PALETTE EXPANSION

Welcome to my blog. I arrived in prison in 1997at the age of nineteen. I hardly know what a blog is…  I am an emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history. To learn more about me go to <www.seanjwhiteartist.com>.

Palette Expansion

Q: Who hires a plumber to fix  car?

A: A government agency requesting bids for  private contractor.

Several years ago the Wisconsin Department of Corrections contracted with several private corporations to sell art materials to its prisoners.  Committees measured and weighed security concerns to develop a list of allowable items. The earliest catalogs consisted of material intended for children.

It can be debated whether prison serves as punishment… or for punishment, yet the overarching fact of the matter is that incarcerated persons have large quantities of empty time. Prisons need to fill that time with constructive endeavors.

Many people in prison have a great deal of creative talent. As much as incarcerated people should have their time filled with creative endeavors, the endeavors should be meaningful. Materials intended for children fail to promote that idea.

The Wisconsin DOC and its contractors have made improvements. They now offer a selection of  F. Martin/Weber water soluble oils. Although that step allows me to continue my painting practice — and permits many others to develop their own– additional improvements are still needed, including , but not limited to a better brush selection, a better pencil selection, and more pen and ink material.

EXHAUSTED

 

 

 

Finding Focus

JANUARY 2018 BLOG

Welcome to my blog. I arrived in prison in 1997 at the age of nineteen.  I hardly know what a blog is …I am emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history. To learn more about me got to http://www.seanjwhiteartist.com.

Finding Focus

An initial burst of energy brings a project into existence. Desire leads to action, and the emotional love affair with an idea pushes things forward. But what happens when the initial burst of energy dissipates?

The choice is simple: continue and make things up on the run, or abandon the project. The second option sounds like quitting, and who wants to feel like a quitter? And making things up on the run often distracts from the original vision, creating even more problems.

To prevent the preceding decision tree, plan out the next project before beginning it. With a plan, the question of “what’s next’ has an answer within the plan, and even though the energy  might be gone the project carries forward by inertia.

The Courier

September/October Blog

Welcome to my blog. I arrived in prison in 1997. at the age of nineteen. I hardly know what a blog is… I’m an emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history. To learn more about me visit <www.seanjwhiteartist.com>

Something from Nothing

The idea of  void is a paradoxical thing. On the one hand it contains absolutely nothing, it denotes the absence of anything. Yet the idea of the concept gives life to emptiness, making nothing something.

When I sat down to write this months blog I couldn’t think of a topic. Threads of thought began to weave tapestries of possible books, and I want to keep this to a few hundred words. Then the struggle against the absence drove me to the void:

 

 

Do you see it.

 

 

How about now?

Everything around the empty space delineates it. Void therefore becomes a thing just as much as that which surrounds it.

Negative space can be just as important as the clutter of …well…things. Japanese Ukiyo-e provide the most well-known examples of negative space use in art, particularly Hokusai’s The Wave. The surrounding space carries as much weight as the wave itself. Proper balance of line and shape in the picture plane increase the importance of every square millimeter, and even  makes the areas with nothing become something.

And The Angel Gabriel Said Unto Me: This Is an Hallucination, Get Over Yourself

AUGUST BLOG

GOETHE TRIANGLES

Welcome to my blog. I arrived in prison in 1997. at the age of nineteen. I hardly know what a blog is… I’m an emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history. To learn more about me visit <www.seanjwhiteartist.com>

Because I have to change the paint that I use, I have begun the process of studying the effects of mixture.  One major tool to do this is an adapted Goethe Triangle.

Goethe wrote a book in the first half of the nineteenth century titled Farbenlehere(roughly translated Color Study) that began fueling the fires driving artists to better understand color, which would eventually culminate in Abstract Impressionism.

A Goethe Triangle is simply an equilateral triangle filled with smaller equilateral triangles, Each of the three corners identifies the parent colors ( of various hue, tone, and intensity). The triangle can be partitioned as (as in figure one ) or as much as desired , though the total number of triangles adds to a square(9, 16, 25, etc.). Nine triangles(figure 2) is traditional. I opted for twenty five.

In a traditional Goethe Triangle9Figure 2) mixtures of A + C–>1, A + B–> 2, etc. Then 1  + 2 –> a, and so forth.Essentially  two colors  mix together at a time.

My convoluted study ( figure 4) involves predetermined ratios to maximize variable effect, while figure 3 combines the same colors in a traditional approach.

Nevertheless, any artist using a Goethe Triangle gains a better perspective and understanding of his or her palette

Frustration on paper

June 2017-silent …image only

 

APRIL/MAY BLOG

Welcome to my blog. I arrived in prison in 1997. at the age of nineteen. I hardly know what a blog is… I’m an emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history. To learn more about me visit <www.seanjwhiteartist.com>

GETTING BACK ON TRACK

The dust settles. The only thing moving is you . Silence fills the range of your hearing.

What next?

Although the changes affect your thinking, a square is just a specialized rectangle, and limitations to your life remain close to the same. The changes have changed you more than the environment.

