Space

Detail from my hand-painted artwork "Pitch Dark".

Space. How do we think about the spaces in between us? Is there just air or is there tension in the wind? When I look at certain paintings I feel nothing between the artist and their subject. They are painting a reality that Mark Rothko calls "illusory" (see my Pink Lily post in my Journal here for a quote). They do not see the air in between them and their subject and only show, almost scientifically, the object as it is.

Certainly there is room for this type of art but I am more interested in the spaces in between. Often when I am painting a subject I feel emotions that come across in my strokes. This is especially true when painting from a live model. I am intuitive and often find an emotion present in the person's face or body language that I react to when painting.

An Ocean of Radiance

Is space really empty? I don't think there is nothing in the air when air itself is matter. Most painters would know of the idea of atmospheric perspective - when things get further away they get fuzzier as the moisture in the air between you and it distorts your vision. Certainly this can also happen within only a few feet.

I like this quote from a science fiction book that illustrates what outer space looks like to the protagonist, Ransom, as he travels through it on a space ship:

"There was endless night on one side of the ship and an endless day on the other: each was marvellous and he moved from the one to the other at his will, delighted. In the nights, which he could create by tuning the handle of a door, he lay for hours in contemplation of the skylight. The Earth's disc was nowhere to be seen, the stars, thick as daisies on an uncut lawn, reigned perpetually with no cloud, no moon, no sunrise, to dispute their sway. There were planets of unbelievable majesty, and constellations undreamed of: there were celestial sapphires, rubies, emeralds and pin-pricks of burning gold; far out on the left of the picture hung a comet, tiny and remote: and between all and behind all, far more emphatic and palpable than it showed on Earth, the undimensioned, enigmatic blackness...

"A nightmare, long engendered in the modern mind by the mythology that follows in the wake of science, was falling off him. He had read of 'Space': at the back of his thinking for years had lurked the dismal fancy of the black, cold vacuity, the utter deadness, which was supposed to separate the worlds. He had not known how much it affected him till now - now that the very name 'Space' seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean ocean of radiance in which they swam. He could not call it 'dead'; he felt life pouring into him from it every moment." (C.S. Lewis "Out of the Silent Planet")

Virtuality


A space I created digitally.

Related to this concept I think about what it is like when I'm online. Being an artist I'm holed up in my studio for hours on end and thus, spend a lot of time online in order to connect with the artistic community. (I do go outside too though, don't worry!) But I wonder about most of the graphics and imagery I look at on my screen. They don't seem to dwell in reality but are more illusory. I see slick graphics and fast moving flash sites. I see pop-ups and flat imagery. When I do see signs of life it is still created digitally. What does this have to do with our day-to-day lives and the spaces between us? Where are the wide open, empty spaces that provide rest for the soul? And where are the broken, emotionally-charged, tension-filled pages that bring you to life?

How do we portray the tactile existence of walking around a vibrant city and interacting with real life things as we look benignly at a two-dimensional surface? This is something I'm addressing in my art as many markets are becoming increasingly digital. How does my art not simply fluidly slide by, but have an intense visual impact as I affect the space between my art and the viewer?

What spaces lie between you and I?