Artist’s Statement
*This statement applies to the work found in Gallery 1.
The Short Version
I hope to convey in my artwork the visual nature of our experiences as they are influenced and confounded by multiple channels of information processing, transient emotional states, information overload, distractions and shortened attention spans.
The artwork in Gallery 1 can be viewed as representing the interaction of how we process or remember cognitive and visual information with how we process or remember emotional information. It is thought that these two information types are actually processed separately and then come together to form an experience, which can later become a memory. I explore this notion and experiment with breaking it down in art as an incomplete image over an abstract background.
In addition, the artwork makes a commentary on information overload. The paintings represent the basic visual information from an experience set against the abstract backdrop of color and motion to suggest that it may be difficult to fully perceive, process and recollect complete, meaningful experiences when our minds are challenged with information overload and constant distractions. I explore how to depict what our experiences and memories may boil down to in these circumstances – raw, basic information interacting with abstract fields of color.
The Long Version
After a period of exploration with color and imagery (which can be seen in Gallery 2), I discovered a style that exploited the layering technique that I had been using, while at the same time allowed me to explore the psychological topics that interest me. Visually, this style combines the elements of abstraction with the elements of realism. This is accomplished by representing only the bare essentials or incomplete notions of images and placing them over abstract fields of color. The combination broadens the possibilities of color usage, which is an important element in my work, and creates a unique dynamic and sense of motion as the field of color moves behind and through the image.
From a psychological standpoint, this style strives to capture the way that we process information. It is thought that our brains process emotional information separately from cognitive information. Both types initially pass through the same brain region, but through evolution for the purposes of survival, emotional information is looped quickly into a response channel while cognitive information is sent through additional channels for deeper analysis. The brain must know very quickly if the stimulus is life threatening, but does not need to immediately know specific details. As a result, at the moment of processing a stimulus, you will first receive and react to basic information, which includes emotional information, before truly understanding what it is. Then, the details of the stimulus will be filled in and combined with the emotional information. All of this of course happens very quickly.
The mismatch in the processing of emotional and cognitive information is also seen in memory recollection. For the purposes of survival, emotional information is easier to retain than cognitive information. Factors such as how much time was spent processing the experience, the repetition of an experience and the amount of time that has passed since the experience will affect the degree to which cognitive information is recalled. Details may be lost, diluted, or in some cases, the entire cognitive element of the memory may be forgotten. This could explain why we have certain emotional responses to situations or objects that we fail to understand. It also raises the question of the accuracy of our memories. Is the cognitive information being combined with how I felt during the experience, or how I feel now?
From this perspective, the abstract background of the paintings represents emotional information. This abstract background – moving and changing with the rapid and transient nature of emotion – serves as the field onto which the cognitive information is placed and combined. At the moment of processing and/or recollection, the cognitive information is incomplete – it either needs to catch up to the emotional information or it has been diminished over time – so it is represented as a line drawing, or an incomplete depiction.
This interpretation of the paintings can go beyond the individual to also address our culture and our lifestyles. The gathering speed at which we live our lives and the distractions that surround and challenge us affect the way in which we process and remember our experiences. This is not a statement against progress – progress is inevitable and not new to our time. It is a comment on the brain’s ability to adapt and the effects of its adaptation. The efficient and time-challenged brain will not hold onto “extraneous” details; it will capture only the “gist” of the experience. We will be able to process and retain emotional information, but in order to maintain efficiency in the face of speed and distraction, the cognitive information – the details – may be sacrificed. We face a challenge to fully absorb what we see and to experience something meaningful. From this perspective, amid speed and distraction our experiences and memories boil down to raw, basic information – which in art is the line drawing – combined with the abstract nature of our emotions.
It is my aim to convey through my artwork the visual nature of our experiences, captured as fleeting observations or poetic moments, and then influenced and confounded by multiple channels of processing, transient emotional states, information overload and distractions.