Beauty and Perception

"Ne Plus Ultra", Eric Swenson (2010)

A Facebook post I made sparked a small dialogue on beauty. As a teacher, I see it as my job not to just inundate with terms and vocabulary, but to get the student to use that information to question their own perceptions of beauty. I usually begin by asking students how do they measure beauty in art and the usual answer they give is the artist's ability to render the subject matter representationally. Then I show them this image of a sculpture by Eric Swenson, "Ne Plus Ultra"(2010). The preceding effect is the smell of hair burning and the creaking of long motionless gears.

"He's touching me!"

"Dogfight", 45x36"

There are two methods of rendering imagery I have wrestled with in the studio. One, being the methodical, tight representational approach I learned as an ungrad and the other, a more expressionistic/gestural stroke which I found in graduate studies. Both have served me well, yet often I have felt like a big blue void with two skilled pilots trying to outmanuver one another and get the upperhand.

Oddly enough, the control I sought to reconcile this comes from a printmaking technique known as the state print. Whereby, the subject matter is worked on the plate, printed and then any forthcoming insights or alterations are reworked on the same plate. This creates beautiful and intriguing fields that allow the process and evolution to be presented in a series. This layering and meshing of stages has begun to allow me to teach my two demanding kids "discipline"..... or how to get along, stop squabbling in the backseat and allow me some peace.