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.
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
