Cailin Crisler-Thesis Paper

When I began thinking of ideas at the beginning of the semester, they were completely different than what I have now. I had wanted to take this class since I began my journey at Northampton Community College. This longing to take this course had me thinking of ideas all the time. I never expected the direction my art has taken me.

My original idea was to paint landscapes. I feel like a novice in that area, partly from lack of experience. Every time I’d sit outside and get ready to paint the beauty that nature had to offer me, I’d get bored beyond belief. I don’t know what it is about painting landscapes that make me want to hit someone. It’s not because they aren’t beautiful to look at. My theory is that when I focus on one little detail at a time, such as painting trees, I lose interest all together. When I paint, I have to feel the movement behind each stroke. I have these expectations of myself whenever I start a landscape to make them as realistic as possible. With that realism I want to achieve, is the time that it takes that I just don’t have.

Painting landscapes were not the only idea my original agenda. Along with the landscape idea, I wanted to toy with bad photography. I had never heard of lomography until last semester. I looked up pictures taken by other people on the internet and my fascination grew. Photography is another form of art I’m not comfortable with. Being a part of the photography class at NCC during my spring of 2009 was absolute torture for me. All I was able to take were bad photographs. The Holga camera seemed to make it okay to take a bad photo. I was also attracted to the bright colors that the Holga offered due to the light that leaks into the filter.
I wanted to collage the photography and the landscapes. In my head, I envisioned the contrast of the brightness of the photographs as opposed to the natural colors of landscapes.
In my original proposal, I also go on to talk about using human anatomy in my art. Its sad to say that it never left the ground. I bought books early in the semester and drew numerous sketches. My sketches haven’t matriculated into my art yet. I’m still avidly interested in studying more on anatomy. Especially now that summer is almost here. I’m hoping that as I learn more on human anatomy, I can somehow translate it into my abstracts.
Abstracts were always on my list of expectations. Now that I think of it, I can’t even fathom how I could have combined all of these elements on canvas.

I don’t know whether it is a blessing or a curse, but my vision for my art is as fleeting as the wind. I want to tackle so many things and learn so many different types of art, that I can’t help changing all the time. A few weeks into the semester, it’s safe to say that I didn’t give a second thought to my original intentions. I was on a roll with my sketch book. It got to the point that I was carrying it with me where ever I happened to be because I was afraid of missing an opportunity. My sketchbook became my guideline for what would become my latest body of work. I was still interested in nature, but in a completely different way. I became more interested in the nature of things. The realization hit me that I didn’t need to be so literal about everything. I already knew that in a way through the abstractions I’d done before, but I had never really thought of it in those terms until this semester.

I learned to go with every feeling and instinct I had and just go with it. As an artist I believe that you have to trust your vision. I trusted mine with my entire being. The paintings I have now have a lot to do with luck and boredom. One example of this was when me and Liz were sitting in a bagel shop in February, and out of anything else to do, just begin sketching an upside down flower. Like that, it just comes out of no where. I started to elaborate on it, until I couldn’t stop. That was when I knew I had to put it on canvas. Instead of going with my original intentions, I went with my gut feelings.

I wanted to combine and paint- landscapes, abstraction, surrealism, realism, illustration, human anatomy, and photography. I wanted to give myself as much leg room in my proposal so as not to be pinned down. In the end, I’ve focused more on the abstraction and realism more than anything else. The wild card was the origami that suddenly reentered my life. One day I made a paper crane. I blink my eyes and suddenly there are dozens of them lying around the house. And then it becomes my focus. I never saw that one coming.

Describing my pieces. Where do I begin. I have ten pieces in the show. I’m not sure of the sequence in which I made the pieces. I had been alternating between them all semester. My first painting is the self portrait. it’s a literal rendition of myself off to the side. My hair is down and I’m not wearing any makeup. You can see a hint of a yellow tank top at the bottom of the painting. The background is a mixture of colors done in light green, gray, red, blue, and yellow. The style is heavy vertical strokes I’ve grown accustomed to doing. On the top right hand side is a rendering of paper cranes with glued feathers. Originally, I had actual paper cranes hanging from the canvas as well, but they kept getting snagged or ripped off. It wasn’t until the end of April, and when I was doing the final touched to all of my work, that I added something else. I was afraid that none of my work had unity, and I was discussing it with Liz. We hung up my pieces, and had our own little critique. She was looking them over and told me that I should put this abstract symbol that has been a reoccurring theme in some of my paintings. I ended up putting it on there because It did need something. As it turns out, it was the perfect solution.
After my self portrait, I stuck with the origami idea. Folding paper all semester made me crazy. Besides the origami, my work consists of birds, deer, nature, rhythm, texture, and lots of color.
With each individual piece, I tried to not copy each of them completely. The subjects in each of my pieces may be wildly different from each other, even in how they are painted, but it all comes down to the nature and energy of things. Its like staring into the eyes of someone you love and feeling that passion, and mystery. I try to convey all of that when I paint anything. In this case, my ideas came through on canvas through my love of nature. I tried to change the way people perceive nature by combining them with my abstracts.

