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Philip Guston on Making a Mark

10/26/2015

Making marks in a painting or drawing sets up a dialogue between artist and artwork, one that is full of questions, challenges and responses.

Sleeping by Philip Guston; 1977, Oil on canvas, 213.4 x 175.3 cm. Private collection © The Estate of Philip Guston

Philip Guston was a Montréal-born painter (1913) who became a major artist in the US.

I admire him for his honesty, making radical changes to his work over the years, going from skillfully figurative to purely non-objective (i.e. abstract) and then back to figuration; changes that had to be made in order to be true to the changes in himself as an artist.

The apparently crude approach he finally adopted (he said he wanted to paint like someone who could not paint) centred on a very personal vocabulary of recurring imagery and symbols.

This quote from Guston shows his intimacy with and insight into the painting process.

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Mixing Up Media

10/20/2015

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Photo-only (before):

Photo of a lawnmower detail showing beautifully corroded areas. Kim Lee Kho 2013

One area of stitching complete:

Creativity is essentially about making unexpected connections. Working in mixed media is very stimulating precisely because it expands the opportunity for forming new connections, especially in contemporary approaches where the options for ingredients has cracked wide open.

Stitchery, whether as sewing, embroidery, needlepoint, cross-stitch or other needle arts, has taken on particular importance in recent years. Late great Canadian artist Joyce Wieland (one of my heroes) was a pioneer in bringing traditional women's arts, such as sewing and quilting for example, into "real" art, i.e. the kind that gets shown in galleries and museums.

Below is a work-in-progress I've scanned in, where I'm drawing-by-embroidering onto a close-up photo of mine of an old, rusty lawnmower.

What interesting media combinations have you seen somewhere or tried yourself?

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A Big, Big Heart

10/13/2015

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Here I am with my pride and joy, a great big model of an anatomical heart (it even opens up so you can look at the chambers and valves).

This week in the creative writing class I am taking, I am one of the people assigned to bring "show & tell", usually in the form of one or more objects and a piece of writing. I have been working hard at pulling together the words and pictures that will accompany this object for my presentation.

Personally, the heart is a potent basis for poetic and symbolic thinking whether in art or writing.

Looking around at everything going on in the world today, I find myself wondering how different the world would be if all of us approached our fellow humans (and other life forms) with open hearts, not hardened ones.

What am I doing with this jumbo anatomical heart?

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A Little Sneak Peek at a Big Long-Term Project

10/6/2015

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Here's an illustrated page from a project I've been working on (writing and drawing) for a few years now and hope to finish in a few more years. It's about the human heart in the emotional sense but uses an anatomical heart in unexpected ways. I'm venturing into very new territory for me (my favourite thing to do apparently), and learning a lot along the way. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy this little peek.

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Philip Guston on Making a Mark

Mixing Up Media

A Big, Big Heart

A Little Sneak Peek at a Big Long-Term Project

Kim-Lee Kho

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Philip Guston on Making a Mark

Mixing Up Media

A Big, Big Heart

﻿A Little Sneak Peek at a Big Long-Term Project﻿

Kim-Lee Kho

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A Little Sneak Peek at a Big Long-Term Project