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  #21  
Unread 04-10-2015, 04:12 PM
ross hamilton hill ross hamilton hill is offline
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James, the ones you disliked "digital static' are the least connected to my Alice Springs expereince, I included them because technically they were a breakthrough, pushing the app to it's limits and then finding something appear in a way you can never recreate, I felt they just qualified as being true to the piece, my best friend is a real desert goer and he always impresssed me with how important electronic communication is out there, it is a life line as it is so easy to get stuck and die unless you can contact help. That feeling of depending on the lifeline of radio waves is what I felt those digital paintings conveyed. But it is a stretch and I too had misgivings about including them.
When I look at the piece, the images roll past, I imagine everyone does that, but of course all the images are familiar to me, I suppose that is why I got into such a silly spat with Michael, I just couldn't see the obvious point he was making, that of course they first and foremost are individual works. Still I hope anyone interested enough will, after they have understood each picture, be able to watch it as one experience. It is only 2.13 minutes long. Quite fleeting.. and the music is very important, it's the glue that binds it all together.

Last edited by ross hamilton hill; 04-10-2015 at 04:17 PM.
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  #22  
Unread 04-10-2015, 05:47 PM
Michael Cantor Michael Cantor is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sharon Passmore View Post
Michael, you said, speaking of commenting about the art..."believe me - I don't believe that my comments would help our relationship." I am assuming this means you don't like Ross' art. Ok, well, brutally honest comments are what will save this art board from being a vanity board. We NEED that.

Will you please critique this video as a single piece and use that skillful, scalpel tongue of yours to the art forum's benefit, speaking only of the video and not the videographer? Pretty please?
Sharon, how can I critique the video as a single piece when Ross himself states (and I agree with him on this):

Quote:
Similarly the paintings are not in any one style nor do they tell a story.
The "single piece" consists of a large number of paintings that are related to each other essentially through the electronic "painting" technique used, not by any look or style - and they range from amateurish but not awful (the first few) to childish (child-like, if you want to be generous), to (the last five or six) utter messes. As Ross indicates, there is no pattern, the pieces don't relate to one another or lead anywhere. and the accompaniment is both amateurish (there's that word again) and completely unsuitable for the paintings.

There is no sense of the strong patterns and themes and rhythms one finds in aboriginal art (check the link); and when you look at the work in the link, and then Ross's efforts, it's like comparing skilled poetry, built around a formal base and containing patterns and rhythms; to a beginners clumsy piece.

Ross also indicates (to Roger):

Quote:
it is perfectly fine with me if you don't like the paintings within the piece, but as you admit you know little about modern art, so you unable to say why you don't like the paintings, to do so you would need to have the expertise, to know the history of art and where my different styles ( 5 in the piece) fit in and how they compare. Someone who knew what they were talking about would immediately see for example that some of the paintings are influenced by Rothko, some by the op art of Riley, many by impressionist techniqes developed by for example Monet. But this is the sort of expertise not found here at Erato, so I don't expect crits to be of that nature.
I'll be a nice guy, Sharon, and leave it to you to ask yourself what this says about asking us to participate in the thread. I am, by the way, not exactly unfamiliar with Rothko (here's a link to a published poem of mine on his work, which I hope gets across the sense of it in words), or Monet, or op art, and none of them came to mind when I looked at Ross's work.

Last edited by Michael Cantor; 04-10-2015 at 06:24 PM.
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  #23  
Unread 04-10-2015, 06:11 PM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is online now
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And I am also not unfamiliar with the artists Ross mentions. While I admitted to not having a critical vocabulary to speak as well as I'd like about the images in question, Ross has confused my modesty for a confession of blindness and ignorance. I have seen those artists' paintings many times in museums throughout the world, though mainly in New York where I lived most of my adult life, and I have taken a keen enough interest in art, and appreciation of it, not to have my opinions dismissed as those of an unschooled ignoramus for no other reason than my failure to appreciate doodles that anyone with an iPad and a free app could create in under five minutes. I am glad you have pleased yourself with what you have done, Ross, but this is not kindergarten where every student gets a gold star.
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  #24  
Unread 04-10-2015, 08:47 PM
Sharon Passmore Sharon Passmore is offline
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Sheesh, remind me not to moderate when I am so sleepy. I closed the thread due to misreading a post. Sorry about that.

Ross, I don't see any similarity between your work and Rothko. I don't think I have ever seen a Rothko with a hard edge in it anywhere. Rothko's work has symmetry too which yours does not. Neither does your work look impressionist in the least. There is no flat color nor hard edges in impressionist work either. They never made the final step into full abstraction. The artists that came into my mind were Calder and perhaps Klee. Yet both of these artists have much more dimension in their work than I am seeing here and this is the same problem I see with the video.

