“Just as writers must learn grammar and punctuation, visual artists must first master a basic vocabulary of symbols and techniques in order to successfully express their ideas,” Tampa Bay artist and St. Petersburg College faculty Kevin Grass says.
Ever stared at a blank canvas hanging on a gallery wall and wondered what the artist was thinking?
You’re not the only one.
Consider “blank canvas” art.
“When it happened the first time, when the first artist did it, I can understand it. I can see where they’re coming from,” Grass says, “but when people repeat that sort of thing, there’s not a technique or anything that people can marvel at. It’s just a blank canvas. It’s like, OK, do something. Take it further. Do something.”
Grass believes art should employ an interesting technique to draw people in. Then — and only then — do viewers start to contemplate the meaning of a piece of artwork. Grass’s chosen technique? Photorealism. But he says great art isn’t only about technique. Once an artist captures the audience with that technique, the goal is to make them think.
“The more people have to think about it, the more powerful the statement becomes when they figure it out,” says Grass. “If you beat them over the head too much, it’s really no better than advertising. They understand it. They forget it almost immediately. But if they have to think about it and spend time with it — bring some of their experiences to it — they’re going to remember it a lot longer, especially if it’s not what they initially thought it was.”
One way to get audiences to think is through symbolism. Artists use color, size and placement — among other elements — to bring symbolism into their artwork. Consider these things as you look at a piece of art, Grass says.
With color, sometimes it’s about the color’s societal meaning, as with the white canvas, and sometimes it’s about the unexpected.
“If you’re looking at a painting and a person is green, well, people aren’t green,” Grass says, “so why is the artist doing that? You have to ask yourself if you see something that doesn’t add up, why is it that they’re doing that in the painting?”
“We always have students in the class that say, ‘Wow, I feel sorry for that guy,’” Grass says, “but that’s not what it’s about.
“[Greek sculptors] would de-emphasize the privates, because it wasn’t about that. It was about the beauty of the figure and the musculature,” says Grass. “These are athletes. This is what they held as a high standard. The emphasis wasn’t supposed to be on the genitals, so they played that down.”
Grass uses size as symbolism in “Tis the Season,” part of the St. Petersburg College Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition currently at the Leepa-Rattner. At first glance, “Tis the Season” shows a couple putting up an excessive amount of Christmas decorations. But look closely — you’ll see a tiny baby Jesus in the bottom left… or not. It’s there, Grass says, but in the midst of all the lights, santas and pink flamingos, I failed to notice it. Compared to the size of the painting and the other Christmas decorations in it, Jesus might as well not even be there.
SPC Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition
Through Dec. 30 • Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College, 600 E. Klosterman Rd., Tarpon Springs
Tues., Wed. & Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thurs., 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; and Sun., 1-5 p.m.
$7
727-712-5762 • leeparattner.org
“Sometimes it’s about what you leave out,” says Grass. “That one is supposed to be about Christmas, and it’s like, wait a minute, where’s Jesus? That’s right. Find him. Good luck.”
More than size and color, how an artist places items in their work and how they arrange them — composition — has the greatest power to make a statement. Grass’s “Clown” and “Not #MeToo” make excellent use of this technique.
In “Clown,” Grass painted a man and woman sitting side by side. The woman has a pair of two large pink balloons in place of her breasts. The man reaches out to touch the balloons while the woman looks away. In the background, a young girl looks up at a framed cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition. The pink balloons draw you in right away, because that’s not what you expect to see there. Upon closer inspection, you see Grass is mocking our cultural obsession with beauty and our unrealistic standards. The man who is so grossly interested in this big, unnatural pair is the clown.
In “Not #MeToo,” Grass uses Harvey Weinstein, a casting couch, a couple of ballerinas and a can of pepper spray to show how the #MeToo movement is empowering women. In a video Grass produced with his wife, SPC’s Michaela Oberlaender, Grass points out eight instances of symbolism in this painting. Most of these are related to composition, but Grass uses color as symbolism here too. The ballerina on the left is wearing white to show her innocence, while Weinstein wears a red shirt, which emphasizes he’s this story’s villain.
Using photorealism paired with symbolism, Grass’s work makes strong statements about contemporary American culture that even the relatively unsophisticated viewer can appreciate.
This article appears in Oct 18-25, 2018.