Charles Riley Art

Soft Focus (2013)

70x72 in ~ Painting, Oil


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I used a base layer of stand oil to aide in the fluid spontaneous movement of the oil paint. The work was a reflection of immediate spontaneous correspondence to the medium, metaphor, and state of mind. In Taoism, a soft focus speaks of awareness of the world without the distraction of a narrow focus. Mountains, the sun, clouds, and water are used as metaphors for states of mind. Still water is a metaphor for centeredness, when the mind is uncluttered with accumulated conditioning. Mountains are often used to indicate the process of developing open awareness. The sun can refer to the firing process where metal is purified. The metal can be a human who is in the process of developing open awareness. In the Complete Reality School of Taoism, the best way to develop this open awareness is finding balance in everyday experience and especially in our social interactions which is best developed by loving one another (Chan San Feng).

On the level of communication theory, as advocated by Walter J. Ong, Marshall McLuhan and others, there are problems with overextended mediums, like radio, a hot medium used effectively by Hitler. According to communication theory, mediums that work on different senses act as a balance for newer mediums that may be overextended. Painting and print are two mediums that can have a balancing effect on electronic social media, an overextended media engendering unhealthy social interactions. With this in mind, I often use the older mediums of painting and print in ways that counter balance the electronic social media.

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