|
A while back, I wrote a blog post called “The Poky Little Puppy” and an accompanying email called “In Defense of the Slow.” I talked about how, at 40 years of age, I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, Inattentive Type. This realization has helped me to better understand some of the challenges I have had in navigating this life. But ADD is also closely associated with having a creative mind. Artistic mind, attention deficit disorder, who knows where one ends and the other begins?
My mind is not organized. Information comes in the form of so many scraps of paper, fluttering about in the wind. Projects or professions that involve any complexity seems like an insurmountable undertaking. I’ve got a terrible memory. I often forget essential aspects of whatever task I am performing. (Recently I set off to buy new glasses, leaving my prescription at home.) But, I have learned something sort of fun about my mind, and how it likes to organize itself. I was trying to develop some sort of regular, consistent, doable habit in regards to posting on social media about my art. “Everyone” was buzzing about social media. You know, “Everyone,” don’t you? “Everyone” says:
And so on, and so on. All that resulted from this was a panicky sense of dread. Enter, the Mind Map.  Here is all is. I spent hours on this silly thing. I tried to impress my friends by sharing it with them, but they didn’t even want to LOOK at it, and who could blame them? It seems overly elaborate and faintly ridiculous now, but the one most important thing is also true: now I know. Now I know. Social media is no longer confusing to me. I may need a reminder of the specifics, but the tiny scraps of paper have settled down into an orderly pattern. Now I understand. As I just wrote about in my post “Evolve or Die,” I revealed that I am starting on a new body of work, inspired by archeology and deep history. It’s really exciting, and really scary. For the first time in many years, I genuinely have no idea what I am doing. It will be an adventure into the unknown. I have been a consumer of archeology media of various kinds for years. I have two magazine subscriptions. I watch archeology shows. I listen to podcasts. Over the years, I have absently absorbed a lot of scraps of information. Over time, these bits of information started to formulate themselves into a loose, fluttery vision of the world. I became filled with the desire to understand these little scraps in context, in an order, like maybe a mind map… or maybe… a time-line.  A timeline. Fueled with this new obsession, I knew that I was not going to be able to commence on my new journey of art-making without tackling this. I took a large roll of paper, and I set it on a little table. I rolled it out on my wall and tacked in down. I decided on a very general form: seven areas of the planet, drawn with seven horizontal lines. The time demarcations will be the vertical axis. But, I am still not sure what time periods I am going to depict, and where along the horizontal axis they will land. So, I started to write bits of information I find intriguing on bits of rice paper, and started to tape them up at various places. Everything at this point is in flux and movable. I feel like a mad scientist. In fact, I have recently learned from The Google that there is a thing called “The Crazy Wall.” It’s a meme, stemming from the media’s dramatic use of an “evidence board” real detectives use to solve crimes. It was used to most dramatic effect in the 2001 movie “A Beautiful Mind.”  For the first time in a long while, I am creating something that I have no real intention of putting on display or trying to sell. Somehow, I just know I need to do this. I need to capture and contain what I know, but cannot yet use. Something that simply comes out of my beautiful mind. My beautiful, inefficient, scattered, forgetful, creative, artistic mind. A video of me about to dive into the time-line.
0 Comments
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Final Entry! So, Why Noir? Being an artist may look like fun, but it is tough. Putting yourself out there for others to see is perennially disquieting. In order to make it all worth it, the subject and method has to be captivating.  ©lesliepetersonsapp Miss Darger II 24x30 I am compelled to tell a story with my art. No matter if it is based on Shakespeare, mythology, or film noir, I am driven to explore and share the landscape of my imagination.
For now, I am entirely caught up in the dark labyrinth of film noir. But who knows what future stories my art will tell? Need more noir? Check out The Film Noir Foundation, which restores films noir and shows them at their film festivals. It's founder, the Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller, is also a host on TCM's Noir Alley, which shows films noir every Saturday night and Sunday mornings. Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Entry #9
The themes are universal and can be ascribed to any individual. So, I can change the outer identities of my characters, and it can still be noir.  ©lesliepetersonsapp Bars 16x20 The scenes in my artwork are presented without irony and are imbued with an immediacy which invites the viewer to experience the scene as a contemporary moment.
The adaptability of film noir characters allows me to enlarge the limits of my understanding and expression.  ©lesliepetersonsapp Keys 40x48 Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Entry #8 When we are engrossed in a mystery novel, the complicated plot tangles we must unravel keep us entranced.  ©lesliepetersonsapp Pursuit 24x48 The characters in noir are caught in a web of intrigue and moral ambiguity. Their exploits involve daring and danger, plot twists and betrayals. They usually believe they can manipulate a situation to their advantage over another. The dream I weave in my paintings is a version of myself who is, in a word: clever. Very unlike who I really am.
Like getting into a good novel or movie, my paintings invite you to take time and decipher what is being presented.  ©lesliepetersonsapp Many a Moon 38x38 Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Entry #7 A long time ago, a wise friend counseled me, saying “Romance is about NOT being fulfilled, it’s about longing.”  ©lesliepetersonsapp Vacancy 48x40 The characters in film noir practice a lot of bad behavior. They smoke and drink, lie, cheat, extort and manipulate.
