“We have not been able to establish paintings general lexicon or grammar – to put the pictures signifiers on one side and its signifieds on the other” – Roland Barthes

Abstraction is a language that cannot be interpreted.  Its syntax and grammar is constantly changing, depending on who is painting and who is reading.  We can use words to describe the physical and formal properties of a painting. Though many critics and writers may try, we cannot communicate the whole experience of seeing it, and we should not attempt to.

Books are vehicles for language, and the bookshop offers the reader a hundred different experiences but these experiences are restricted and pre-determined by the writer. The story is the same no matter who the reader is. By replacing text with form the number of potential experiences is infinite and unpredictable.

Controlling the visual experience is almost impossible; the viewer/reader brings with them their own associations and interpretations which will always stand as obstacles to communication. Accepting this fact leaves the artist free to explore internal dialogues and relationships without the fear of ‘misinterpretation’

Posted: June 5th, 2009 under Blog.
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You can now follow me on Twitter if you like. I’m not sure why, im not entirely sure what the point of it is. Maybe i should become a ‘Twartist’.

Or perhaps not.

anyway im here if you’re interested in what I’m up to.

Posted: February 27th, 2009 under Blog.
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Some stuff i noted down whilst waiting to see my tutor ofr the last time before i left Granada. thought id add it here before i loose the bit of paper it was on.

17th June 08

It seems there’s a pattern developing in the way i work. it tends to start with making marks freely, often quite quickly (paint dripping). Fluid expressive marks, experimentation with new shapes/colours.

then i start to analyse my stuff (maybe too much?); i look for boundries, break it down to a set of rules. set parameters for myself and establish formulas for working within those boundries. I’ve even broken down the imagery into a set of symbols or units. I used to limit myself to a certain range of colours.

But then I get bored and start again. no rules, just a blank canvas and, actually, just one rule: fill the space!.

So i opened up the space – no longer flat, one colour grounds, and some of the shapes are layered.
New shapes – Moved away from patterns, not constrained by repetition. although i have already developed a set of units.
New colours – exprerimenting with colour relationships. still fond of bright primaries but pastles are creeping in too (fashion?)

the boundries are still there though. the drips still make satisfying shapes to fill. having ideas about filling in the space between shapes with more shapes.
Bigger – new shapes/units are much bigger – active part of the composition.

Well, my english is always pretty bad when i try to describe my work but this is a particularly bad example. It’s basically just thinking out loud.

I really enjoyed the course i took at Granada Uni and i think it’s been really good for me because it gave me a period to work without pressure and freedom to start almost from scratch and explore another avenue of my work.

Posted: August 6th, 2008 under Blog.
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Hello internet.

I am Vanessa and I like to think I’m an artist. Eventually this website will have things on it. Untill then however, you can see my stuff here

Posted: August 27th, 2007 under Blog.
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