Conceptual Abstractions

Featured image: Which Way

I am a conceptual abstractionist. Ok one might say – what is a conceptual abstractionist? And why are you a conceptual abstractionist. Hummmm – well it is a term I am creating because it seems to fit what I am creating lately.

Conceptual abstractions give me a freedom that used to exist in the abstract expressionism movement but has totally been lost in modern day abstractions. This freedom, this process of thinking while creating from abstractions to form a concept, or to rethink a concept and how it has changed.

During the 60’s abstract expressionists artists were searching for the pure space of form, line and color. This grew into the pure expressive space of gestural painting. Artist’s would go to their studios, try and block out all things and just allow art to happen. Art was considered “good” if others saw the artists pure space of creation, the pure space of process of becoming art. Line, form, color are just that line, form, color. Today these pure lines, colors and forms have morphed into design, and matching, simulacra and no longer hold the high arena of “art.”

Many artists are still working along these lines and their work comes across as rote and unimaginative, just design, just simulacra. They are mindless.

Conceptual abstraction allows me to create in my work my philosophy of life and my thinking. I begin with abstractions, floating around begging to be recognized. The process of seizing one abstraction and from this abstraction forming idea, forming concepts is what the process of creating art is all about. I want to use my mind. Some of the major ideas/concepts to date I have been working on in my art, the journey life, happiness, freedom, dualities, ethics, morality, beauty. These aren’t new ideas, but they are ideas/concepts that are changing, that is they have moved back into an abstraction and need reprocessing for current thinking and times I am observing their change and working with it.