The Resonance of Materials
The Eye, The Hand and The Materials (no.3)
This is the third article related to The Eye, The Hand and The Materials. This one is materials. Some time ago I wrote about the idea of being a paper person. Here is that quote…
"I am a paper person. Some people love wood or fabric or metal or clay, etc. I love paper and the ink or paint or pencil on it and the patina of use and the feel of the surface and the notations, scribbles, stains and repairs found on it. I am fascinated by the evidence of use and the mysterious nature of its history as a unique voice, a witness to the lives of those people now lost to history who used to own it."
"As a person interested in paper this would also lead to all things related to paper like a fascination with libraries and archives, documents, postage and correspondence, books, posters, language, organization, files and systems and the architecture and infrastructure built for things related to paper. However, I am a visual artist, so I am also interested in studios and galleries, museums, collectors and collections, art objects, ideas, color, composition and form."
"Combining all of these things together you have the practice of collage which then grows into a process for creating studies for larger scales paintings. So my own little world is a complex one for which there are not enough hours in the day." - Cecil Touchon
I think all artists have their favorite materials that resonate with them and these materials are immediately attracting to those who love them both artist and viewer alike. My focus has always been on paper and hence the medium of collage and because of that continuous interaction with paper the artist is going to develop a refined sensibility for the feel, the texture, the surfaces, colors, and all of the other things mentioned above in the quote.
From all of the handling and the looking at and collecting of papers, this highly developed sensibility and sensitivity toward paper is going to then extend into the way an artist composes their compositions, arrives at their palette and carefully selects the scale of the final works to emphasize the details found in the papers used.
Collage is an intimate medium whose works tend to be small and require close encounters when looking at them. They require the viewing range of one’s focal point. They are conversational in nature meant for one viewer at a time who is leaning in to observe every subtle detail as compared to the grand scale of a large painting that is more like a lecture, to carry itself from a distance and be seen by groups of people.
When artists respect this intimate nature of the paper materials and are masterful at exploiting these characteristics, the viewer, who has a similar appreciation, will have a deep experience of resonance with such works.
In this way, the Eye, the Hand and the Materials come together to make works of art that hit the mark and resonate with the viewer.
Oh yes. I love paper. Old maps. Old music. Any paper really. And fountain pens and ink and 6B water soluble graphite. And inktense pencils. Yummy. Got lost in the Itoya store in a Tokyo. And Sennelier in Paris. Happy places. I don’t even have to produce a final piece m, just the mark making is satisfying.
The 'way' you are with Paper, I am with old patina'd objects.....old tarnished silverplated tea-sets, rusted metal objects that once had utilitarian use, old wood weathered down by touch or nature'd elements..... old, thrown out, broken down, once told a story in history, now to be used in a new story, given new life, told by me.