flying colors blog

What is Abstract Art?

Blog post by W. skog

I asked ChatGPT this proverbial question, curious to see how AI would answer: What is abstract art? I have other yet unanswered questions: Will AI sabotage humanity? Will we be exterminated by the machines we invented? Will AI be the source of our governments decisions? Will it formulate a one-size-fits-all exclusive opinion that annihilates out-of-the-box thinking? Or any kind of serious thinking? What decisions could it make without its moral compass? What about the emotional factor? Will free will be banished?

I am shocked by AI's comprehensive answer to something a lot of people don't understand. Here is AI's answer verbatim. Abstract Art Unveiled.

Trees 16 x 20 in. pigment ink on metal
© W.Skog

What is Beauty?

Blog post by W. Skog December 31, 2023

They say there's life on Saturn's moon. What would that look like? Would life there follow the familiar structures observed on earth. No, I don't mean that there are cows, and chickens and bumblebees and of course not humans in designer gear. But do the basic patterns of life there follow the biological mathematics we are profoundly familiar with, if only on subconscious levels.

the art of deception

Posted by Wendy Skog March 15, 2023

Have you noticed an epic deadly game being played before our eyes – as long as they are not shut. It's an international game played all over the world and features 2 teams powerfully at war with each other. They are called the Purebloods and the Modblods. All the sheeple in the bleachers are afraid because they don't know who will win and moreover, who should win. It is a life and death game and 8 billion people are at risk, hanging in the balance. It is a game of winner take all.

looking outward

Posted by Wendy Skog December 17, 2021

Physical isolation and introspection are both quite necessary in times like these. But looking outward towards the beauty around us in nature is a good counterpoint. Beauty at least, will always be here, free and available to all. read more

creative incubation

Posted by Wendy Skog May 21, 2020

When you allow yourself to zone out to the sound of crisp finite numbers and mathematical data or the equivalent mesmerizing noise that makes your brain emit alpha waves while you are wide awake, you can make interesting correlations. You are in a state of creative incubation. You can prolong this state through rabid housework, scaring yourself with real estate nightmares, falling in love, or never leaving the house, creating sufficient boredom to stimulate the imagination.

a brave new artworld part 1

Posted by Wendy Skog March 21, 2019

We have arrived at a peak screen revolution. Unfortunately this has had a negative impact on the way art is displayed, resulting in a transition from gallery or museum viewing of actual paintings and sculptures to viewing them on electronic screens. But there is a natural disconnect between the art world and the tech world....
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image credit Terry Border

a brave new artworld part 2

Posted by Wendy Skog April 21, 2019

Art and technology appear to be diametrically opposite phenomena, yet they both continue to shape the world. Perhaps they have both been around for millennia: the great pyramid in Egypt could have been an electrical power transmitter at the same time humans were drawing elegant figures of animals on fire-lit cave walls. Today art and technology are big partners in the availability and presentation of visual images. But with respect to art, it is important to be aware that visual images on screens are not art but pictures of art.....
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Matisse's muse and assistant Lydia Delectorskaya

courting the muse

Posted by Wendy Skog July 14,2018

When an artist faces a startling white canvas in the beginning of the creative process, there is a moment of hesitation, sometimes fear or anxiety about desecrating that perfect whiteness in a gamble to create a work of art. This is risky business and requires some mental and emotional strength...
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manifesto

Posted by Wendy Skog December 3, 2017

Sometimes I am asked what guidelines I establish for myself while painting. The short answer is that I don't especially separate my life's values from those that I incorporate into a piece of artwork. And they need to be strong enough to withstand the challenges. After all, Woody Allen will tell you, life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television.
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Einstein and his therapist

Omnipotence vs. Insignificance

Posted by Wendy Skog July 22, 2017

"I am a deeply religious nonbeliever - this is a somewhat new kind of religion." -Albert Einstein

What does it mean to be free? There has been much written about that but to me it means the incarnation of omnipotent power. Do we have access to that? NO. That is why it is so difficult to come to terms with our insignificance...read more

Six Impossible Things

Posted by Wendy Skog
August 8, 2016

“Six impossible things before breakfast,” is a quote from ‘Alice through the Looking Glass’ by Lewis Carroll. It comes from a conversation between Alice and the White Queen where the White Queen wants Alice to believe her astonishing age -- one hundred and one, five months and a day -- and then admits she routinely tries to believe impossible things for half an hour a day.