You could say I vicariously through my own art.
Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Entry #6 How many times have you said to yourself, "this is a bad idea,"- then went ahead and did it anyway?
This is the essence of the typical male protagonist in film noir. A guy who is presented with a choice, and even though it is a bad idea, he goes forward with his instincts, his craving, his desire, his compulsion, his desperate need, instead of what we know would be the right choice. He must live, or die, by that fateful decision. We watch the drama unfold, unable to look away.  ©lesliepetersonsapp Backlight 38x48 Men have their own particular burden to carry. They are supposed to do, to achieve, attain, and win. But the world does not have a level playing field. Additionally, he knows that when the going gets tough, he's the one who is expected to run into the fray, stare it down and fix it. But what if it is unfixable? The strive to win against all odds is often what motivates Antihero- or the giving up is what fuels his self-destruction. The Homme Fatale Not all Fatales are Femme. Any androsexual will tell you so.
But this is an illusion. Another cathartic mechanism in the fantasy world of film noir. In the real world, such men are exasperating at best- dangerous at worst.
But here we must ask the age-old question; is the catharsis we gain from art worth the messaging it perpetuates?  ©lesliepetersonsapp The Boxer 30x40 Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Entry #5
Fatal: 1. a. causing death b. bringing ruin c. causing failure 2. a. determining one's fate b. of or relating to fate c. resembling fate in proceeding according to a fixed sequence Put them both together, and it becomes: Femme Fatale: 1. a seductive woman who lures men into dangerous or compromising situations 2. a woman who attracts men by an aura of charm and mystery
But I like to think of her in astrological terms. Astrologically, nemesis is a theoretical star that may have once been a twin star of our sun. A Femme Fatale is a mysterious dark star, a nemesis to the bright, sunny fairy tale princess of my childhood. But if she is so evil, why do we love her so much? Be good, be patient, look pretty and maybe the prince will come and save you. I was taught that as a girl, it was the foundation of my world view and identity. I had no examples of powerful, non-domestic women in my life. Into this vacuum stepped the only example of feminine power available to me: the Femme Fatale.
But all the while, I still rejoice in the cathartic glorification of my dark princess, the lost twin star, our nemesis, the Femme Fatale. Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Entry #4 Any artist will tell you, the key to artistic maturity is to discover one's own unique, consistent language. I seek to find a balance of representation and abstraction. Modern Art, and design in the Modernist period dealt with this specifically.
While experts say Modernism died with the onslaught of WWII, I think it was a part of the cultural zeitgeist well afterwards, especially in popular culture.  Blind Minotaur Led through the Night by Girl with Fluttering Dove, Picasso, 1935 My style is evocative of the painting and graphic arts that were contemporary with the hey-day of film noir. So, not only do I learn from films noir directly, I also love the style of the era, and let this inform the way I choose to depict the subject.
Much like how I engage with the subject of film noir, I like to find the essence of what I am seeing and try to express it with forthright simplicity.  ©lesliepetersonsapp Glass Houses 30x28 Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Entry #3 Many film noir aficionados know that American film noir was born from German Expressionism,
 ©lesliepetersonsapp Lamplight 40x48 I have become better at marshaling the elements of design, such as value, arrangement, and scale. I believe these skills transcend any specific style and will translate to other subjects as my creative interests evolve.  ©lesliepetersonsapp Exit 28x18 Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
A series on how film noir inspires my art- Entry #2
How did I start my film noir obsession?  ©lesliepetersonsapp
I was in a state of transition with my art. Unsatisfied with the work I had been doing at that time, I went back to basics and started experimenting, and taking classes from Mark Andres. I was engaging in an exercise to copy a film still in the style of a painter of my choice. My choice was to do a still from The Bad and the Beautiful, in the style of the German Expressionist, Max Beckmann. I entitled it “Lana Turner Lost in the Land of Beckmann” The drama of the subject, matched with the freedom of Expressionist painting was a revelation.
I was hooked. 
©lesliepetersonsapp Fatale 30x36 Collage on panel
At first, I created my art directly from screenshots of films. They were very altered, but from specific scenes. Gradually, the images kept getting more and more altered, until I started to create my own scenes.
©lesliepetersonsapp Anticipate 16x20 Collage on panel
©lesliepetersonsapp Blue Room 40x40 Collage on panel
Now ideas emerge from multiple sources. I may be inspired from a film scene or photograph, or I may want to express something from my own imagination. The people I paint are slivers of my own soul, maybe even archetypes of our collective soul.
The scenes in my artwork are presented without irony and are imbued with an immediacy which invites the viewer to step into the scene as a contemporary moment. If we could walk through the picture frame and become part of the action. If this could be possible, what would you see, and who would be there?
©lesliepetersonsapp Miss Darger II 24x30 Acrylic on panel
Why Noir? is a series! Read 'em all.
Entry #1: Why Noir? |
INVESTIGATE!
Here are the hotsheets with the sordid details, the true confessions, and the inside info on my artistic process. Learn how it all happens right here! Not seeing what you're looking for? My previous blog on blogspot can be found HERE.
Categories
All
Archives
January 2023
|
RSS Feed