Lee Patton Assignment 1

As you walk into the gallery, the first piece you see, titled "Growth Patterns", completely grabs your attention. Its layout makes it seem to be expanding and growing in the space, which makes the viewer feel slightly overwhelmed and consumed by it. The almost fluid feeling of "Growth Patterns" is a great transition to the other works in the exhibit as it makes you feel as if you were flowing along with it. The other pieces in the show are much more congruent to each other and go nicely with one another. Although the first piece in the show definitely stands out more than the others, it still relates to them through the separate shapes used throughout. Overall, I really enjoyed the exhibit, especially "Growth Patterns" and "Circular Composition #1". The only thing that didn't thoroughly excite me was the feeling of repetition in the framed works. A few stood out to me, but I felt like I was looking at a few of the same pieces. Maybe adding more works on different mediums would help?

The work I chose to discuss was "Circular Composition #1" (polyester lithography, silkscreen, multiple shaped etching plates). The bright colors were the first thing to draw me into the piece, especially the red and green. I also found the shapes to be very interesting, and like every piece in the exhibit, they obviously all took a good amount of time to create. The bigger shapes, such as the red and bluish-purple ones, remind me of cells or bacteria, while the smaller green shapes give the feeling of something familiar but not obvious. The brown, almost coffee-stain looking shape in the background help to hold all of the elements in the image together.

After looking through the displayed work, I was not surprised to hear that the artist is inspired by cells and microscopic diseases. I think it was interesting to hear the thoughts behind a deadly disease posing as a beautiful shape. It also helped a lot to learn about other artists that were an inspiration, and seeing their work as well. The time intensive and OCD practices were evident in many of their works, so it made sense to see them in this exhibit. In the work on display i didn't see many direct ties to the vines/nature the artist talked about during the lecture, however the way "Growth Pattern" takes over the space is definitely reminiscent of the way vines take over whatever is in their path. Hearing the artist lecture helped me to appreciate the work as a whole, and the amount of dedication that went into it.