When the dust settles you try to return to the order of before. Yet some things never remain the same.  A square is just a specialized rectangle , but the square is not the rectangle of before.

An adjustment of new limits follows a change. I’ve  just gone through that.

As the dust settles I begin to reorder my life– finishing old projects, starting new ones, making lists of everything in between. And the effects of the change fill the void of what was lost. Water runs downhill.

GREETING

TRANSITIONS

SPRING BLOG_ March 2017

Welcome to my blog. I arrived in prison in 1997 at the age of nineteen. I hardly know what a blog is… I am an emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history. To learn more about be me go to < seanjwhiteartist.com>

Transitions

The Department of Corrections finally transferred me. My new address is:

Sean J. White  #332296

Jackson Correctional Institution

P.O. Box 233

Black River Fall, WI  54615

I am trying to hit the ground at a sprint , but circumstances make it difficult. Although I might understand prison basics, each has its own specific rule to which it takes time to acclimate. This prison begins prisoners in a barracks. They won’t give me my typewriter( necessary for ease of communication and creation of professional  looking submissions), nor painting supplies. However , I can draw, which means I can prepare new paintings… if I can make time to do it. I would say lack of privacy and sleep cause the most distractions.

Despite the obstacles , I must carve a new routine to continue the art I am driven to make. What else can I do? A tree  must blossom each spring or wither to nothing.

I would like to thank everyone who supports me- family, friends, fans of the work. I appreciate you all and I apologize if communication is more difficult. I can only directly communicate via US Postal mail.

February 2017 Blog

Welcome to my blog. I arrived in prison in 1997. at the age of nineteen. I hardly know what a blog is… I’m an emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history. To learn more about me visit <www.seanjwhiteartist.com>

IDLING

A few posts back I wrote about closure. I have enjoyed the opportunity to tie off many threads of this tapestry, and I am glad for that opportunity. What happens , though, after no threads remain to tie together?

I still await transfer to another prison as I write this and find myself idling more and more. A few,(transferrable, I hope ) things continue to occupy some of my time, but those too, have reached almost a knotting point. What will I do then?

Artistic expressions is so inherent to my being I can not rightly explain the must that makes me.  In a few months I’ ll have this “car” rumbling down the Interstate a few miles over the speed limit. For the time being, however, I impatiently tap the steering wheel idling at a stoplight not knowing when it’ll turn green.

                                                                COMPLEMENTARY EXPLOSION

2016 YEAR IN REVIEW

January 2017 Blog

Welcome to my blog.   I arrived to prison in 1997 at the age of nineteen. I hardly                know what a blog is… I’m an emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history.       To learn more about me go to <www.seanjwhiteartist.com>.

2016 Year in Review

January marks the time when many look at the previous year’s accomplishments.   My first thought was to write about that, but a desire (to at least try) to be original pushed me in a slightly different direction.    Instead of a 2016 year in review, I will write a 2017 year in expectation.

Obviously, some goals require outside influence to reach,so I will focus on what I can (effectively) achieve on my own.

First, I plan to paint between ten and fifteen figurative paintings. That number will depend somewhat on my transfer to another prison–when it happens (the sooner it occurs, the closer to fifteen), and operational procedures of the new institution (where can I paint there?). I expect to finish the graphic novel by summer.  Submissions and/or publication will become a focus only after it is finished.    I plan to enter six to ten juried events, and submit for six to ten solo exhibitions.     Success is beyond my control for any show, though if I don’t ask I cannot receive even a refusal. I will also maintain the various efforts I have already engaged in to continue the potential for success.

A focus on this agenda can lead me up to the next rungon the ladder. I look forward because too much looking back is for those afraid of the future.

IMAGE : SHATTERED

SHATTERED

Early Winter Post

Welcome to my Blog. I arrived in Prison in 1997 at the age of 19. I hardly know what a blog is … I’m an emerging fine artist with a burgeoning exhibition history. To learn more about me  go to http://www.seanjwhiteartist.com.

CLOSURE

My last couple of paintings work toward completion. I expect the DOC will transfer to another prison by the end of the year. They will tell me to pack any week, so I will finish the pieces on the easel and start no more where I reside now(as this is just a residence and not a home).

My last couple of paintings work toward completion. That sounds ominous. It sounds final. It’s not…

I should probably qualify what I mean by ” my last…” When I arrive at my new residence — as I’ve discussed in other writings–I will have to replace many of my materials , particularly paints.

Patience and complaints have led to improvements in some of the materials we are permitted to purchase., but I will still have to adjust to changes. I will have to determine the value(color) of the pigments of the available paints. Will I be able to find tubes of single pigment colors(which I prefer), or will all the colors all have “hue” names( which generally combine three, four, and five different pigments) ?

I plan to work with Ivory Black (PBk-9), Titanium White (PW-6), and Raw Umber (PBr-7). We’ll see next year how that goes. What is it they say?  When one door closes, you can probably find a window somewhere to crack open. 

                                                        FALLACY