If you are an artist, you can easily spend more than a half hour a day believing impossible things.

The six impossible things that I believe in are...read more

Playing With Fire

Posted by Wendy Skog May 5, 2016

A bee
staggers out
of the peony
-Matsuo Basho

Just how I feel after diving into a painting and emerging only after the nectar has been consumed and the painting has gained momentum. And I am almost staggering because the energy that pulls you in is intense...

Who were the Irascibles?

Posted by Wendy Skog
January 25, 2016

"In the history of all art there was never a movement as hated as Abstract Expressionism" -- Robert Motherwell

So decades ago, why were some artists in New York willing to suffer public abuse to renounce long established Renaissance practices and traditions?
It was the beginning of a new era but how did 'art about nothing' ever achieve universal acceptance?

Down by the Railroad Tracks

Posted by Wendy Skog
November 24, 2015

My show, Lyrical Abstraction, opened a few weeks ago in Calgary. It was a huge production as ever a solo show can be. And such an adventure right from packing a backpack to unlocking my front door two days later. I like these whirlwind trips and this one reminded me of a weekend I spent in New York where a million things happened in a very short period of time. But that's another story.

I slept by the railroad tracks the first night in Calgary but certainly not in a ditch...

Art and Cows

Posted by Wendy Skog
July 13, 2015

Jane Urquhart's book, Away contains a passage that raises questions about the production/creation of art. Here is an excerpt from the book: "They had come to a small clearing in the woods. In it there was a shanty with a tin stovepipe, a modest-sized workshed painted bright orange, and a yard filled with logs, planks, sheets of tin, and sawhorses. Above the workshop a sign proclaimed, THOMAS J. DOHERTY: SIGN PAINTER AND BARN EMBELLISHER. But most surprising, the surrounding area was scattered with...

Cow drawing by W.Skog.

Being in the Brush

Posted by Wendy Skog February 12, 2014

Throughout history, the way the artist lays down the paint has been closely examined, criticized, praised, and admired. Joan Mitchell, Monet, Van Gogh, Basquiat, Twombly... are painters whose brushstrokes I admire and have assimilated into my own expression, more so in my new work. Imposing upon brushwork to carry the visual load has not been the easiest thing to do.

How I killed my Summer Vacation

Posted by Wendy Skog
September 17, 2014

Diary of Summer acrylic on canvas W. Skog

There are projects and then there are projects...

Keys to Abstraction

Posted by Wendy Skog
August 11, 2014

Workshop!

Gather your pencils, your brushes and your paints. Get on some old clothes. Load up your portable studio and let's hang out and paint. I'm holding a workshop in November! We'll be mixing colors and shades and tints and finding what to do with them to make paintings that people will look at. They will be entranced! We'll be searching and FINDING the keys to abstract painting

What Was I Thinking?

Posted by Wendy Skog July 23, 2013

One question I often get from someone looking at one of my abstract paintings is 'what were you thinking when you painted that?' This is a question I can't entirely fathom. What is anyone ever thinking when they are intensely engaged. Could be this is the state that the yogi's refer to as one-pointedness (there it is right at the top of my head) although that is another mystery.

What does it Mean to be Inspired?

interview with Victoria writer Rob Wipond

Posted by Wendy Skog May 30, 2012

Michelangelo's sculptures were initially a great source of inspiration for me and continue to be even while I'm an abstract painter.

Q: Even though your paintings are abstract, I often feel like there are strong, meaningful connections between your paintings and the verbal titles you give them. How would you describe that connection? How do you come up with the titles to your paintings? Do you think the titles are important?