Critiqued Assignment #2: Irony versus Sincerity / "Why [Re]gard[er]?"

Abstract

This is a digital photograph of Gracie Collier's painting. It was submitted as the second critiqued assignment, "Irony versus Sincerity," on March 1, 2017 in Erin Harmon's Intermediate/Advanced Painting class. All pieces are 36x48 or larger; acrylic on canvas. The artist's statement reads: "Dug under the shallow surface of both the image and of the painting itself, the detailed rendering degrades into abstraction with dry map-like abstract forms that either sharply defined or merging with the next plane. This creates a slight distinction between the dismemberment of the medium from the image, furthered through the use of contrasting colors and value, as the integrity of both are questioned and the underlying core is revealed. An aerial map form mixes with a landscape to evoke a sense of time and space and of the universal to describe the destruction of the image. A hidden message not entirely accessible due to placement and language can be read in five ways meant to provoke and anger the viewer, whether understood or not, as the entirety of the piece becomes antagonistic. Since found unacceptable, the hyper-antagonistic was a failed attempt-perhaps emphasize the hidden with subtle and less clarity, less saturation literally and figuratively. Again, what is my content overall."