This week I was doing the final varnish and layering on of skins for my artwork while making sense of what the series should be called and the concept behind it.
This first series has taken me over a year to make and there are over 30 mixed media 7” x 5” (178 x 127cm) pieces in the series. I thought of all kinds of names to acknowledge that the pieces express the underlying complexity and tensions I see in organisational life, as I’ve gone about helping workers with changing the corporate landscape. There is an overall name for the series which is abstract botanicals. But..that would be the more appealing acceptable name.
I was encouraged to hear another artist speak of her work conveying the horror and disgust that she experiences with another phenomena. And I realised that this is what my art is conveying too. Thus although this first series shows bright and colourful, botanical patterns of barely recognisable trees, plants and flowers (apparently I’m good at transubstantiation, necessary for abstract work), it sure ain’t pretty.
Pretty ugly is my summation of the collection and it certainly echos some of the narrative that we say to each other about activities in the modern organisation. Another term we also hear in offices all around is. “I’ know, it’s a mess”. Strangely these vocal expressions help us to cope.
It is real. It is not meant to be cosmetic. The art shows me winning with not presenting the cosmetic highly polished. Instead the pieces hopefully authentically convey some of discourse expressed about contemporary work life. They brightly acknowledge the paradoxes, entanglements and contradictions, ironies and ugliness. As such they might work to (or perform) as emancipatory statements. Indeed, potentially piece of art each acts as the one item on your bookshelf that keeps it real about what you are dealing with in your daily grind.
When I have named them all I shall present the full series in the product showcase, after I have listed them for sale on Etsty. But I hope you enjoyed this quick behind the scenes as the varnish dries and I resit making anything more appealing, fake or inauthenticity as the art exists.
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