JOW: There is Nothing to See So We Look

With this piece, I wanted to illustrate the idea of abstraction or the non-figurative, and the idea that “nothing” to some can mean no definite recognizable object. For this reason, they look, constantly in search of stability or a reason to look. Some seek neither, and simply enjoy it as a moment in a never-ending creation. I don’t know, something like that…
























This piece is an attempt to illustrate the torrent of visuals in everyday life, and how nothingness can be a point of interest amongst the sight of what can seem to be everything imaginable. In the upper right hand corner of this piece, I left an empty space as a resting point, something to ponder when nothing is presented. I don’t know, something like that…

























This third image is about the absence of resolution. We have figuration, identifiable objects, but no easily identifiable scenario. We can analyze/enjoy composition, mark-making, gesture, etc, but the mind still often seeks reason where there is none, in a traditional sense. We can imagine, but I wonder if that playfulness in imagining beyond what is presented is about solace amidst pieces that don’t fit together. Or it could be a reluctance to acknowledge that which is obvious, yet still a bit difficult to digest. I don’t know, something like that…

























These are two stills taken from the film Killer of Sheep by director Charles Burnett, as printed in issue #12 (Spring 2009) of the magazine ESOPUS. I chose this image because it made me think of the quote by Starobinski given in the handout from our first day of class: “[The gaze] involves perseverance, doggedness, as if animated by the hope of adding to its discovery or reconquering what is about to escape. What interests me, is the fate of the impatient energy that inhabits the gaze and desires something other than what is given.” I like the idea of how the quotidian married with the extraordinary, in terms of visuals, stimulates frenzy not very dissimilar from what I’ve described in the third image. Within this image, we possibly, secretly seek motion or the event which follows, but also want to maintain the desire to seek it. I don’t know, something like that…