Nothing about this video has any dimension or drama. The titles are as basic as they could possibly be. Ok, lots of films have basic san-serif
fonts white on black, it's a modern style, but at least some attention has been paid to scale and placement. Quite often the background has a subtle texture, maybe even one of your pieces with the saturation and contrast knocked way back would work well.

The vid doesn't build up to anything. There is no crescendo, no focal point. Not every vid needs a narrative but it should go somewhere. Maybe it might move through in a color sequence, or large scale to small, or something. You must have something to say.

Some of the images seem like filler to me, especially the areas where you have taken the same image and simply altered the color. If you are forced to do this because you don't have enough images, shouldn't they really be spread away from each other in the sequence? If you are doing this for effect, for some dramatic interest, shouldn't you use your strongest images for that? Filler is just as big a no-no in visual art as it is in poetry. Try sticking in a few unnecessary words in a poem to fill out the meter and post in in the poetry forums. What would happen to you?

Ross there are a few of your Alice Springs pieces I like...but not the scribbles. What's up with that? Some of the stronger pieces are still exhibiting some "artifacts" which are areas, (in your pieces mainly in the outlines) where the computer has made a skip or a blop. This happens especially when selecting areas, especially when things have been laid down with anti-aliasing. The computer is a fantastic tool but you still need to take a close look and be the final artist. Trust me, when working digitally, sometimes I am looking at my work zoomed in to the single pixel level. Computers can't think.

Does your vid really need credits at the start and the finish when there is only one name? Speaking artistically, I think one would do. I also think your photo should not take as much prominence as the art images. a small one among the credits might work, hmm?

The music...er...well...you already know.
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  #25  
Unread 04-11-2015, 05:57 AM
ross hamilton hill ross hamilton hill is offline
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Thanks for commenting Sharon. Too jetlagged to say much, just crossed 3 time zones.
People shouldn't put too many expectations on this, it's just a slide show of paintings done at a particualr place with some guitar music to create a mood, nothing more.

Last edited by ross hamilton hill; 04-11-2015 at 03:25 PM.
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  #26  
Unread 04-12-2015, 03:29 AM
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John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
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Ross, your paintings are very beautiful. I am glad to have seen them. If Roger has a child who can paint like that he has a prodigy.

Am I right in supposing that Aboriginal painting comes into it somewhere?
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  #27  
Unread 04-12-2015, 04:13 AM
Sharon Passmore Sharon Passmore is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ross hamilton hill View Post
...People shouldn't put too many expectations on this, it's just a slide show of paintings done at a particular place with some guitar music to create a mood, nothing more.
Ross, you have some talent. Don't be lazy. Have some faith in your talent. Are you going to workshop this video? If, in the end, you had a very nice piece, would that be so horrible? As moderator of this forum I DO have expectations. I expect people to put forth work they care about. I expect people to take their work and this forum seriously.

If you do a revision, please leave the original up so we can compare.

Another suggestion - if the images and the music changed tempo at times it would add interest.
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  #28  
Unread 04-12-2015, 04:45 AM
ross hamilton hill ross hamilton hill is offline
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John, a lot of aboriginal art has moved away from traditional storytelling paintings into pure abstraction, using many of the techniques of mainstream modern art.
I was also influenced by the environment, but I didn't draw or paint the landscape using watercolours or acrylics, I used to do in Sydney but everything here was done on the computer. I also don't own a camera.
Some aboriginal painters also use a curvilinear style, which reflects insect trails and other natural patterns, the last painting in this series borrows from that style.
I have incorprated the dot style here and there but in aboriginal paintings it is a secret language, a code and without knowing it as an initiated tribal man or woman copying it too closely is in my opinion bound to fail.
I'm glad you liked the paintings.
kind regards
Ross
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  #29  
Unread 04-24-2015, 08:37 AM
ross hamilton hill ross hamilton hill is offline
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Sharon
Sorry I didn't see your final comment.
I was at one level trying to be a trail-blazer here. I know this is patchy at best.
I was trying to draw attention to the possibities these new apps provide. I would love to see work that combines visuals, music and poetry, there are some on the net but they use dead poet's work, that's OK, but it would be great if a younger generation comes along and utilizes these new technologies to their full potential.
Maybe they already are, singers, musos certainly are, if poets are too I havn't seen them, only slam poetry or simply reciting.
That was partly my motivation.
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  #30  
Unread 07-19-2015, 01:26 AM
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Václav Pinkava Václav Pinkava is offline
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I think the most complementary soundtrack would be the more experimental didgeridoo music. As for the artwork, it is distinctive and memorable, refreshingly unpretentious decor.
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