Thursday, January 21, 2010

I am an artist

I will freely admit that I know little to nothing about art. You could put a Rembrandt, Picasso, and a Renoir in front of me and I'd have no clue which was which. But that doesn't mean I don't like art. I just know what I like.

I like color, and I like defined shapes.

Many years ago Spouse & I saw this framed print by Kandinsky in IKEA and I fell in love with it. Spouse liked it too, and since it was inexpensive we bought it. It remains one of my favorite pieces.
While watching a decorating show on HGTV some years ago, I heard a designer refer to a piece of art she called "Mondrian-inspired". I liked the piece so much I looked up Mondrian and found lots of stuff I liked, such as this:
We don't have any Mondrian pieces nor any "Mondrian-inspired" pieces, but it is a style of art I am attracted to.

Just a few months ago when Steven & Thad were here Thad saw a painting in our house and said it looked "very Mark Rothko". "Very what?" I asked. I'd never heard of Mark Rothko, but when I looked him up I understood what Thad meant. Here are 6 separate paintings by Rothko:
I love them.

The paintings in our house that reminded Thad of Mark Rothko are these: (click to enlarge)
I painted them about 5 years ago to decorate my very dull office. They were my 1st ever attempt at 'making art'. I bought canvases at a craft store and used left-over latex wall paints. The green was in our kitchen, the purple was on a single wall in our bedroom, and the red/burgundy was on our fireplace mantel in our previous house.

When we moved to our current house I hung them in a bedroom that serves double duty as my office.
Interestingly, I hung them in a different order than before without being aware of it until now. I love that my art is flexible!

My 2nd attempt at 'making art' were landscapes. Each painting is done with just one color plus white. These are the same left-over wall paints I used for the "Rothko-inspired" paintings above, but with a very different effect. These hung in our library/den in our previous house.
Now they hang in a hallway at our current house.
Once again, I hung them in a different order than before without being aware of it until now.

Last weekend I felt 'inspired' by the long blank wall in our new master bathroom, so I picked up some more canvases at the craft store, along with some acrylic paints. (When we moved from our previous house we threw away all the left-over wall paints.) I wasn't sure what I wanted exactly, but I knew I wanted it to have a somewhat bold and reckless feel, to juxtapose the soothing, earthy tone of the space. This is what I came up with:
Without trying to copy Kandinsky, I think I created something "Kandinsky-inspired".

I was a little unsure of them at 1st, since they are not as controlled as my other pieces, but when Spouse said he like them, I banished my doubts and silently told myself "I am an artist. I AM an artist!"

Hmmm, sounds familiar. I hope I'm not taking this 'empowerment' thing too far.

Crush du Jour: Geoff Begnaud

12 comments:

RAD said...

wow...your good!!! I need to have you do some for my pad!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful colors and artwork! A coworker of mine has the first one hanging in his cube.

Stephen Chapman said...

Art is a personal thing - if you like something, then no-one can really comment.

I really like Mondrian. It's strange, because there really isn't much to like on the surfice, but I get drawn in. I have one on my living room wall - not real of course. Seen some originals in London and Amsterdam.

anne marie in philly said...

mondrian is cool...you go, almost-as-famous artist!

Stephen said...

You are a very good artist indeed!

Mark Rothko is a very favorite of mine & the huband. We saw a career retrospect at The Whitney in the early 2000s.

Keep It Up (& I mean that in the very best sense).

robertga99 said...

Great Job!

Jeff said...

You've definitely got talent! They're great!

A Lewis said...

Wow....very nice colors and shapes! I love the bright colors.

cb said...

I really like the Rothko ones... especially the first series.

Joy said...

What a fun way to add color to your place!

Photos of Rothko's paintings don't do them justice. Try to see originals in a gallery or museum if you can. I couldn't stop looking at them.

Anonymous said...

I like your better, The artist is way cooler.

Kyle Leach said...

Mark, you did wonderful work on the Kandinsky inspired paintings! All people are artists. Most just never find their medium of expression.