Painting in Australia

 

I am currently in Australia, which is also the first time I have ever left the United States, and it’s been a wonderful experience, a welcome relief, and most of all- love at first sight.  A month after my arrival, settling in, and securing supplies, I painted my first Australian series of oil on canvas, using some of my favorite techniques. 

I love this style because almost all of the creative expression comes from the material and technique.  Through these specific process I do have a good idea of what will be produced, but there are plenty of times where I don’t know exactly what a finished product will look like.  Techniques that react to different drying rates are one example of this, revealing intricate designs that may start out entrenched in thick, fresh paint, then fossilize once the air extracts moisture or certain elements evaporate.  In these particular cases, I view my work as a display of relationships between objects and environments. 

The paint can be considered the constant, a language in which to define our subjects and relationships.  Through paint we recognize a familiar nature of portraits and prints; we recognize that specific expressions come from specific objects.  A valuable image can be one that is exclusive to an object or material, or one that shares a likeness with something or everything else. 

The object or material applying the paint represents and relates to environments.  This is where we seek to understand aspects of life.  Perhaps I study the expressions my environment produces in paint, and then I compare that to what I tend to naturally produce in paint.  Perhaps the difference between us is the distance I have to travel for harmony, or the information I need for awareness. 

The technique is the approach used to bring this all together, a method for results.  In this sense, much like a scientific approach as well as human nature, repetition can effectively define any direct and indirect relationship involved.  Of course there may be an endless amount of ways to bring our environment to creative life. 

I am trying to turn everything around me into a painter, an artist.  I am encouraging the expressions of everything around me, providing them unique mediums in which to tell their story.  There is an abundance of energy within these relationships, perhaps the general vigor of life or the intricate balance between everything.  There is a fundamental nature of spirituality as well, a focal point where our physical face-value meets unlimited possibilities.  To me this is magical, because all of this involves us and everything, which means that we can know the greatest mysteries of life, which I believe to significantly involve recognition, understanding, harmony, and love.

Discussion on Painting (1)

 

Although there is no restriction over how I may approach painting, there are a few specific styles I frequently use. The style I will discuss in this essay is my relationship with the application of paint, which is generally referring to how I create the images you see on the canvas. I refer to the creation of an image in terms of application because of the unique relationship between what I am thinking and expressing and the tool/object I use to bring my idea and expression to life.

It would be best to start this discussion touching on some points of my theory and ideas on tools and objects. I believe that all things have various identities and natures that create unique images and expression in and of themselves, and to different degrees when shared with the ideas of an artist or anyone interacting/performing with that object. These images, in and of themselves, will vary depending on how they are presented and brought to life. Meaning, the range will consist of as little altercation as possible, which is predominantly an image and expression directly from an object, like its fingerprint, or even more accurate, a general photograph of an object. To me, that is as hands-off as you can get, although you can have many styles of photography which will capture that object in unique expression, a general photograph can start out as an object’s portrait, a very closely related or identical recreation of that object’s identity and nature. The same goes for painting. You can try to have the most general expression of an object, as little altercation or technique added to its identity or used to capture and bring its identity to life. In my painting, that would usually consist of applying paint to an object or dipping an object in paint and then pressing it to canvas, allowing the object to dominate and predominantly create the image/expression. The other end of this range will consist of a very specific idea or technique used in conjunction with an object, so that the identity of that object is greatly influenced or captured and presented by the artist’s very specific idea or technique.

I range from presenting an object’s identity in paint, or any medium, with as little altercation as possible, as well as using very unique techniques that combine with an object’s identity for dynamic results. You could also say that the object alters my technique with dynamic results. It truly is a relationship of broad and specific balances. For example, I could take any surface of something, apply paint over it, press it to canvas, and pull it off, resulting in an image made by that surface. This is predominantly allowing the object control over the image. By default, I am working with its size and characteristics, but no major altercation by me except for the physical motor process involved, the applying paint and pressing. Now I could vary the intensity and pressure of the press once I make contact with the canvas, or how I press the surface once contact is made, sliding or twisting it, or how I remove the surface from the canvas, peeling, pulling, or dragging it off. These are some examples of the degree of interaction between the artist an an object, which is moving away from its default characteristics and creating more dynamic natures of expression.

Yes, I am using the object as a tool just like a paint brush. This is one of the main ideas, the unique identity any object has and creates when applied or used in such a way involving expression. This relationship can be performed on many levels with many variables, so that the object does not have to be the main medium creating the image or applying the paint. For example, It could be receiving the paint applied and acting as the canvas, like painting on garbage bags or cardboard or rubber tires, or it could be simply using different types of canvas, all of which combine to present an idea and expression, and all of which add and contribute its identity and nature to the idea and expression.

Christopher-

 

History of the name Chrs84.

 

Here’s a little history of what the name Chrs84 has stood for on the World Wide Web.  

