David Lee Labby
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current work
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words
---------"A Bug's Back - a personal fable on creativity"
---------"Automatism: techniques for exploring inner space"
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biography
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"A Bug's Back - a personal fable on creativity"
The question: "Where do you get your ideas?" has an infinite number of
correct answers. Those answers are limited only if you think human
imagination is limited. I believe that the human imagination has no limits and
that the source for creative visual work can be from absolutely anything. So now that
you know my particular bias, a recent example...
Flipping through a magazine, I ran across the image of a bug's back. Something about the
way the wings were connected to the bug was very interesting. The way that nature had evolved
that shape fascinated me. The shape itself was both functional (for the bug at least) and by
itself - a very elegant, almost alien - yet beautiful form.
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I began to sketch, focusing on that form.
...click on sketches for a larger view...
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notes from sketch: "Life microscopic is much more interesting than life at human scale"
"2 major ideas: WORK FROM LIFE - but from the unseen world of the microscopic and
WORK FROM LIFE - the inner life of the subconscious"
These simple sketches help define an aesthetic for me: things that are normally unseen
or hidden can be as equally important as those things we see. Just because we can't, at
our natural human scale of things, easily see a bug's back - doesn't mean that bug's back
isn't as important ....or as interesting as anything else on this planet. As a matter fact,
those things we can't easily see with our eyeballs are usually more interesting
to me personally ...for some reason.
Automatism: techniques for exploring inner space
My personal goal in the visual arts is to express my "inner space", the inner reality of
my spirit - using color, form...the stuff of art. In the process, I hope to create a
life, an energy - where there was none.
I know that may sound like pretentious artspeak but I’m very sincere about it.
I’ve been expressing my inner space for many years through what I call
my "doodles" (improvisational mark making) Over time, I’ve developed the idea that
to authentically express my inner space through drawing, painting, etc. my attention
needs to be "split" somehow. Not focusing directly on what I’m doing more easily allows
what is already within me to come out naturally. I don’t pre-plan anything in my designs and
try my best to let improvisation control the process. The technique of split attention
and improvisation is intended to yield a visual echo or a peek into my subconscious.
Researching this idea, I explored the history of art to see if anyone else has been
interested in these same kinds of things. I discovered Roberto Matta and a branch of
surrealism I wasn't familiar with.
"Post History Chicken Flowers" by Roberto Matta, 2002 ...in the last year of his life
"I am interested only in the unknown and I work for my own astonishment."
~ Roberto Matta
Many of Matta’s paintings were efforts to reveal glimpses into his subconscious.
Technically, much of his work was at an enormously large scale so that he wasn’t as
easily tempted to step back and analyze the entire piece ...since, of course, he
couldn’t actually see the entire composition while working close to it.
Another technique was to work as fast as he could - to "stay ahead of his own conscious
thought." Both techniques were used as aids to peek into the unseen, hidden,
subconscious world.
Matta’s first contribution to Surrealist painting, and the most important, was
the discovery of regions of space until then unknown in the field of art."
~ Marcel Duchamp
Of course, those "regions of space" were the inner, hidden, psychological regions
within us all. Matta and other surrealists devoted lifetimes to exploring inner space.
There’s actually a word for all this striving to reveal the subconscious: automatism.
The Merriam Webster dictionary defines automatism as "suspension of the conscious mind
to release subconscious images" ....simple and elegant if you ask me. Additionally,
Andre Breton, one of the founders of surrealism, defined surrealism as "pure psychic
automatism."
Surrealism provided a fertile ground for automatism as a visual technique so it
deserves some exploration. Surrealism or "pure psychic automatism" was ...is... not
monolithic - it evolved in two different directions, one essentially abstract and the
other symbolic. (some art historians say surrealism ended in 1955 but I disagree, the
search for inner space continues today)
The abstract branch of the surrealist tree or "automatists" as they were called, felt
that the process of releasing images from the subconscious naturally yielded abstract
forms. These forms come directly from the subconscious mind of the individual artist
and by definition, since we all are human - also from a cosmic unconsciousness that we
are all connected to.
Essentially, we all share a common "inner space." The images coming from this process
are therefore both personal and universal. The theory is that at it’s deepest, most
fundamental source - our subconscious yields colors, shapes and forms that although they
may evoke the recognizable, are essentially abstract. Roberto Matta’s work is an
excellent example of the abstract strain of automatism.
"A dream that is not interpreted is like a letter that is not opened."
~ Sigmund Freud
On the other hand, dream images are a wholly different beast ...a symbolic visual
language that avoids abstraction in favor of naturalistic, recognizable forms.
These "veristic surrealists" wanted to allow the images of the subconscious to rise
to the surface undisturbed so they could be analyzed and interpreted. Salvador Dali’s
work is an excellent example of this symbolic strain of automatism.
Both strains of surrealism/automatism are concerned with suppression of the conscious
self in favor of letting the inner space of the subconscious come through. But how
does one go about actually doing this? Are there any visual techniques that have
proven themselves to be useful for peeking into the subconscious?
In addition to Mattta’s "large scale-work fast" and my "split attention-improvisation"
mentioned earlier, there are a number of formal automatist visual techniques in the
history of art.
cubomania - is a collage technique where a finished image is cut into squares and
then reassembled without regard for the original image. Gherasim Luca was one of the
first artists to use this technique.
decalomania - is the process of spreading thick paint on a canvas, then laying a surface
(like paper, foil, etc) on top of it while still wet - and then pulling it off - the
resulting image/texture is used as the beginning of the work. Max Ernst used this
technique extensively.
altered lithographs - Richard Genovese popularized this technique of altering prints
through automatic suggestion. This technique uses the relationship between sounds of
words and images as inspiration for the finished work.
coulage - is an "automatic" or "involuntary" (and I would add - accidental and
uncontrolled) technique where hot, molten material is dropped into cold water. The
resulting forms are incorporated into the finished product.
entoptic graphomania - is another "automatic" technique of drawing in which dots are
made at sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper and then lines are made to
connect the dots. (this description reminds me of what I’ve been calling my "doodling"
for the last few years)
In any case, it seems to me that the overriding principles behind these techniques are
to find ways for the accidental, the unintended, the random - to come through in the
visual work. These elements have the potential to express something of the subconscious
...something of that normally hidden "inner space."
biography
1956...
- born in Austin, Texas
- moved to Louisiana as a young boy
- finished high school, taking all available art courses, at
Leesville High School
in Louisiana
1978-1996
- followed construction jobs while working as an artist across the deep south of the U.S. from Texas to Florida.
- opted out of the conventional juried show/competitions system of marketing art (far too subjective
to be fair) instead focused on being active in arts cooperatives
1996-2005
- came back to my homeground in Louisiana to set up a permanent studio
- began the arts cooperative: Diversity Gallery & Studios in
Leesville, Louisiana
May 2008
- finished a B.F.A. in Studio Arts at Northwestern State University in
Natchitoches, Louisiana
- became active member in the Gallery One Ellleven arts cooperative
June 2008...currently
- relocated studio to Lake Charles, Louisiana to pursue graduate work in K-12 Art Education
Certification at McNeese State University
2009...future
- should I be lucky enough, I'd love to grow old sharing my passion for art with young people
David Lee Labby
email
copyright © 2008
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