Absence of Presence

Location

CSU 201

Start Date

21-4-2008 8:00 AM

End Date

21-4-2008 9:45 AM

Student's Major

Art

Student's College

Arts and Humanities

Mentor's Name

Brian Frink

Mentor's Department

Art

Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Description

Recently, I have explored preventing the little moments in life from becoming lost, forgotten, and insignificant through the use of paint. I am a firm believer that the little things are what make life great and we, as a society, do not appreciate these moments. There seems to be a broken connection between people and reality, an absence of the present, as we move mechanically from one event to the next, often creating an artificial reality. For example, I commute from St. Paul to Mankato and often I cannot remember the actual drive because it has become so routine. When I think about that example, it worries me that I have become a bystander to my own life. Through the grant I received from the Undergraduate Research Conference, I was able to use paint to visually describe lost moments in time. I created a series of paintings, each begun as layers of squares, eventually, they disappear and the viewer is left with a potentially confusing surface. The squares represent the countless events and activities of life. Using a complimentary color, I created a frame within the paintings that capture and freeze the squares. I explored push and pull effects of colors, an idea explored by Post-Painterly Color Field Abstraction in the 1950's and 1960's. The goal of my paintings is to engage the viewer longer than a painting typically would and success is determined by the paint's effectiveness in stopping time for just one moment longer.

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Apr 21st, 8:00 AM Apr 21st, 9:45 AM

Absence of Presence

CSU 201

Recently, I have explored preventing the little moments in life from becoming lost, forgotten, and insignificant through the use of paint. I am a firm believer that the little things are what make life great and we, as a society, do not appreciate these moments. There seems to be a broken connection between people and reality, an absence of the present, as we move mechanically from one event to the next, often creating an artificial reality. For example, I commute from St. Paul to Mankato and often I cannot remember the actual drive because it has become so routine. When I think about that example, it worries me that I have become a bystander to my own life. Through the grant I received from the Undergraduate Research Conference, I was able to use paint to visually describe lost moments in time. I created a series of paintings, each begun as layers of squares, eventually, they disappear and the viewer is left with a potentially confusing surface. The squares represent the countless events and activities of life. Using a complimentary color, I created a frame within the paintings that capture and freeze the squares. I explored push and pull effects of colors, an idea explored by Post-Painterly Color Field Abstraction in the 1950's and 1960's. The goal of my paintings is to engage the viewer longer than a painting typically would and success is determined by the paint's effectiveness in stopping time for just one moment longer.

Recommended Citation

Roth, Lindsay. "Absence of Presence." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 21, 2008.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2008/oral-session-01/1