Art Portfolio - Beatriz Wallace

 Corpus A series of monotypes envisioned To slow us down To a point of rest. My work elicits illusionistic emotions, memories and experiences that recall a world [not of this world].1 Thank you Alexa Dilworth David Gatten Caitlin Margaret Kelly (curator) Merrill Shatzman (mentor and thesis chair) “... the first emotional phenomena a person wants to formulate are his own disconcerted passions. It is natural to look for expressive materials among the events or objects that begot those passions, that is, to use images associated with them, and under the stress of real emotion, events and objects perceived are prone to appear in a Gestalt congruent with the emotion they elicited. So reality quite normally furnishes the images; but they are no longer anything in reality, they are forms to be used by an excited imagination. (They may, indeed, be metaphorical in the ‘Freudian’ fashion, too, symptomatic fantasies on which feeling is concentrated.) And now begins the work of composition, the struggle for complete expressiveness, for that understanding of the form which finally makes sense out of the emotional chaos.” For more on this I recommend “Chapter 14: Life and It’s Image” in Susanne K. Langer’s Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art. 1
| Technique, Form, Visual and Conceptual In Corpus I implemented technique (printmaking, cool or warm black, silver) to describe the visual (subject, plant, wire, tarleton, block) and arrange form (composition, shape, texture) symbolic of human feelings. My choice in materials were metaphorically based. I used plants that have significance of place and were collected from Louisiana and North Carolina. I wrapped plants in wire to represent attachment to things as they are and/or control. I used braided, delicate thread to wrap plants to represent discipline that leaves room for presence of mind. The thread represented self-derived control, and the wire represented external containment. I used roots of plants to represent fictional notions of “home.” If I used a root that had not been run through the press then it represented an inability to go "home" again. The visibility of the root signals a more vulgar and unrealistic representation of home. Pressed roots represent feelings of bliss and comfort that home lacks. The pressed roots embody love and comfort of home without responsibilities, guilt or any inherited familial baggage. Tall skinny, loose stalks represented freedom and overt femininity. The stalks of the plants furthermost from the root represented the vulnerability a woman feels when she loves someone or something. I used stalks to represent romantic, feminine, active love. The roots represented masculine unearthed romantic love. I used driftwood from the bank of the Mississippi River in Algiers (outside my family’s home) to represent change impacted by time and pressure. I cut the driftwood open and hand-separated strands to signify that such endurance comes from contributions of each individual member within a family unit. The family or social unit is stronger than the individual. I used an exacto knife to make sharp cuts to the organic strands to represent performative behavior outside of familial or comfortable spaces. I used thick plastic to create an abrupt break between inked impressions and paper to signify complexity within families. I used this contrast to contradict that emotions are binary. I arranged these lines, gestures and forms to create motion and composition. I abstract the plants and materials from their original appearance so that the viewer doesn’t associate the forms to familiar ideas. I wanted to present new visual experiences that do not activate familiar thoughts, feelings or ideas. I wanted the viewer to experience a new adventure. Recognizable shapes present recognizable ideas and feelings. Abstract forms elicit freshness. | Exhibition I made these paintings under the mentorship of Merrill Shatzman at Duke University during academic years 2015 and 2016. Each painting is paired with a formal and conceptual narrative. The following text is an excerpt from the case study of Untitled 7. Purchasers receive the painting’s full narrative. | Case Study of Untitled 7 I worked deductively2 and laboriously.3 I enjoyed transcendent pleasure while making Corpus. Untitled 7 contained 12 layers of paint. Each layer represented a new4 idea illuminated by increased emotional intimacy within a relationship. In the first layer I painted reddish and bluish tones onto three Shina block squares. I used blocks which contained impressions of feminine plants to represent a woman’s energy. I used red and blue and positioned them on the paper in a way compositionally similar to 2
The process of deducing or drawing a conclusion from a principle already known or assumed; spec. In Logic, inference by reasoning from generals to particulars; opposed to INDUCTION n. (Oxford English Dictionary, 2016, selected). 3
Characterized by or involving hard work or exertion; requiring much time or effort; arduous, tiring; painstaking, tiresomely difficult. Also of a physical action: performed with great effort or difficulty; slow or deliberate; heavy. 4
