Click here to check out a clip of Jake Berthot as he talks about his paintings, making work, and the gaze. Please post a response
below reflecting on the 'method vs system' he mentions and what you think he means by/about 'the gaze'.
Below are some quick examples of his work.
I think Berthot's explanation of method vs system is something that could be applied to everyone. His paintings and artworks are very abstract that could be only understood with certain emotions. i actually really like his style of work, the very mysterious blurred out images find somewhat compelling.
ReplyDeleteI had a difficult time deciphering his personal concepts through my little understanding of where he's coming from.
ReplyDelete"Not just a thought process", you must also become the painting's servant. When painting, one must accept that there is no logical basis for the course of your actions. Simply let your gaze become the reasoning, and let it control what you make.
Perhaps when he mentions the 'gaze' he is referring to the straight-forward notion of simply seeing what is in front of you, and exploring the psychological presence through its physical nature. He describes his acknowledgement of his surroundings as becoming more clear the longer he looks, 'feeling the volume' of the trees, then the space, and then even the 'volume' of the light - so time is still an active variable in his thought process, as it takes time to fully understand something. Verbally, he is constantly tying the different senses together. It seems like a very philosophical way of thinking - really grasping what it means that you are seeing the reality that is before you.
Andrew McCausland
After watching the video and reading Andrew's response, I kind of see what Berthot was talking about. He talks about the concept of having a "system" versus a "method" when constructing a painting. Cezanne is used as the example when talking about "method" and how he simply works the painting as he goes, and uses Roy Lichtenstein as the example for the "system" and how he knows exactly how the painting will look in the beginning, middle, and end. It's a very interesting way of looking at things.
ReplyDeleteI like this artist a lot. I think that "the gaze" is very effective.. He is able to into emotion. There is a strong sense of time and space in his work. The best thing I found was the hazy quality of his work. I love how he draws the air. It really gives me a sense of the temperature, time of day, time of year, and overall mood of the setting.
ReplyDeleteJohna
At first, it was very hard to understand his concepts. After looking at his paintings, his statements were much more comprehendable. He reminds me of this movie called "Patch Adams" and at the beginning of the movie one character tells the main character (Robin Williams) that he needs to look past what you see to see what is really there. Williams had to look past his fingers, until they blurred to really see how many fingers there were. Berthot was telling us to look past the landscape, what is clearly presented in front of us to see what we really need to paint. As artists, we are suppose to expose the world deeper then what we see at a first glance. Berthot puts forth a good point.
ReplyDeleteI think Berthot's explanation about gaze and space is reflected in his artwork. The use of light space and volume is also evident. The paintings are borne of Romantic impulse, surely, but the honest, visceral immediacy of the dark landscapes suggested an artist fathoming the sublime on his own. It seems his paintings are series of how the light changes throughout the day and how the high key and low key make the paintings evocative.
ReplyDeleteBerthot presents a different point of view that is kind of hard to understand at first, but after studying his paintings and then appyling what he said to them, the pieces come together. Once one looks beyond the first layer of what one is looking at, one can see it in another perspective. I like his pieces because they are different, they make you stare at them and wonder what is going on, trying to come up with the matching story. His techniques are awesome because he really captures the mood, time, setting of the landscapes. Im still a litle unclear about his system vs method. In the end, there will always be a method or system to a painting, whether it be random and sporadic or structured and perfect.
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