Friday, February 5, 2010

The Sketch

















I have always liked looking at an artist's sketch more than their finished work. To me there is an essence of spirit that occurs when the artist first commits something to paper: colors are fresh and pure, the line work is rough and unresolved, and the image is full of energy.

That is my goal as an artist: to communicate what I see with simple raw clarity. I see the sketch as the purist form of artistic expression. It is what I want to see framed beautifully and hanging on the wall in someone's den, loose and sloppy with notes in the margins and pencil lines showing through. You can see into the mind of the artist and see the real show. It is like a live concert with all the audience noises, chord mistakes and guitar feedback between songs.

It is like a short story compared to a novel. There is no room to waste words. The author has to get to the point quickly. The ironic thing is that it sometimes takes me four or five times to get a painting that looks fresh and unplanned.


2 comments:

  1. Joseph-- your sketches (airy yet technical style, great sense of the surrounding environment) are always fun to look at. I enjoyed working with your site and being able to look at your various pieces. The sketches, needless to say, are always my favorite and I think they communicate exactly what you want. I really like this post. -Faith/Counterintuity Update Team

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