Dustin Yoder

Perception in the way that I am interested in it, does not exist without experience.  Experience does not exist behind a lens.  Or rather, a camera lens.  I wear lenses in the form of contacts and glasses all day every day.  The act of seeing something through a medium of any sort, will distort the way something is experienced.  A camera will grab hold of a minute second in time and space and hold on to it forever.  We do not ever experience the world like this.  In this way, the only way for me to truly explore perception is to work from life....in real time.  I have to experience the event itself and capture it moment by moment over a period of time.  Never capturing only one second, but adding together this second with that second with the next and the next and so on until what I have captured is truer to perception.  

I am often confronted with anger by those who use photo references in their art.  I do not discount using a photo in the least...unless you are interested in perception, which is almost always not the case.  I have used and will probably continue to use photos for various other projects.  But, that is only because in those situations perception is the least of my worries.  That being said, I am always way more interested in perception than basically anything else, so I simply avoid the use of photos.

Josh Gomez recently showed me a video of Giacometti.  I believe the film itself was in French so of course I couldn't understand a word of it but it was amazing to get to see his work and even watch Giacometti paint, which was, to say the least, frustrating.  I love his stuff, but watching him was a chore.  Not sure, I can adequately explain this without hand gestures. Ha!  What I saw in his work in these videos though was completely new to me.  I suddenly became aware of how he was seeing.  In, "A Giacometti Portrait," by James Lord, Giacometti was constantly saying how hopeless it was to capture a likeness.  When working from life, as I said earlier,  you must capture a series of moments and attempt to align then in a static singular one.  Giacometti could not do this because he could never escape the fact that everything changed constantly.  In his work, you can see the layers of images over and over and over.  He captured a likeness hundreds of times over without ever cleanly bringing them together in a solid whole, which created incredible results.  His work captures time (though I don't believe he intended it).  His works do not look like photographs and yet here again are paintings that are more true to perception than one, because they are experiential.

I am beginning a new drawing today.  It is a blind self portrait.  I wanted to do it life size, but it looks as though it will actually be quite a bit smaller.  The piece itself will still be 3' x 6' though and I'm excited about it.  I have been working to get everything set up this morning and so now all I really need to do is put pastel to paper and let it happen.

I am buying an air purifier tomorrow so I can work safely at home.  I'm really excited to be able to start working.  I have my materials I just need to work now.

Meanwhile, at Utrecht I am begining to treat the chalkboards, that I draw monthly-ish, less as a task and more as something I get to do. 

This is what I'm working on currently.   This is done after Norman Rockwell.  Though I'm taking complete creative freedom with the rest of the drawing.

Next time I want to do this spanning both boards:

 When I first started drawing the biggest problem I faced, as I now see it, was learning how to see properly.  The trick when trying to draw reality is to learn how to look without focusing directly on one object.  I used to get lost in the details, working too heavily in one area or on one object, while ignoring the bigger picture.  Sitting back, what at one point appeared perfect while my face was stuck directly into the drawing, now appeared foreign and apart from the rest of the image as a whole.  I didn't understand yet what I was doing wrong nor how I could change.

We were often told to look back and forth very quickly between two objects to observe the differences to accurately judge whether or not we were achieving the correct values or colors.  I now realize that this is getting halfway to the point.  Observing the entire picture is the most important thing, but the way in which you do this is even more important. Squinting is not enough to view a scene accurately. The trick is to not really look at anything.  *GASP*

To do this, look at a point in space without actually perceiving it and then focus on perceiving the space aroud it.  Peripheral vision should be used to judge relationships and a scene as a whole.  Peripheral vision is a beautiful thing and using it takes practice, but once trained to do so, allows you to see things so much more clearly.  No more looking back and forth between objects quickly to judge relationships.  I can look at 2, 3, 4, 5...etc. objects all at the same time.  At this moment, I can see, the relationships between 5 such objects all while I am typing this entry.  The trick is to not get lost in the detail...in other words, don't focus directly on something!  The moment you do, you lose sight of the bigger picture and inevitably  single objects out and draw them foreign to their surroundings.  This is the problem I used to have.  I used to squint, as I was told to do and then at some point, realized that I was actually using my periferal vision to see.

The trick is to look without focusing, like when you day dream and stare off into space.  You are not looking directly at something, yet you gaze is directed in a particular direction.  Direct your gaze somewhere, now scan your peripheral vision and find some objects, to focus your attention on.  

The important thing to understand here is that peripheral vision is really anything that is outside of your direct focal point.  If you hold your thumb out in front of you at arms length you will see the size of the area that your eyes see in focus at any one given moment.  It is only through tiny movements of the eye that you see entire images as a whole.  Thus, anything outside of that tiny area is prime retail space for your peripheral vision.  This should be used for objects near or far away from each other.  Everything should be seen in relation to everything else. and don't just compare single objects.  Compare everything to itself.  When you view a scene in such a general sense, you will be amazed at what your eye will tell you.  It will be much more apparent when something is amiss, because your eyes will certainly let you know.

I really wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but I think I was expecting something a bit different than what actually came about.  I'm very pleased with last night and I had a lot of fun.  It was awesome getting to share a space with my friends who area amazing and that I respect greatly as artists.  In total there were 6 artists on display: Nate Tuttle, Josh Gomez, Greg Gomez, James Wisdom and Vinnie Sartoris.

There will definitely bemore BELOW shows in the future.and that excites me because it's a good motivator to make sure I've got something new to show for next time. I love it.

Here are some pictures of the work from last night.

The bamboo piece on the left is now owned by yours truly.  I did a swap with Nate for it.  I really enjoy acquiring art.  Especially, art that I highly respect.  I never thought I'd be able to afford it, but it never occured to me that I could simply trade!  This is the second piece by Nate that I've got now.  I'm hoping to have a piece by Josh soon as well.

Friday evening Nate Tuttle, Josh Gomez, James Wisdom, Vinnie Sartoris and I will be having a show in Nate and Josh's basement.  It'll be hung salon style and I imagine most of the wall will not be visible.  I like it that way.  I actually despise many modern galleries.  They bore the crap out of me.  I'm excited.  I know many friends will be showing up, but since it is Pilsen's 2nd Fridays I'm hoping to get some of the residual gallery goers to stop by.

The show, titled Below, begins at 8pm and ends at 4am at 2005 S Alport in the coach house.  Come see it!