Positive & Negative: Abstract Paintings and a Philosophical Explanation
Positive 1: Acrylic paint on canvas
It is sometimes claimed that in positive things there are negatives, and vice versa. It is often said that the inverse is required for life to function. Without light, there cannot be darkness; without death, life cannot be. Vice versa. Darkness cannot exist if there is no light, and death cannot be if there is no life. For a positive to be positive there needs to be a negative. If one makes a moral claim about this, the implications seem dark. For good actions to be good, it requires bad actions. For good emotions, light, to be, there need to be dark and bad emotions. Can it be that depression is necessary for happiness? This seems wrong, but for light to be light, there needs to be dark.
Positive 2: Acrylic paint on canvas
These paintings, in some sense, touches upon this, if you will, moral dilemma. Call them “Ruined” yin and yang symbols. This reading of the artwork is absolutely retrospective. I did not set out to paint yin and yang symbols. But the more I looked at them, it kind of started to dawn on me that the light and dark contrasts, especially in “Positive 1” and “Positive 2”, symbolized a ruined yin and yang symbol.
Negative 1: Acrylic paint on canvas
Negative 2: Acrylic paint on canvas
“Negative 2” might be the resolution, the enframement of light. Trying to “capture” the dark, it fails to do so. It is almost like trying to grab water. Once you start to grab, it moves through your fingers. As you grab, the water escapes only to cover your whole hand. Darkness envelopes, but the presence of the light masks the attempt of darkness to take over. There is a constant reciprocation, inter-action, reciprocal-inter-action, between darkness and lightness.
The Process of Making these Paintings
Please see the video and photographs below of how made these paintings. I will, below the video, explain the funny coincidence of how they came to be. I never planned to make them in the way I did.
Video
The funny story of how they came to be
These are the first "artistic" work I have done in over a year. I have doodled some things here and there, but nothing major. I planned to make some abstract paintings that would have covered a rather big wall. When I started to cover them with paint, the "roller" created a fascinating effect on the canvas which I fell in love with.
These are the canvases I wanted to cover in black. There are some artworks that I covered.
I started with the black paint, and began to use the roller to spread it evenly. Little did I know the awesome look it would make on the canvas.
As you can see, I started to roll onto the blank white canvas and here I noticed the awesome look it made.
And this is when I noticed the awesome look which I wanted on all of the canvas. The original idea was gone, lost, snd I started to do all of the canvas in this style.
Art is so in flux, in constant motion. You can paint over old paintings. Your original idea gets lost in the process of painting. I know some people do not like abstract art, and I will admit this is not the best work ever. But I love the "feeling" to works present. Please let me know in the comments if you are an abstract art fan or not.
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