The Influence of Automatic Drawing as Painting Style



Alejandro “Andy” Esteban

“The Influence of Automatic Drawing as Painting Style for F.E.U. Fine Arts students”

"Artists need to allow an element of automatism — that is to say totally free inspiration — without which there can be no art, no progress in art, nor progress of the mind. The mind, moving by itself and for itself, progressively recording its encounters,  that is where the secret of modern art lies.”

By Charles Estienne, ‘Surrealism and painting at the Venice Biennale’, Combat-Art, no.8, 1954

Abstract

In this series of entries I will be discussing my visual arts practice and many issues that inform or affect it. I talk about my work: what it looks like, how and why I make it, who or what inspires me, what media I use, and how I came to work this way. Because of their great importance to my visual art profession, I point out the aesthetic value and essence in art—specifically as they pertain to automatic drawing and painting style for my own arts practice—and impart the painting style with my students as they develop their  subconscious mind thru automatic drawing, and create expressive style in  painting. This leads me to a discussion of interpretation of works of art and the challenges associated with creating a verbal understanding and interpretation of work that is primarily visual.

“Between Something and Nothing” mixed media 211/2” x 271/2” ALEsteban August2011

Because most of my recent work is purely automatic drawing, I made a clear judgment of tuning in my attitudes towards the use of mixed media and my rationale for choosing the various types of pastels as a tool for making works of fine art. Using automatic drawing media as a starting point, I look at questions of disciplinarily in my creative practice—specifically the fact that I don’t think of myself as a medium-specific artist—and issues about materiality as I try to define for myself what exactly constitutes an art “object.” Furthermore I explore definitions of and methods for creating automatic Drawing, and critique some contemporary trends in automatic drawing as arts practice. I also look at some of the historical influences on such trends.

   

     

I discuss expressive free style, technical skill, and their context to socio-cultural aspect with regard to drawing representation, and how I analyze appropriation in contrast to the prevailing approach in local contemporary art which comes from a basis in theory. I take aim at stereotypes and misconceptions of the artist’s life, some of which I find to be more associated with sex and violence in a form of subjective interpretation of visual expression.

  

Neo-Colonial Automatism makes a guest appearance—mostly as a target for my inspiration—because its dominant approach of creating regional oppositions tends to drown out the voices of people such as myself who have culturally hybrid identities. In talking about my influences, I look at my western educational training and Asian heritage, and sources of inspiration from the continuum of high-to-low culture in East Asia and the West.

“Marigold” mixed media 211/2” x 271/2” ALEsteban  July 2011

My attempts to answer the question of why I use Automatic Drawing revolve around issues of sub-consciousness and desire, the role of the artist in society, and the fragmentation of experience that seems to permeate post generation X life.