Driven to Abstraction Part II

The thing about chaos, is that while it disturbs us, it too, forces our hearts to roar in a way we secretly find magnificent.

Christopher Poindexter

Diary entries

After the workshop at the Providence Art Club on Diving into Abstraction with Karen Rand-Anderson, I started a new sketchbook. These early entries were done while listening to podcasts and/or just letting the mind go. It may not be great art, but it is certainly a great meditation practice!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The Fine Art of Chaos

In an age of global instability, the threat of chaos looms. Chaos and Awe demonstrates the aptness and relevance of painting as a medium for expressing the uncertainty of our era.

Edited by Mark W. Scala
Essays by Media Farzin, Simon Morley and Matthew Ritchie

I would be remiss if I didn’t include in this post the recent publication from MIT Press “Chaos and Awe”. This catalogue of the major exhibition at the Frist Center for the Visual arts in Nashville represents a dialogue that has haunted me as a visual artist. Is painting dead? How do I create amidst the chaos and alienation of this world? This opens the door to seeing the deep existential necessity of expanding our “perceptions of knowledge, intuition and spirituality”. I highly recommend reading and perusing the beautiful images in this book as it explores painting as a relevant means of expression and cathartic experience in extreme times.

Code and Chaos

I discovered another aspect of chaos and abstraction while learning code. So much that is beyond me draws me in just the same. I remember the first time I discovered generative art and thought how can I do that? The basics are as follows from medium on generative art:

• Randomness is crucial for creating generative art. The art should be different each time you run the generation script, so randomness is usually a large part of that.
• Algorithms — Implementing an algorithm visually can often generate awesome art, for example, the binary tree above.
• Geometry — Most generative art incorporates shapes, and the math from high school geometry class can aid in some really cool effects.

SVG Animation

We are biologically trained to notice motion: evolutionarily speaking, our survival depends on it

Sarah Drasner

This book was the next step for me to dive deeper into the possibilities of abstraction and animation. Vector art saved as an SVG opened the doors to my first animated logo!

I continue to research the link between chaos and art as it influences my work. There are so many links to share on this topic here’s just a few:

https://jasonwebb.io/2018/01/superformulasvg-a-vector-based-2d-line-art-generator-for-web/

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lucy-mcrae-art-innovation-healthcare

Try creating generative art yourself! click http://color-wander.surge.sh

Abstraction Rocks!