The Laws of Nature

Monday, January 18, 2010

The Evolution of a Series

As I continue to read Dutton's book, The Art Instinct, I get side-tracked by tangential thoughts that I want to pursue. At the end of only the first paragraph in Chapter 3, entitled Art and Natural Selection, I found myself spinning-off again when I read: the development of species by a process of random mutation and selective rentention, known forever as natural selection. Since I stopped reading at this point, I don't know where Dutton will go. I'll find out later and pursue my own thoughts. Darwin's theory was important to me as a paleontologist, but I never really thought about it in terms of art. Can this theory be applied to art?? We'll see.

Art begins with a creative thought. For me, it began with a chicken egg:



Painting 1 (below): boring!!


Selective retention: I'll use the chicken egg.
Random mutation: caused by random acts with a hammer.

Selective retention: I'll keep the cracked eggs.
Random mutation: color design caused by random acts with a paintbrush

Painting 2 (below): better!


Selective retention: cracked eggs and highly chromatic design.
Random mutation: multiplication
Painting 3 (below): more interesting!


Selective retention: lots of cracked eggs and highly chromatic design.
Random mutation: illusion of space

Painting 4 (below): now we're getting somewhere!


Selective retention: lots of cracked eggs, highly chromatic design, illusion of space.
Random mutation: directionality caused by applying the Fibonnaci numbers

Painting 5 (below): cool!


Selective retention: lots of cracked eggs, highly chromatic design, illusion of space, directionality
Random mutation: the Recession of 2008

Painting 6: yikes!

Selective retention: lots of cracked eggs, highly chromatic design, illusion of space, directionality, Recession of 2008
Random mutation: see last post and there are more in the works!

11 comments:

-Don said...

You could be one of the X-Men.

Thanks for showing us your evolution. I enjoyed seeing the progression. I REALLY like "All Cracked Up 1"! Those colors and the abstract nature of it really eggcite me. (I should go to bed, I'm delirious!)

At least we see proof that something good has come from the recession of 2008. I anxiously await the other masterpieces coming in the series.

-Don

RH Carpenter said...

I'm enjoying these paintings that show your take on our precious nest eggs and where they are going...have gone...will go :) Great info, as always, and always eye candy to back up the ideas.

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hw (hallie) farber said...

Great retention and mutation (and I can picture the random acts with a hammer). When did you complete Painting 1?

Unknown said...

Hi Don, Cooool. I want to be an X-Woman :) I agree with you; I like painting 1 also. Looks like I kept tightening up after that. Perhaps I should work at loosening up!

Hi Rhonda - Thank you!

Hi Pam - thank you! I felt a personal need to view this evolutionary path this morning. It showed me something about my work that I hadn't seen before. Sometimes we just have assess where we've come from so we kind find a forward direction. I'm formulating ideas already.


Hi Hallie,
I completed painting 1 nearly five years ago, and have done over fifty paintings in this series since. Like Don, I kind of like painting 1 and I'm not certain why I left the track. Maybe I'll go back to it at some point (reverse evolution??)

Anonymous said...

Hi Kathy, My favorite subject as a zoology student was evolution. It was and is fascinating. I like how you've applied the idea to the evolution of your series. Indeed, working in series or multiples does allow ideas to grow, expand, evolve!

M said...

Kathy,
I love the way your mind works. You've shown that you can indeed apply Darwin to art. There is certainly a growing degree of "sophistication" in this work . I was wondering if you feel that the work has gotten stronger and stronger over time or do you find yourself running out of ideas?

Carolyn Abrams said...

Thank you for sharing this evolution Kathy. It is am amazing journey with you!

Unknown said...

Hi Peggy - oh, another scientist! We have lots to talk about :)

Hi Margaret - interesting question. In fact, I have so many more ideas about where this series can go that it's impossible to keep up with them. In my studio I've begun another "twist" on the eggshell theme.

Hi Caroline - thank you! I've learned a lot from examining the history of this series :)

Sandy Maudlin said...

That is too good!

Unknown said...

More great stuff for that best selling book you're going to write Katharine!