In my work as a painter I continue to believe in the redemptive, even convulsive effects of beauty, broadly defined, on both the creator and the viewer. Encounters that freeze the mind, even if momentarily, allow a glimpse of something larger and more inclusive than the mental chatter that normally occupies consciousness. In this, I prefer to operate non-verbally in most of my work, allowing the mind to expand, configure and coalesce as it wishes with as little narrative, text and preconceptions as I can. In this work I am not afraid of or apologetic about a certain organic beauty, chromatic luminosity, what is called in Latin America "magic", without a trace of irony or embarrassment.
For these broader reasons, procedurally I prefer to attend to close-focus articulations across a prepared, reticulated, often textured surface, allowing the brush to register small marks, shapes and contours that define and spread across the canvas. Even when in later stages of the ultimate images involve figures, per se, (such as in my recent murals) I always start with the granular layer, the marks that constitute a rich field of possibilities the eye might group this way or that. In the case of figures, per se, I use this layer to stimulate what is known as pareidolia, the capacity and penchant of the mind to see things according to its own unconscious impulses in near-random stimuli (much like seeing images in the clouds). I simply choose and define cells that the eye links to others among millions of possible configurations. In this, my visionary process is not so much projecting or finding as it is choosing and vivifying. In this sense I look sideways at the work, waiting for forms to suggest themselves. Color is usually monochromatic or analogous by scheme with occasional complementary accents here and there. Like Delacroix and later Seraut, even Chuck Close, color spots inside dissimilar color spots are common as part of an interest in simultaneous contrast, an optical phenomenon that sets up visual vibrations.
Larger compositional issues come secondary to the granular level of the surface reticulations, per se, but are of course critical as the work advances and develops. Often, composition is composed of a visual force that appears to blow through the picture, simple geometric forms: arches, rectangles, ovals, horizontal or vertical axis. Other times, figures appear or conform partly to the granular layer. And so, much of what emerges is an intensification and elaboration of granular surface/textural features that I simply choose between, unify or "cellularize" and vivify.
The mechanism actual mental/emotional/visionary criteria of this choosing and calligraphy on my part is mysterious and is almost automatic to me at this point in my development but comprises, I find, the particular plastic optic that most interests and engages my eye and wrist as I work. Intentionality is therefor not direct and premeditated, per se, but rather I allow the image to emerge through many small decisions that accumulate on the surface.
See the Studio Blog link in the side bar for more imagery
MURAL DECLARATION FROM JULY:
For the School of the Integrated Arts I have chosen to paint a philosophical
mural cycle concerning creative life, psychological and spiritual growth,
passages and moments of aesthetic reflection and joy. I have sought to evoke
an abstract sense of music through luminous color passages, patterns of
rhythm and a transparent flow of veiled and emergent forms. I have also
sought to celebrate the body in drama and motion, including conscious and
unconscious ways in which we alternately mask and reveal ourselves as social
beings.
Structurally, I have thought in terms of various theaters, stages of consciousness in the realization of the individual and, by extension, communities. In addition, the verticality of the architectural panels has facilitated an interpretation of cosmological ideas indigenous to ancient Central Americans, that of the inframundo below, from which life springs (primarily represented in warm reds and oranges) through the middle strata of daily life in transition (ochers) to the upper reaches of consciousness (blue- green), all illuminated in vertical ascension. A fifth panel in the Dance Studio overlooking the murals is similarly concerned with spiritual aspects of dance.
Through this mural I embrace the challenge that EMAI presents to the community, to become fully realized, expressive and generous human beings, at home with a sense of beauty and expressivity. One need only walk the corridors of this school to sense the will to live in playful joyousness, full of the energy and intelligence that permeates the hearts and minds of young and old alike. Here one senses verve and an abundance of spirit.
This mural is hereby given to the Escuela Municipal de Artes Integradas de Santa Ana. It is dedicated to artist-musician and scholar, my friend and colleague of many years, EMAI’s Founder and Director, Dr. Jorge Luis Acevedo Vargas.
May these murals incite discussion and provide a venue for contemplation for many years.
