Ordered Chaos

I’ve always wanted to paint like Ben Quilty, big bold thick brushstrokes, lashings of color swirling together to form semi-abstract forms. Overly large canvases that are taller than myself (5ft), that tower above me with energetic emotion. I’ve pondered ‘how would I do this?’ What would my first piece be? How do you tackle something like that?

But then I realised that’s not who I am, that’s not what I’m about. I’m about the quiet places that everyone walks by. I’m about the forgotten corners that no-one seems to notice. I’m about the silent voice that isn’t heard.

I like these places, they are my observations. It’s like I’m here to hear the silence and show it to the world. I want to celebrate, explore and question, what people take for granted. I want to bring these silent background communications to the foreground.

I’m not really interested in the landscape itself, that’s just a support for the communication. I’m not interested in the packaging or the product, but I am interested in the thought/colour/font/words/design that goes into it and the communication.

As much as I’d love to be able to move my arm around the canvas as if it were dancing across the surface, I prefer the precision and attention to detail that, I think, communication requires. If it’s not perfect the communication could be jarring and distracting from the message.

In order to attain this level of precision and represent my inner vision, I needed to find the perfect medium, it took 13 years to find – I wanted the flattest, most even colour (this is probably because of my graphic design background). I’ve been surrounded by commercial printing and computer typography all my working life, so I think this influenced me greatly. I didn’t even want to see a bump in a canvas – that’s too distracting.

I’ve discovered signwriters vinyl and aerosol paint on metal. The metal has the beautiful smooth surface that the paint and vinyl adhere to, plus both the paint and vinyl create strong crisp even colour. I also like that both these mediums have limited colour palettes, it forces you to work within their ranges. I’ve found that their colours are very similar, so it’s easy to match when needed.

I also rediscovered the fine detailed precision of the scalpel. When I was about 12 I’d whittle objects using a stanley blade into the end of a matchstick and create tiny sculptures at the end of each stick.

So this combination of control and precision using masked-in areas, stencils and scalpel hand-cut vinyl suits me. It’s part painting and part construction.

From the very beginning my goal was to try to bring the communication as much to the foreground as possible, while reducing the rest of the image to its simplest form. I continue to experiment with visual ideas and find myself slowly morphing from one concept to the next as time goes by. My journey has also led me to question our landscape and how as humans we use it, and how it got to this point?

I question our urban landscape – if someone pays to display communication in our streets, is it instantly good? Is it any better than unpaid communication? Or is it just trashing our view with unnecessary words? Just because a tagged word is considered vandalism, have you ever stopped to look at the care and consideration that person has put into doing that word? Have you ever pondered why someone decided to create a personal sticker? They don’t just make one, they get them personally made at their own expense and then place them around our streets.

I’ve had many artists that have influenced me over the years. A lot of these influences are because of their art, but some are because of their tenacity, their courage, their lifestyle decisions, or their bold vision of their world; they include, in no particular order:

Rembrandt van Rijn for his courageous use of paint and subject matter in his later years of life.
Vincent van Gogh for pursuing his passion even when the world didn’t purchase his art, he continued to create.
Brett Whiteley for his sheer genius, his unique vision of seeing the world, his passion displayed in a single line, his audacity.
Rosalie Gascoigne for her beautiful manipulation and vision of old disused signs, plus the age she started her professional artistic life.
Andy Warhol for recognising every day objects as art and helping start the pop art movement.
Ian Fairweather for his single pursuit as an artist and the isolation that his art required of him.
Jeffrey Smart for his striking bold colours and eerie tranquil world-scapes he creates.
Antony Gormley’s human figures that use every material and posture while still managing to show human form – sometimes just barely.
Howard Arkley’s bold use of colour and amazing observations of the every day.
And most recently Kerry James Marshall’s strikingly beautiful paintings that combine every day life into a sort of renaissance modernity.

Jo Ryan
30th September, 2017..