Reflective response

Reflective response to the research and reacting to the work I create.


When I paint I want to create work that reflects and communicates to the viewer how I view the world and individuals and how I respond to the actions of others, and in doing this I am transmitting information and the perception of what I create, I feel that I try to show the reality of how I feel is transferred into the work.

So a light overview has been given to the psychology of what possibly drives my work and obviously this will be returned to again and looked at in more depth. However I felt that I wanted to start investigating different artists and their influence on my work, especially considering their techniques and what drives them to produce the work and how that can be discussed alongside the work that has driven me to produce in these last few months.

I recognise that I place my thoughts/emotions and reactions to situations on to a canvas and then I expect a viewer to gauge that information that I have described to them in a visual context, and I do think that painting for me is a form of therapy, so the work I produce is a cathartic experience and therefore is the opinion of the viewer of no value to me? And in reflection is this work about pure selfishness and the individual's I paint have I devalued them as individuals? So when I paint these individuals and I am using them to relieve my anxiety so I project onto them I feel that I could be using them, however I do feel that I am attempting an interpretation of  their situation at some level and the work maybe more a commentary rather than a limited unyielding expression of transference. With the work I produce there are loose aspects of transference but I could also add that I also study the individuals so am also touching on the subject of anthropology, this is discipline looks at where humanities and social aspects and sciences are made to confront each aspect of cultural relations.

When I deal with people and due to my lack of confidence I tend to tip toe around these individuals as I am attempting to gauge their reaction to what I am attempting to say and I do have a need to be accepted and feel a sense of respect, and yet when I paint I am there in the moment and once the work is created there is for me a sense of the real reflecting back at me out of the canvas, as I don't have to communicate in a polite, non - conflicting tone. I can just paint the rawness and be emotive as I feel I can be.
When I use the word 'Emotive' in regards to my work I am thinking of the intention of that word, creating in an emotive way is using the emotions as internal instruments in an attempt to express the inexpressible, how I feel in a way that is not in an abstracted variation but rather a reaction to the reality of human existence.