Reflecting on The Process of The Visual Meditation:
I approached this visual meditation by observing the piece from different angles every time I went to do the study. I would view it from underneath, the sides and up front. By doing this, I was able to fully take in the experience this artwork presents to us and I was able to pick out new details every time I studied it in my sketchbook. The piece I chose was on the 6th floor, directly facing the staircase going both up and down. This meant that many people would walk by me when I sketch and some would even sit on the stairs to call friends or family. I usually listened to music when I did the studies so I wouldn’t really notice them but when I find myself stuck, not knowing what to draw next, my mind would drift to looking at what the passerby are wearing. I vividly remember one time someone dropped a scarf on the ground near where the art piece was (though I didn’t see who dropped it) and after 30 minutes of it lying there, I looked down from the painting only to find that it had completely vanished. On the days I was tired, meditating on the artwork relaxed me which was a surprise. The main challenge was thinking of different ways to document this meditation. My first impulse would always be to draw the artwork exactly as it is. To overcome it, I decided to do drawing exercises like blind contours and focusing on the stroke of the paint of the work.
Research Process:
“Two Angels, 100 Years” was made by artist Dorothea Rockburne using two canvases, oil paint and a small amount of gold leaf. Rockburne is known as an abstract painter with many of her works surrounding the themes of geometric shapes and unique, eye-catching paint textures. The artwork looks geometrically precise but the angle at which the shapes connect created a mind-boggling effect that almost questions whether the shapes are actually perfect. It made me wonder why Rockburne decided to create abstract art using perfect shapes with straight edges instead of other irregular shapes with curves. Looking through her entire oeuvre, “Two Angels, 100 Years” was one of her earlier works where she was more focused on sharpening the edges of the shapes and making sure to use color to distinguish between each shape. Since this piece of artwork, she has progressed into focusing more on the texture she creates using the paint and began mixing them together on the canvas instead of using block colors divided by a thin, exact line. Further research about the artist herself was what lead me to the answer to my research question. Rockburne chose to create abstract art with fine mathematical precision because of her fascination with maths and astronomy. Rockburne investigated the mathematical sciences by looking at free-flowing motion (shown through the fluid brush strokes in her work) that is confined only by lines which create a perfect shape. The reason why she chose to paint static perfect shapes was due to her experimenting with how to present dynamic movement with geometric restraints.
Bibliography
“1983-1985.” Dorothea-rockburne. Accessed February 06, 2019. https://www.dorothearockburne.com/1983-1985.
Waltemath, Joan. “DOROTHEA ROCKBURNE Astronomy Drawings.” The Brooklyn Rail. April 2, 2010. Accessed February 06, 2019. https://brooklynrail.org/2010/04/artseen/dorothea-rockburne-astronomy-drawings.
