CHRISTOPHER BORDENCA
Organic Developments and Growth
Thesis Statement
The title Organic Developments and Growth describes both the method by which I work, and the resulting images. The paintings are representative of themselves independently as they are with the final image being as original unto itself as anything else found in nature. I use as much of what I perceive as reality, from the growth of plants, animals, cells, planets and the universe, to the formation and use of ideas, memories, thoughts and feelings, in an interconnected conglomeration that represents all of it at that particular time, through this particular painter. What results is a visual network of parts that vary in size, color, shape, feeling, and movement, to form a larger whole. These parts manifest themselves when they are looked at, and then dissolve back into the whole of the painting, much the way an electron manifests at the point it is observed and then is lost again as it returns to its orbit around the nucleus.
Viewing each painting is meant to be an active and engaging process. One in which the eyes of the viewer are provided with numerous stimuli, with which to run their own thoughts and emotions over, through and around the course of the painting. That is how they were painted. In the larger paintings, the physical act of moving side to side and back and forth combined with my vision of the image close up and from a distance, I feel like I am hanging, swinging, and climbing around the trunk of an immense preternatural tree. I am high up in the branches and it is all things primordial. There is infinite life. Life unseen, thoughts not yet had, faded memories, forgotten dreams, and unnamed ideas all reside here, and I am a primitive creature with no other way to give an account but through images.
It is only when I am not physically painting, but visually
painting that the image takes its shape. All things are considered in
each of these paintings and the only "gesture" is the first.
The first gesture is the seed in the soil of the blank canvas, and from
the there the painting grows of its own accord with my assistance. The
painting is what it is whether or not I ever make it. Each painting already
exists, perhaps in the same realm as Aristotle's Forms maybe, and when
I paint, I am trying my best to make its material incarnation. Where I
fail is when the dream slips, and I begin to think, and apply limited
visual tricks. A highly defined area like a form with shadow, something
recognizable, those things that are easy to grasp lack the full complexity
of the notion.
When early explorers went on safaris, or sailors on voyages
and reported their accounts to artists, artists were limited by their
own visual experience so they produced sea monsters instead of whales,
or armored behemoths instead of elephants. These creations were amalgams
of other animals that the artists had seen. The best drawings came from
actual observation. Mythical creatures all were made of various different
parts of known animals and in many ways I am trying to tie myth and reality
together along with the archaic and the modern.
The paintings are akin to myths and movies. Stories in
all forms are myths; even non-fiction becomes myth once the event has
passed. None the less they are meant to inform about life. They are accounts
of life and attempts to illuminate new facets of life. Much like those
early interpretations of animals and monsters, the paintings are incarnate
myth, gleaming in dazzling Technicolor. They are conglomerations of all
things I have seen used to represent many facets of life as a whole. They
do not move, but they are interactive. They are meant to be viewed over
time.
Each one is open, and it is okay to look and see to things.
I sit for hours staring deep into, around and over each painting, trying
to see every possible thing it has to offer, in terms of shape, movement,
color, images, and most of all life. They are not meant to be interpreted,
but to be watched like a movie. All of the information is presented to
cause shifts in thinking on different levels. At times I will sit in front
of a painting and allow my mind to wander while tracing the paths of the
painting, following the forms, and shifting my perspective, and will find
myself lost in thought, but always running over the painting with my eyes.
Sometimes I construct entire novels out of a single perspective. Other
times I relive entire portions of my life, or day.
I want the viewer to use the painting like a topographical
map of "life, the universe, and everything" by superimposing
their own experiences on top of it, and reading the personal peaks and
valleys, high points and ruts, oceans of uncertainty and concrete foundations.
From the smallest detail to the largest detail, it is all considered and
it is all connected.
The larger works, Technicolor Surround Sound (Slide 1),
and The light, when I'm not looking (Slide 2), lend themselves to this
kind of viewing in particular. Each with a different atmosphere and intensity,
they are visual labyrinths, akin to those used by monks for thousands
of years. Those labyrinths were made on the floor, and there was only
one way to go. Ultimately you would reach the center, but the point of
the exercise was the journey. The act of walking the labyrinth represented
one's journey through life, with all its twists and turns, and switch
backs.
Often paths run parallel to earlier and future paths in
the labyrinth. On a personal level these paintings embody for myself a
clear example of that aspect of the labyrinth. At times during the creation
of some of the paintings there would be sections of painting that I would
think I was repeating from previous paintings, only to realize later that
the image actually was the image I thought I had already painted. A sort
of deja vu maybe, but it felt more as if I were drawing directly from
the storehouse of imagery hidden deep inside myself and the universe.
My method is to allow the painting to develop of its own
accord. I, as the painter only serve to facilitate the growth of the image.
An artist can never truly paint anything objectively, much the same way
that a scientist can never truly study anything without affecting the
outcome. Everything influences both the artist and the experimenter, like
environment, emotion, psyche, conscious and subconscious, in a chaotic
yet unified system. I do not wish to separate myself from the paintings
anymore than I want to consciously impose myself on them. If the image
were a plant, then the canvas would be the soil, the paint the nutrients
and water, and the artist the sun's light shooting from some point of
ultimate creativity and inspiration to enact the process of growth. During
the process the sunlight and the artist both are transformed in order
to organize the living systems that result.
