Abstract Language of Art

When we look at the works of artists like Mark Rothko, Willem De Kooning, Joan Miro, and Paul Klee, we are literally looking at language. These artists work communicated through variously appearing symbols which took on meaning by usage of position, color, texture and composition as well as content, to express what they were experiencing at the time be it insights and philosophies, or events regarding such things as relationships, religion/spirituality and war.

Easel Paintings- Rob Cook, used with permission

Each of the artists mentioned above moved through using symbols such as the human figure and recognizable scenery to increasingly abstract works containing symbols that communicated their message in more subtle, deeply meaningful ways. To see any of these paintings takes one into an expressive experience or story that expands within the painting, the viewer, and the body of work the artist produced.


For the past year artists around the studio have been looking at art as an adventure into unknown territory, working with methods of abstraction and listening to their paintings for the symbols which have emerged in their work as a language they may speak with intention. Each of them has taken the method and made it their own "dialect".


Art is a process of discovery and expression and it is my joy to see studio artists take the risks of not having to produce a finished product but remain involved in and exploring an ever changing process that is truly the art behind the work. At the same time I am reminded it's not work, far from it, it's fun, really fun, when you no longer think of it as work.

I invite you to step beyond being "done" with your work and explore the process of being willing, receptive, interpretive, appreciative and fully immersed in the studio method language of expressive art.

Peacefully,
Pic;)