing my site together, in the sense that I think that I'm really pushing the bounds for my own sensibilities and likable aesthetics. I'm pretty much allowing fully this process of healthy doubt, where I overuse symbols, try out really punchy and, potentially, annoying color choices, and genuinely try to tie in some kind of personal, social commentary or cliche.

It's a complicated and oft enlightening process. At least, I'd like to think that it is!

Why it is that I feel like this bold process is due, mainly, to my site's completion is something I have yet to really solidify as an opinion, but I think it's just the overall chaos that comes from me trying to place my artwork, specifically with my website, in terms of what I want to accomplish with it.


Inherently, this kind of personal doubt for or double-take of my work has allowed me a kind of frantic freedom, almost, where I'm allowing myself in my own confusion to go crazy with color and form, not to mention the conceptual freedom. The span of time from when I first started on this path of this kind of weird, bastardized, objective-yet-not kind of painting has allowed me to take the concepts to completely interesting or completely boring levels, and I feel like this is altogether rewarding.




I'm beginning to use a more superficial stroke, lately, in the sense that I take these maybe obnoxious globs of paint and fill out areas and shapes almost forcibly, and I don't necessarily attribute that to an unknowing kind of glib tendency as much as I feel like it's the byproduct of working to figure out where my work is going, if that isn't too confusing or obvious!

I feel like my work, in general, is becoming more obvious and maybe more obnoxious than it used to be. I don't mean that as a complete negative, but I'm looking to add more control to my work. There was a time, recently, when I was just pretty much letting the work go where it wanted to, and, in a sense, the work started lending to itself a lot more and became less effected by external, new concepts and ideas.

I consider myself to be in the awkward throes of trying to add some kind of control to the approach, even if it is entirely limited. I hope that isn't too vague.

All of this is pretty much an explanation for how I'm looking to find "a place" for my work, whatever that means. I'm pretty much trying to glean some kind of rationality or reason from an otherwise unreasonable or irrational process.



In any event, I'm looking forward to this summer (who isn't??), but I have a few things that I need to decide on before I can become really excited for it - that's intentionally vague, for the sake of my decision making process!

I always feel like I produce the best stuff when it's warmer out. At least, I've come to enjoy thinking of my work in terms of seasons, especially warm seasons. So, this summer will be no different! Plus, like I said, I says: who doesn't get excited for warm weather?

Here's a quick and lazy upload, for you.

I'm touching around with a sort of approach and a kind of palette that I normally shy away from, for one reason or another. I'm not sure how I feel about this batch...

...I kinda like it, but I feel like I was just too lazy in certain areas. I'm didn't change the water cup the entire day, basically, and ended up with this constant greening that you can't really see in the photographs (dim light, etc. - looks green, anyways).

More to come, for sure - most of these are unfinished, anyways.


-Andrew

Hey- facebook wouldn't let me upload more images to my albums, inexplicably! I don't understand it...

In any event, here's some of my stuff from the past couple of days.

I should have a statement, soon. I'm still thinking about my work and my opinion of it, as well as taking into account how that opinion has changed over time. There are elements of mystery for me with my work, where I'm either not entirely sure of some of the things that I do or am altogether doubtful of whether I'm doing x thing for y reason, if that makes any sense. Thankfully, I'm starting to work most of that out, and I'm starting to realize some of the tendencies I have with painting and where I can categorize those - whether they be legitimate and intensive or floppy and uninspired.

I can say this: I feel like I'm using the trends in my work now more to allow for this seamless progression of symbols and personal "fads" I guess you could call them. I feel like there's more of a focus now on systematic applications of paint and systematic adherence to either typical compositions or atypical compositions. I'm also dealing a lot with random lines of colors, but that's fairly obvious, I guess...

There's also a piece in this batch that I'm fairly confident owners of corgis, specifically, would find interesting!

The process continues!

We have a new president!


Take care,

Andrew

New work -- 7January, 2009

Just a brief uploading of paintings.

I feel really great about this especially new work. I feel like I'm painting a lot more than I used to, if that translates well enough. I feel like I'm cutting the binding threads on a lot of the conventions in my work that typically lent to itself. I like my work lending to itself, to a certain point. I feel like it allows for a certain kind of evolution within the work, but I don't like when it stagnates, basically. That makes me feel like I'm being lazy with it, and painting is my least favorite thing to feel lazy with.

I'm experimenting with a Pthalo blue, too, I should add. I've basically stuck to various kinds of cobalts and ceruleans. So, the change is refreshing. Mixing the blues is awesome, and mixing Pthalo with white is pretty electrifying. We'll see how I feel about it, ultimately.

I also have some irridescents that I'm playing with, but I don't have any of that up to any confident speed. On that note, I should also say that found some incredible leafing pigment. It's almost invariably toxic, and potentially full of lead. I'm extremely hesitant to use any of it, and I think it needs an oil medium, anyways.

Here's the work! I still have to work out my thoughts on the figures, but I really like them. I use this stupid, white outline, and then fill in the blanks with this kind of sloppy rendering. I'm more interested in applying something so complicated on the horizons I've kept empty for a while. It's pretty liberating...

New work -- 4 January, 2009

2009, already? Yipes!

With that realized, though, I've started trying some new things with some of the old things with my work.

After my recent, small show, I started getting the feeling that I'm gearing up to, in some form, work "larger" - whatever that means for my work. I might take it to larger surfaces, larger schemes and complexities, more generalized or specific themes, etc. or just a huge combination of everything. I'm starting to break from my norms of application. Now, I really want to start exploring with my concepts - maybe start exploring with NO concepts.

All of that really ties in with what I want to do with my work, ultimately, for the time being, which is a difficult enough thing to deliberate, on it's own. What's my motivation? - etc.

Also, for anyone who missed the announcement in December-- ANDREWMARATHAS.COM

Which reminds me! I'm also refining my statement. I truthfully loathe the one that I've put up as a placeholder, but, at the same time, I'm still, as I said, trying to work through why I do the work that I do. What are my motivations, now? I know what they used to be, but it's important for me, as most of you know pretty well, to constantly scrutinize the "why"s.

In any case, let me know what you think about this newer stuff. I should mention that I've decided to use this blog as a messy depot for all kinds of images of my work - the finished scans, the "I made this", handheld pieces, etc. etc. I think it gives a more full impression of the whole thing.

I should also advise to click the images for a larger version, as some of the extreme verticals are nearly impossible to accommodate in blog format. The files themselves are big.


Take care,

Andrew

Hi!

Admittedly, I've been pretty lax about updating everyone with how things are progressing,...

...but they're progressing well!

Expect an official, aptly-named website!

For your excitement:
andrewmarathas.com

***

In any case, here are some of the things I've been working on. I'm hunkered down in a basement, playing around with different things and working at vastly different scales. The large fish number is about 2.5x4 feet, if you can believe it.

I'm more or less painting, while at the same time working on tying my site together. It's proving to be pretty cumbersome a process - in a good way! Basically, I'll be working on the site - specifically, the gallery sections - and I'll be inspired with a new idea from my paintings or other artists' websites or anything really, and I'll want to bring it all back to square-one - either that or I'll just start painting too much, and some of my older stuff starts to drift off as being irrelevant. I don't think it's irrelevant, really.

Anyways, here it is:










Take care,

Andrew