My Line is Emo: Mark-making Research

Hello world!

Okay this is very scary because I don’t write blog posts and I tend to run my mouth so I have to keep a watch over what exactly I’m writing in these posts because it’s open for the WHOLE INTERNET TO SEE haha.

Anyway, it’s my first week in Year One in ADM (and such a big workload already dear god) and we’re going to be starting the semester with mark-making! We were given a list of artists we can draw inspiration for mark-making from so I’m going to be documenting my research on a couple of these artists so I can make really marky marks.

 

The first one on the list is Ed Moses, specifically his drawings from the 1960s and 1970s. He was considered a central figure internationally in innovative artwork, and experimented wholeheartedly with different styles and ideas. I think a lot of his work involves layering and grids.

Ed Moses – Mouse. Picture taken from RadiusBooks.

This piece is titled Mouse. I really like the colour scheme that reminds me of a marble texture, with stark geometric shapes interspersed with the background. Despite the contrast, I don’t feel that the geometric shapes interrupt the piece, but rather complement the rough and textured feeling of the rest of the piece, resulting in a soothing yet interesting piece. I may use the idea of contrasting shapes and textures in my mark-making. No idea why it’s called Mouse though but whatever floats your boat Mr Moses

Ed Moses, Untitled colour lithograph on two sheets. Picture from Simultaneous Visions

This next piece from Moses inspires a really different feeling! However I think the theme of contrast and shapes still run through this piece. The harsh, angled black lines form a grid over a blue backdrop. The idea of the overlap suggests a form of transition in emotion from tranquility to something akin to rage or anger. I like the grid pattern a lot and I might try to replicate it in my mark-making!

 

The artist I’m researching next is Emma Kunz, who was a Swiss spiritual healer and artist. Her drawing are really interesting and abstract, and were meant to inspire healing, and were even drawn using radiesthesia, something that refers to the spiritual aura/radiation from our bodies. Too chim for me to understand LOL

Emma Kunz, Unknown Title. Taken from www.ruthhoggerresearch.blogspot.sg

This really looks so carefully drawn oh my like one line out of place would simply ruin the whole thing. I can see why her drawings are linked to healing! The orderliness of the lines and geometric shapes are super satisfying and the colours picked like the light blue and yellow really are also calming to look at. It reminds me of  light refracting out of a raindrop, you know like that rainbow diagram. Not that Kunz was thinking of raindrops when she was drawing this but it just looks like it to me :v

Emma Kunz, Unknown Title. Picture taken from Invaluable

This one I think is really pretty! It looks like some sort of gemstone with rays of light shining out of it. Again there’s that theme of geometry and precise line placement that makes this amazingly soothing to look at. I notice that her drawings generally have a center around which the rest of the drawing springs/slowly connects from. Perhaps that brings about a sense of stability and tranquility. That would be useful for mark-making emotions :0

 

The last artist I’ll be conducting research on for now is Julie Mehretu, who is a renowned American artist known for her abstract works of art.

Julie Mehretu, Black City, 2007. Picture taken from www.nytimes.com

THAT IS DAMN BIG WOW I think if I tried to upload the picture in its full quality my com would crash. Anyway wow!!! That’s really something. Like while the painting is technically a bunch of intersecting lines, there is a very clear feeling of crumpling and folding of a certain mass, and the splashes of colours and lines makes me feel like I see life in the painting, and not just in a detached way, but perhaps in the sense of a busy society or city. What an apt name. I really like the sense of chaos travelling-on-a-highway thing. Don’t ask me about the highway thing I just feel like there are highways in the painting :// I feel like her line placement is unexpectedly careful. I’ll perhaps use this as a reference for the emotion of excitement or life in my mark-making!

 

Okay that’s all for now. I can’t go on any longer or I’m gonna pass out and shut down lol good luck to me for the rest of the semester!!! Dream sweets :)))