Date of Submission

Spring 2024

Academic Program

Studio Arts

Project Advisor 1

Jonathan VanDyke

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Through Low Brain’s Slap & Stick is a show of expression with a goal in moving towards exploration and understanding the relationship between the world, my perceptions of it, and the aesthetic productions which result from them.

A slow crawl towards acceptance has been a defining feature of this project. In order to produce work that I am satisfied with and also to enjoy the act of creation, I have had to identify which imposed notions of artistic practice to set aside as to not interfere with my person. Being most interested in works of expression, the goal of my work is not to change who I am for the sake of aligning myself with some imposed path, but instead to flaunt and appreciate the details of my mind and body in order to produce an honest, idiosyncratic body of work.

The act of transfiguring the objective world through the lens of my mind and producing a uniquely subjective representation is the fundamental process that I have taken to in this practice and choose to keep conscious in my work. Materiality also has been important in this process, familiarizing myself with the physicality of both medium and canvas while working against restriction in resources. My defense mechanism against monetary burden, limited physical space, deadlines and a certain lack of accessibility to material has been an appreciation of accident. And from that appreciation, these processes and my newfound understandings has evolved a central aesthetic component of my work, moments where the interactions between my body and the canvas are visible in gesture and physicality, but also available as encompassing motifs which I hope offer to subdue the idea of mistake and provide an understanding of purpose, whatever that may be.

The content of my work revolves around emotionality and self. There was never a moment where I set out specifically towards this. These are concepts that are dynamic, elusive and continuous, so they provide quite a challenge to depict intentionally. Reversing the process of representational depiction through abstraction was what drew me towards expressionism. Instead of observation followed by depiction, these were works of depiction followed by speculation and/or identification. The abstract moments in this show are the results of this. The representational work in this show stray from pure abstraction, but still to me remain accurate products of my brain’s biases. These were also lessons in technical ability as to understand aesthetic components to transpose into pure abstraction. The four large pieces in this show were done without planning or agenda, so with every piece I both discovered new functions of my relationship with material during the process of creation, and whenever stepping back to examine the piece at one of the many points that I thought I had been done with each of them, puzzling together pieces of my subconscious which had revealed themselves through the physicality of expression. This is the most rewarding aspect and purpose of artistic practice for me, as a tool for reflectance, growth and understanding.

  • Caleb Pitney

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