about “Baby t”

In this piece, the absence of the canvas and the narrative environment pushes the focus on the painted figure and the structure holding it in place. I’m exploring what I think a painting is and what it needs for me. Here it’s a subject, the frame, and the things that work to hold it in place.

The use of nails and screws and wire all work to show the hand-making of this piece, which contrasts with the precision of the laser cut figure. How machine and hand are used to create a work of art and then solving the problem of combining the two together. With the omission of the traditional canvas I think it pushes the work compositionally, with air filling in the negative space, the physical environment then becomes a part of the actual piece.

Instead of dimension being implied with brush strokes, we feel a sense of space from the wires, the nails, the figure and the shadows they provide. 

The relation this piece has to my previous work is the underlying question, what is painting made of? What are my paintings, specifically, made of? A wooden frame, a bit of canvas, screw, nails, staples, glue, memories, paint, golden shimmering figures.

The freshness that the figure provides, having not been commonly included in the art world before, is a smiling black baby. How do I take these things that I’ve use for my painting practice so far and create fine art that will last. To answer the question of what painting means to me, in breaking it down to bare bones and piecing it back together again, I am continually asking myself this question. I think this piece is another step up on my way to an answer.