Rodney White
Callicoon, New York
Website
rodneylwhite.com
How would you describe your work?
The continuous line has had a presence in my work for a long time. A number of years ago, I began using the process in drawings that became a record of my breathing, my heartbeat, my thoughts. Initially, paintings based on continuous-line drawings focused on the inseparability of shape and color.
More recently I have been exploiting those things I cannot control as a way to access my subconscious and visualize a kind of collective memory. My intent is to nurture the subconscious as a means to broaden the exploration of thought. Working on an unprimed canvas, I introduce fluid gestures without judgement that trigger the next response. Memory leads the way to the next decision and on until shape and color solidifies into zones that push and pull in and out of the picture plane. Shapes become zones for a deeper visualization of the thought process ending in a strong sense of déjà vu.
What inspires you?
The title of this body of work, I Noticed People Disappeared, is a line from a poem by Emily Dickinson. The large paintings in this group are also titled with lines from her poems. The smaller paintings’ titles can be read as either questions or statements hinting at the depth found in the pictorial vocabulary. Intended to be more evocative than descriptive, my hope is that the titles/labels will trigger an open-ended response in the viewer.
The paintings can be experienced as landscapes, portraits, or still life, separately or simultaneously. There is a familiarity in orientation that the viewer’s mind will recognize and engage with.
Can you speak about your process?
My process purposefully reflects the same interaction between physical presence and thought. The work starts with continuous, spontaneous line drawings. From those drawings, I choose ones that are most evocative as scaffolding for the paintings. During each stage, I introduce elements I can’t control: thin layers of paint mixed with water that gets absorbed into the canvas. Initial decisions inform the next layer, and so on. Moving from what I can’t control toward what I can by building up layers of color, texture, and light while defining zones of activity: A collaboration between what I can’t control, what speaks to the mind and what I can control.
The paintings are not planned, and the mind responds differently to each stimulus, so results can look very different from one another. The process is organic and results unpredictable. There is a beauty in what our mind generates, and I hope my art reflects that engagement.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books, or quotes?
Giotto has been my most consistent muse. His stage-like compositions and shallow space contain and embody the wonder and potential of the two dimensional surface. I love starting new work. I feel like an explorer seeking to discover something elusive and just out of reach. I create a contained body of work and then move forward in an unexplored direction. There is always something new to discover.
Ellsworth Kelly has long been my muse for color. What I have learned from his work is that color and shape are inseparable. Often when I start a painting it is because I clearly see a shape and the color it needs. That will inform my next decision. I have moved on to explore the shape as containers not only for color but for ideas. I'm intrigued by the idea that a painting can contain many ideas simultaneously the way our brains do. Part of my process is to find ways to tap into how the brain works. Mindscapes of sorts.
How did you become interested in art?
I was never not interested in art. I always knew it would be something I could do and get excited about everyday for a lifetime. Being an artist is completely integrated into my life.
I want my work to engage the viewer, to reveal itself slowly, to satisfy again and again, which is what I expect from art. I also want my work to embody beauty. I feel beauty is often overlooked in discussions about art, dismissed as trite but for me it is essential.