I have a theory on abstracts. An abstract is like a fingerprint. You could copy a famous artist like De Kooning, but no matter how much you try, you can never copy every frantic line and brushstroke he created. If you keep building on your abstract work, you can come up with some that is you. The glory of abstracts is that you can do use your imagination to no end.
The materials that I have used are acrylics, spray paint, ink, rice paper(origami), wax paper, hot glue, packaging paper, bubble wrap, copper wire, electrical tape, and even paper towels at one point. The spray paint is a medium I haven’t played with since high school, and that was mostly for childish means. I still had a lot from high school. For some reason unknown to me I just started spraying on canvas. At first, it was just an easy way to prime a canvas when using gesso got tiresome. Then I got playful with it once the days started to get warmer and found a wonderful surprise. I started to take three or four cans of nuetral colored spray paint, and spray on the canvas really thick until it started to drip on the canvas. Because of the thickness of the paint, all I needed to do was lie the canvas on the ground and the drips would just stay there and dry. I’d keep alternating and spraying the cans and then lying the canvas on the ground and in angles to get whatever effect I was trying to achieve. Another technique I discovered for myself was how I could keep alternating between cans and spray on the canvas really thick and keep layering on top of each other. It had to be a really fast process to achieve the look I was going for, but it was fun too. I came up with some really interesting effects that I used in one my paintings. I learned also that certain brands of spray paint don’t mix. Instead of blending in with each other when they get sprayed on top of each other, water-proof spray paint will only spray around the regular spray paint, no matter how much you try to focus the nozzle on that area. I came up with some interesting uses for that technique.

Another technique I picked up was the really glossy effect I achieved when I kept layering it on crumpled up wax paper in order to make petals for my flower painting. It’s a really long process. Over all it took me over two weeks to get all of that done.

I’ve discovered the many uses of bubble wrap this semester. It’s fun and its easy. My original idea for my paper crane sculptures was to uses steel wire and plaster. It took for four weeks to figure out that that wasn’t going to happen. It was really messy and I wasn’t getting the look that I was envisioning in my head. The first bird sculpture was a disaster. I was about to scrap the idea altogether when I walked into the post office to mail a package in the last week of April and noticed that they had brightly colored bubble wrap. It was love at first sight. Not many places sell colored bubble wrap. I wasn’t thinking about using it for my sculpture when I bought them, I just had to have them. I think that the bubble wrap gives a whole new dimension to my giant paper crane sculptures.

We have only had two critiques this semester that I vaguely remember. I don’t remember anything that was really helpful to altering any of my work. I think during the critique for the belief system project, a few people commented that I should have more of a trickle effect with my use of paper mache, but that painting was finished anyway. That was already the focus of all my daylight hours.

I guess I could count personal critiques I have with my friends have been kind of helpful. They weren’t so much critiques as much as complaining to anyone within hearing distance that you’ve hit the wall at a certain point in the process. There is always a point at any project where you find yourself directionless and need an outsiders opinion. I’m really grateful for all the encouragement that I’ve received from all the people in my life. Sometimes that encouragement is all I need to push myself just a little further.

The artists I researched were Georgia O’Keefe, Tim Burton, and Aron Wiesenfeld. All three of these artists are so different from each other but each of them have inspired me in different ways.

Georgia O’Keefe has always been a favorite of mine. I’m inspired by the fluidity of her images. Her technique is amazing to me. I could stare at an O’Keefe painting all day and try to memorize how she blended her paintings so seamlessly.

I love Tim Burton for his early work. I’m in love with illustrations and hope to one day get into that field as well as the rest of the fine arts spectrum. His sketches and illustrations of subjects he made up such as oyster boy and pin cushion girl are so imaginative and beautiful. The way he executed them are inspiring to me. When I first saw them it was so different from anything I had ever seen before.

I want to one day be a part of the gallery world. Until this semester I had never even fathomed all the work it takes to keep a gallery in top condition. The Banana Factory internship made the biggest impression for me. I’ve realized how helpful it is to have interns around. I want my own intern. It was a good experience for me to get a glimpse of the inner workings of the gallery world. I’m still willing to do all I can to work my way up in the art world, even if that means the business side.

I’ve combined abstraction, realism, nature, and paper folding to represent the way I perceive life and energy. It's the sun and wind hitting my face. the shadows cast by buildings. the wilted side is a flower. the little things people don't notice.