There is an evolution that takes place from painting to
painting as well. Each one inherits traits from its parents and grandparents,
the painting before and the one before that, etc. Traits are passed on
based on a natural selection of sorts, something that works in one may
appear again and again, sometimes only in certain paintings, like a recessive
trait. There are also mutations. Random occurrences that work well for
the painting are noticed and allowed to remain because they help the painting
survive. These successful mutations then become permanent parts of the
genetics of the paintings
As for the result, I want the viewer to try to see each
painting as a whole, with a hierarchy of forms determined by size, color,
and shape. Repetition is a key element, echoed areas and reflections,
complex micro-systems that form larger pieces of the whole image. Through
an act of repetitive self-reflection, the paintings are made, and should
be viewed. With each look comes new thinking that creates a new perspective
that creates a new thinking that includes the previous thoughts, giving
a new perspective…etc. This cycle of in and out, repetition gives
the paintings a pace to which they reveal themselves. As the pace of life
speeds up, more connections are being made at a much faster rate and on
may levels just beyond full consciousness. For the most part I believe
our awareness is getting progressively narrower, creating more and more
room for larger quantities of information to be processed subconsciously.
This information is relatively close to consciousness because it has not
been so long since the time when these levels were a part of awareness.
When primitive people saw the world it was with a much broader view, reaching
out beyond purely human culture. Technology has narrowed our focus of
awareness to almost complete ignorance of the world and reality around
us beyond human culture.
I want to nudge open of the focus of the viewer, with
reminders of an awareness that is in danger of being lost with human "progress".
For example in Ghost Paintings (Slide 3) the center is painted in such
a way that it seems harder to focus on. The areas that appear to be the
least resolved serve the function of drawing the eye further into the
painting. By focusing and refocusing on this area, the sharper surrounding
area becomes blurred and the painting coalesces into a single vision of
the whole painting. This holistic perspective needs to be preserved. Without
as complete as possible a view of the world, we are destined to remain
on ever-thinning pieces of individual reality, feeling completely unconnected
to every one and everything else.
What of the internet and cell phones and all those things
that "connect" us? They are false connections, electronic facsimiles
of real connections. All they mean for us is that we don't have to physically
be with each other anymore. The physical world is being erased by being
ignored, to the point where will no longer exist in anyone's mind. We
can think we are anywhere in the world, we can hop on a plane and be there,
we can talk to the other side of the globe, all without standing up save
for getting on the plane or in the car. Time and space are being compressed
by technology.
In this age when all of history is at our disposal, and
all of technology as well, why then choose painting? Painting is timeless.
It has been practiced since the earliest people painted on cave walls
and has not become obsolete with the inventions of new technologies. It
is irreplaceable and invaluable. With each new technology, or new form
of art, painting is a physical re-examination of the world and the perceptions
of the people in it at that time. It is a language that has been spoken
and expanded upon along with us and our perceptions from the beginning
of history
I distinctly remember the first time I realized the power
of drawing. I was 7 or 8 years old, and I had just copied a dog from a
picture in a book about E.T. of all things. I felt like I had been granted
with new eyes, because my vision had just shifted for the first time.
I felt like I could actually see things for real! I did not know how to
explain it, only that it was through drawing, that I was able to really
see the world around me. From then on I was all about drawing things as
life like as possible all the way up until about the time I was in my
early twenties.
With painting I began to realize the potential to venture
ever further into paintings as I tried to make them look as 'real' as
possible. But what I noticed was that while my eyes were seeing okay,
my mind, and spirit were getting lost in the details. So I turned my vision
inward. Slowly and cautiously the changes have happened gradually leaving
the 'realism' behind, and focusing on myself, and then seeing paintings
as mirrors. So that if I am but a single part of the universe, then the
universe is a part of me, and a painting by me, is also by the universe,
and of the universe, and myself…but the universe includes everything,
so the painting is of the viewer, and by the viewer as well. It is all
connected, and it is all the same, I try to use my arm like the needle
on a phonograph, where it runs over the grooves in my mind, cause it to
vibrate, and produce an image rather than a sound.
My medium is generally acrylic paint, occasionally I will
use latex or vinyl house paint, on canvas or paper. I like to have as
little in the way between the canvas and myself as possible. Pure painting
is what I strive for, with references to myriad aspects of life, and to
influences and inspirations that reveal themselves to me during and after
the process. As for influences, they come from a wide variety of periods,
styles and philosophies. I do not wish to emulate any of them, but to
bear the spirit of their desire and will to be a painter and find what
it means to be a painter in my own time and place.
These artists include: Picasso, de Kooning, Poussette-Dart, Pollock, Gaugin, Rauschenberg, Rosenquist, Frankenthaller, Hockney, Du Champ, ...among many, many others. I do not wish to create an index of artist past and present, so I will say instead that I am a sponge, I take in everything I see, not only in painting, or other forms of traditional art, but in every aspect of life. I am acutely conscious of life's capacity to influence, and as a result am aware of the constantly changing forms and ideas and moments that influence manifests itself in.
5/02
Smells like cotton candy, tastes like vanilla
carnival rides, pinball machines, neon lights reflecting in rainy windows.
ancient symbols updated, logos thrown back
Paleolithic televisions, refigerators, VCRs, and videotapes.
Moonshots, blast offs, Rock & Roll atmospheres.
A modern stone age.
If I built a car...the guys who build rockets started out with fireworks.
Fireworks packaging & labels.
Technicolor Dolby Surround Sound.