Envisioning balance : mapping natural, industrial, and digital space
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Michael Richard Polomik (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Richard Tichich
Abstract: In order to map a new place, people must explore and record where they are
traveling. My artworks are maps of my mind and soul - records of wonder, want,
memory, and emotion. In this thesis investigation, I contemplate my future through
recording my past, meshing valuable natural, industrial, and digital memories of space.
Patterns and structures from these spaces are first extracted from their source, then altered
and remixed during their translation into my work. Though still reminiscent of origin,
most imagery in the final product collectively creates an abstract movement and energy
to and from a central focal point. Subjects are employed in metamorphic, overlaid, and
interactive ways, depicting a battle expressive of my reflections on their presence within
my life. These reflections are emphasized through subtle symbols of measurement and
time, such as charts, graphs, and the vortex.
My thesis exhibition explores these concepts through combinations of spray paint,
schematic and gestural mark making, and 16th century Italian Renaissance painting style.
These media and the processes involved in their application are inherently associated
with the three primary categories of space that I express. Their collaborative context provides the viewer with a unique way of analyzing modern life. Although I find our
current environment dense, and at times artificial, it is in many ways beautiful. I want to
look at my world in a different way through my art. Gaston Bachelard once said, “…It is
in the opposite of causality, that is, in reverberation…that I think we find the real
measure of the being of a poetic image” (xvi). Since my markings are intuitive
interpretations of my environment, they thus provide a mapping of my psyche and what I
believe to be a personal, visual poetry. Mapping my surroundings in this way opens new
ways of understanding how I interpret them. Their presence in my work enables a source
of reflection for the consideration of reliving past experiences to achieve a balanced
future.
Envisioning balance : mapping natural, industrial, and digital space
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Created on 5/1/2010
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2010
- Keywords
- Paint, Spray paint, Marker, Postmodernism, Surrealism, Realism, Abstraction
- Subjects
- Space and time in art
- Art, Modern -- 21st century
- Postmodernism