T. Young
Abstract creations that are approachable, clean & real.
From T. Young:
2018 has impelled a bit of a change in my artistic process.
Instead of creating and beginning a painting by use of color as the first step, I am constructing them with more of an architectural thought process by utilizing shape as the first step. I have been studying the architectural designs and work of some of my favorite architects to help me explore this use of shape and line as it applies to objects that we live with or in in our environment.
The 3D objects, used as a comparative, help me work towards translating those multifaceted objects and shapes into 2D. I approach the idea of a new painting by doing some preliminary sketching. I also lay out randomly shaped paper cutouts or use tape to mask off areas of my workspace. I like to incorporate simple hand printing methods into the picture with the use of found objects such as odd shaped Styrofoam or sponge packing materials.
I continue to use acrylic paints as my main medium, but add additional mediums like oil pastels, spray paint, ink, graphite, watercolor, gauche, or chalk pastel. I am using canvas, wood, different types of paper, together and separately, in the construction of my pictures. At some point in the build, I will add a few weirdly placed skewed and off-centered lines, circles, squares or dashes in and outside the design area in an attempt to disconnect the flow.
I am especially enjoying any blank space that I create within the work; because creating extra space was something I rarely did or concentrated on in my previous paintings. It is in these isolated spaces and off centered lines that have a strangely exciting and enticing effect – they allow for a moment of detaching and creating a kind of void in an area that allows a pause in which to breathe before starting the movement once again.
My past work formed a more chaotic drive in the movement of the painting, and while I love the process of that more frenzied drive, it seems of late, not only am I working toward simplification – I crave it.