Monday, May 08, 2006
Influences
Years ago as an apprentice engineering draftsman, I noticed some things that were very interesting. In engineering drafting, you are producing a graphic product. Using many of the same tools and techniques as an artist. But for a completely different purpose. Also you are working in a “team” environment where you collaborate and cooperate with others to create this product, an engineering drawing.
In art history there are many examples of similar situations. The old master’s workshops staffed with apprentices. When they were building the medieval cathedrals in Europe they took hundreds of years to build. In the time it took to complete construction architecture changed. Materials changed. And the architects and their designs changed. At the start of the construction one spire would have the style of the day then later with a new architect and new styles in place the second spire would have a different style. One architect wouldn’t do that. We have today cathedrals with multiple styles because different designers worked over time on the same building.
Just out of art school I saw some of this and wondered, “how would this apply to art the way it’s practiced today?” For much of the twentieth century, art has been a study of the unconscious and the collective unconscious. In this study, planning ahead and being deliberate was not helpful in plumbing the depths of the soul and unconscious. The focus was on getting into a mental and emotional state and letting lose with the paint. Jackson Pollack would be the classic example of this.
In engineering, very little is done for the first time. That is, the whole point of engineering is to avoid reinventing the wheel. So everything is written down. I started using this same idea applied to art. I would write down the colors, lights and darks and composition ideas. Gradually a notation evolved. One advantage of this was I was able to come home from work, look at the “chart” for that painting and I could pick up right where I left off. Another plus, I could concentrate all of my thoughts on the physical and emotional execution of the painting, because the form and color of the painting were already defined. Over time this “notation” developed which is essentially a way of specifying a step-by-step execution of a painting.
As an art student I saw myself painting over a canvas over and over. I used a technique from psychology. I split myself into two parts and I designated the other part a disinterested observer. I told him “go over in the corner for a couple of days and just watch me and then come back and tell me what you saw.” After I’d been painting for a while he came over and told me I was painting on this canvas pretty much everyday. I would come in and paint on it for a while. Then the next day I’d come in and paint on it some more. I would paint over what I had done the day before and tomorrow I’d paint over what I did today. I would keep this up for a while until I thought I was done. This is how an artist gets the intricate and expressive quality to his painting, multiple layers of paint with variations to transparency, hue, value and texture. But I was doing it without a plan. Just randomly from day to day as the mood struck me. This was the “plumbing the depths of the soul” part. It seemed to me Engineering showed a way out of this dilemma. Using the engineering ideas of plan and notation.
Pete Hubbard
In art history there are many examples of similar situations. The old master’s workshops staffed with apprentices. When they were building the medieval cathedrals in Europe they took hundreds of years to build. In the time it took to complete construction architecture changed. Materials changed. And the architects and their designs changed. At the start of the construction one spire would have the style of the day then later with a new architect and new styles in place the second spire would have a different style. One architect wouldn’t do that. We have today cathedrals with multiple styles because different designers worked over time on the same building.
Just out of art school I saw some of this and wondered, “how would this apply to art the way it’s practiced today?” For much of the twentieth century, art has been a study of the unconscious and the collective unconscious. In this study, planning ahead and being deliberate was not helpful in plumbing the depths of the soul and unconscious. The focus was on getting into a mental and emotional state and letting lose with the paint. Jackson Pollack would be the classic example of this.
In engineering, very little is done for the first time. That is, the whole point of engineering is to avoid reinventing the wheel. So everything is written down. I started using this same idea applied to art. I would write down the colors, lights and darks and composition ideas. Gradually a notation evolved. One advantage of this was I was able to come home from work, look at the “chart” for that painting and I could pick up right where I left off. Another plus, I could concentrate all of my thoughts on the physical and emotional execution of the painting, because the form and color of the painting were already defined. Over time this “notation” developed which is essentially a way of specifying a step-by-step execution of a painting.
As an art student I saw myself painting over a canvas over and over. I used a technique from psychology. I split myself into two parts and I designated the other part a disinterested observer. I told him “go over in the corner for a couple of days and just watch me and then come back and tell me what you saw.” After I’d been painting for a while he came over and told me I was painting on this canvas pretty much everyday. I would come in and paint on it for a while. Then the next day I’d come in and paint on it some more. I would paint over what I had done the day before and tomorrow I’d paint over what I did today. I would keep this up for a while until I thought I was done. This is how an artist gets the intricate and expressive quality to his painting, multiple layers of paint with variations to transparency, hue, value and texture. But I was doing it without a plan. Just randomly from day to day as the mood struck me. This was the “plumbing the depths of the soul” part. It seemed to me Engineering showed a way out of this dilemma. Using the engineering ideas of plan and notation.
Pete Hubbard