That has not previously existed, differs from what existed in the past, etc. Not previously existing; now made or brought into existence for the first time. Of a kind now first invented or introduced; novel, newfangled; original. Not previously known or experienced; now known or experienced for the first time a) of something communicated b) of a feeling, experience, etc. c) of a thing or person not previously encountered, a country not previously known of, etc. Strange, unfamiliar (to a person). Coming as a resumption or repetition of some previous act or thing; starting afresh, resurgent. Restored after demolition, decay, disappearance, etc. Freq. in to make new. (Cf. new moon n.) Additional to that which was present before; further, renewed. Other than or replacing the former or old; different from that previously existing, known, or used; changed. Of a person: that has succeeded another person in a specified position or function; that is the latest, or one of the latest, to have come into a certain position or relationship a) that has undergone moral or spiritual (in later use also psychological, emotional, etc.) transformation b) of a place: different from another place previously inhabited or frequented c) inclined to change or novelty. Rare. Having or retaining the qualities of a fresh or recent thing; full of life or energy; showing no sign of decline or decay. New Eve n. a woman seen as a successor to Eve, esp. in being fallible or easily tempted, or (occas.) in redeeming the transgressions of the first Eve. New Journalism n. (freq. with the) a style of journalism that developed in the U.S. during the 1960s, characterized by the use of subjective and fictional elements; also used earlier in a more general sense. New meat n. U.S. slang (a) newly arrived inmates, students, etc.; (b) Mil. replacement troops; (also as a count noun) a new replacement. New nothing n. Obs. a worthless novelty; (Brit. regional) nothing at all; cf. nothing (pron. and n.) New poor n. (usu. with the) recently impoverished people, regarded as a class. New technology n. technology that radically alters the way something is produced or performed, esp. by labour-saving automation or computerization; an instance of such technology. Used to form the names of colours obtained by new techniques, esp. new blue (n. and adj.) (Oxford English Dictionary, 2016, selected). the American flag. The symbolic form of this layer represented the American Exceptionalism
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that defined his rhetoric, logic and professional life. In the second layer I made formal choices to describe oscillation in love between hyper-intimacy and extreme distance. I used transparency base to represent vulnerability as an intrinsic component of emotional intimacy. I painted silver and transparency base onto tarleton (a textured fabric used in lithography) to represent love wherein performative gestures render a necessary ‘erotic space’. Anne Carson writes, “In any act of thinking, the mind must reach across this space between known and unknown, linking one to the other but also keeping visible to difference. It is an erotic space.” I painted parts of the tarleton cold, bluish silver to distinguish the known from the unknown. I added transparency base alongside the silver to observe a formal balance of hues. I layered the painted tarleton under a block and on top of a root from a North Carolina plant. The silver ink represented impenetrability and stoicism. I chose silver paint as a metaphor to represent the alloy of carbon and iron essential to construction and engineer materials. The material durability of steel combined with a weakened industrial domestic demand philosophically illustrates the “market value” of stoicism as men age. I used the plant root to represent the patriarchal role adult sons play within nuclear families wherein responsibilities of mother-son ties supersede romantic partnerships. I added eleven consecutive layers in this vein. 5
Seymour Martin Lipset introduced American Exceptionalism. He summarized it as an ideology defined by liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, democracy and laissez-faire for business. The central ideas of this painting are power, pleasure, mystery, loss, pain, loyalty, materialism and patriotism. This is the only monotype in Corpus which used hues other than black. Dedicated to Shellie Fleming This work is dedicated to artist Shellie Fleming. Professor David Gatten introduced me to her work in Spring 2015. I studied Left-Handed Memories (1980), Private Property (public domain) (1991), Devotio Moderna (1993), Life/Expectancy (1999) and Never Concluded … Half Erased (2013). Shellie died in December 2013. Her writing, instruction and art illuminate the sacred spaces of the Duke MFA program today. She keeps us company. My spirit persisted because I studied her fearless vulnerability, unmatchable endurance, unfathomable resilience and meticulous devotion to craft. Thank you, Shellie. It would take most of my life before I would begin to self define in a way that could allow me to walk through the world with the kind of peace I would need to deal with life’s clutter and speed. :: Never Concluded … Half Erased (2013) | Reading List Abramović, Marina, Relation Work and Detour, 1980
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