Ronald DeWitt Mills de Pinyas
Painter and Muralist
Professor of Art and Visual Culture
Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon USA
July 3, 2013
See the Studio Blog link in the side bar for more imagery
_________________
FROM AN EXHIBIT IN COSTA RICA OF STUDIO WORK DONE MOSTLY IN SPAIN:
LA TRAMONTANA TEMPORAL
Meditaciones Visuales en Cataluña
Galería EMAI
Escuela Municipal de las Artes Integradas
Santa Ana, Costa Rica
Junio, 2013
This body of work is largely inspired by a sustained residency in Catalonia, Spain. In it, I sought to work with forms that convey something of the refined and constructed landscape as well as the beautiful natural environment in the context of the depth and drama of the tumultuous and enduring cultural and political history in that part of the world. More specifically, I was inspired by a particularly massive 10th Century masía stone rural farmhouse in which my wife and I lived and worked, once the home of a famous Almogaver mercenary leader and feudal lord of the region. I was also inspired by the architecturally varied forms of the finestra (window) as well as the bridges (pont), both intact and in ruin, some from Roman times, others from the Spanish Civil War, some as a result of military attempts to isolate mountain populations, some simply the residue of time. I was also inspired by gracious Catalán rural customs, such as the planting of cypress trees to signify hospitality, and finally the Tramontana winds blowing across northern Catalonia, downward from the Pyrenees to the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean, all metaphors to me of natural and transcultural changes, passageways, transitional spaces alluding to the stubbornness of life and yet its never ending delicacy and wonder.
See the Studio Blog link in the side bar for more imagery.
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Structurally, I have thought in terms of various theaters, stages of consciousness in the realization of the individual and, by extension, communities. In addition, the verticality of the architectural panels has facilitated an interpretation of cosmological ideas indigenous to ancient Central Americans, that of the inframundo below, from which life springs (primarily represented in warm reds and oranges) through the middle strata of daily life in transition (ochers) to the upper reaches of consciousness (blue- green), all illuminated in vertical ascension. A fifth panel in the Dance Studio overlooking the murals is similarly concerned with spiritual aspects of dance.
Through this mural I embrace the challenge that EMAI presents to the community, to become fully realized, expressive and generous human beings, at home with a sense of beauty and expressivity. One need only walk the corridors of this school to sense the will to live in playful joyousness, full of the energy and intelligence that permeates the hearts and minds of young and old alike. Here one senses verve and an abundance of spirit.
This mural is hereby given to the Escuela Municipal de Artes Integradas de Santa Ana. It is dedicated to artist-musician and scholar, my friend and colleague of many years, EMAI’s Founder and Director, Dr. Jorge Luis Acevedo Vargas.
May these murals incite discussion and provide a venue for contemplation for many years.
Ronald DeWitt Mills de Pinyas
Painter and Muralist
Professor of Art and Visual Culture
Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon USA
July 3, 2013
See the Studio Blog link in the side bar for more imagery
_________________
FROM AN EXHIBIT IN COSTA RICA OF STUDIO WORK DONE MOSTLY IN SPAIN:
 | |
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Meditaciones Visuales en Cataluña
Escuela Municipal de las Artes Integradas
This body of work is largely inspired by a sustained residency in Catalonia, Spain. In it, I sought to work with forms that convey something of the refined and constructed landscape as well as the beautiful natural environment in the context of the depth and drama of the tumultuous and enduring cultural and political history in that part of the world. More specifically, I was inspired by a particularly massive 10th Century masía stone rural farmhouse in which my wife and I lived and worked, once the home of a famous Almogaver mercenary leader and feudal lord of the region. I was also inspired by the architecturally varied forms of the finestra (window) as well as the bridges (pont), both intact and in ruin, some from Roman times, others from the Spanish Civil War, some as a result of military attempts to isolate mountain populations, some simply the residue of time. I was also inspired by gracious Catalán rural customs, such as the planting of cypress trees to signify hospitality, and finally the Tramontana winds blowing across northern Catalonia, downward from the Pyrenees to the Costa Brava of the Mediterranean, all metaphors to me of natural and transcultural changes, passageways, transitional spaces alluding to the stubbornness of life and yet its never ending delicacy and wonder.
See the Studio Blog link in the side bar for more imagery.
