Cory Willingham van der Does: David and Goliath...

F5: Painting the Psychological Impact of Extreme Weather

For my thesis (F5: Painting the Psychological Impact of Extreme Weather) I employ the depiction of extreme weather events such as tornados, hurricanes, and dust storms in a narrative format to move the viewer to the unsettling space that lies between basic instinct and self-awareness. Why and how do we react to such severe and life-threatening storms? These paintings work to define and contain these psychological states within a single moment and shed light on the complexity of human motives and the way we relate to the world around us.

Employing painting techniques such as abstraction, collage, and experimental surface treatments, I explore new possibilities within the narrative tradition. I combine images from sources such as meteorological surveys, psychology textbooks, scientific journals and websites, and personal photographs to create highly textured paintings deeply layered with meaning. By exploiting the unique properties of oils, acrylics, and charcoals, and by embedding within the paint natural materials such as pine needles, rocks, twigs, sand, and moss, and incorporating man-made common household construction materials such as spackle and bead-board panelling, the forms within the compositions and the surface of the paintings become interdependent in the translation of the message.

If you are interested in additional information about this body of work or my thesis, please don't hesitate to email me!

Friday, February 5, 2010

David and Goliath...

I'm working on an enormous canvas right now....six feet wide, six feet tall. It was abandoned by another artist about ten years ago over in another building on Jacksonville University's campus, and a maintenance guy dropped it in the studio just as I was beginning work on my thesis. I figured, why not use it? The price was certainly right...it was free!

As I was painting yesterday afternoon, a friend came by to see my progress and, noticing the gigantic canvas, said "that's ENORMOUS! How are you going to finish that!?" The odd thing is, I immediately thought of David and Goliath. What's more, I'm actually working incredibly fast on this painting because I'm mostly using very large brushes - some are house painting brushes. Maybe the fact that the canvas is so huge frees me from fretting over the little details.

So here comes the philosophical analogy...The doubters told David, "you can't possibly win! He's too big!" David, on the other hand, thought "no, he's too big to miss!" Maybe we should consider painting on larger canvases more often. If we play it safe and stick to the 18" x 24" pre-stretched, pre-gessoed canvases, we may never know what we're capable of accomplishing.