 

The name Chrs84 and what it stands for has been onLine and throughout the World Wide Web for close to 15 years. Does anyone remember Aol and the chatRoom phenomenon? As broad as chat options and related sites are now, there was a time when chatting was a tight unique community on an immense scale. Yes, such communities are even larger now, but in many ways, it’s not the same as those 1990’s, but that’s not to take anything away from today’s faithful wordSmiths and communicators. I still run into legends, skillful and masterful with the spoken word, or should I say dancing fiery keyboards. Anyway, that was where I first made my assault on language and the Web.

Most chat rooms consisted of common dialogs in traditions of friends meeting onLine, strangers talking to strangers, and people who were gradually or quickly becoming friends, or sometimes enemies. There was also a relatively small group of unique chatters who would frequent a chat room and spread fire and energy through words. These groups were mostly made up of shock-types/haters who tended to be very combative, the philosopher/debaters who pushed hot topics and issues that always struck nerves or addressed our conscience and senses, the Zen/gurus who brought peace, calm and wisdom to whatever theme or mood a room was in, and the wordSmith/artists who emphasized the energy in dialog and the arts in general. All of these unique chatters combined and surrounded with friends and strangers who usually fell somewhere between these unique characteristics, friends and strangers who had some combination or a little of all the unique chatter-type natures. Then there was also the gaming and roll-playing rooms, and of course the forever infamous sex, dating, and hook-up rooms.

I was the wordSmith/artist, and what that meant was, even in a room full of friends and people I knew, it was known that I would fire out statements and phrases and fish for anyone who caught on or was game. We would open up a unique conversation and dialog, not consisting of the more traditional hello, how are you, how is the weather, or talk of a specific topic, or the history between people and he said-she said , but rather, conversation and dialog much more in a poetry format, and most importantly, it was always an open format that anyone could chime in on, and plenty of people did. It was easy and it was very magical. Picture it as so: You are in a chat room with a decent or excellent vibe, maybe you go there all the time and a bunch of your friends are there, but there is also a good mix of newbies and strangers, maybe a shock-type is razzing someone, but not enough to get kicked out or put on ignore. You go through the usual hellos, greeting friends, talking about whatever is relevant, the day, yesterday, plans for whatever, or updates from people since last you spoke to them. At the same time, you see these artistic statements popping out, sometimes at a frequent pace, sometimes here and there, and every so often, something pops out and it hits you, it makes you think, or lol, or smile, or feel puzzled, and you chime in, you pop out a version of it or something that could be considered a response, and a few of the people you are talking with do the same. We all feel it; we all smile, lol, or shake our heads, then you go right back to your chat and everything keeps going. After a while, the core of the chat room turns into a microcosm of generating energy, anchors that fuel fire and drive movement, and from time to time, and at any given moment, I end up doing what you just did, but in reverse, and I chime in on a more normal/traditional dialog, or I respond to a more global idea that suddenly floated around the room, born out of one of your more specific conversations. It all made for some very sharp, witty, dynamic times, times when people easily spent all night online talking and typing. This is what I became known as; this is what I stood for. When you saw Chrs84 pop in, you knew everything was about to get a little more artistic and expressive, especially in those rooms that were already wonderfully artistic and expressive. We thrived off of each other, and words developed into elaborate identities that were just as strong as our profile images and interests. Together, we made some amazing hanging-out times.

Of course I didn’t stop there. I went on to post plenty of written word, poems, stories and essays that floated throughout the Web, some of which you just might run into if you looked hard enough, popping up right there on your screen with the date to prove it. I know of a few places and I plan to eventually link them so we can view those blasts from the past. I contributed to online magazines. Remember when those zines started to catch on fire? It seemed like everyone was starting up an online mag. You could still find very early work of mine in the ancient posts of poetry and writing sites, and forums, and Aol communities and homePages. Even right now, I have some old Aol home pages that I will link up soon. Still, lots of my work became lost, as life and shit sometimes happens. I moved, different roommate times, different computers and sharing computers and online accounts, so one thing led to another and I lost my Chrs84 screen name, in the sense that it was created under the master name/account of an old friend/roommate. Remember how limited things were when it came to screen names, how difficult it was to transfer a name back then? So the name became locked up in that old account and I moved on to different screen names, not a significant amount, but a few different ones. For the most part, I would still use Chrs84 anytime there was an external identity request outside the actual root-account, like creating accounts and identities on other sites, so in that sense, it never left me. In fact, if you look up Chrs84 on Aol and its community/hometown(which I used to check from time to time, just for the hell of it, but haven’t in the last few years), you might still see some listings and headings, although, any actual body connected to it is unavailable. The actual Aol Chrs84 screen name may have never been completely deleted from its original account, or properly removed from where it is rooted. Of course we have come a long way with identities and the World Wide Web, and personal websites exploded and became much more accessible to the online user, so I took Chrs84 into the domain world of the Web.

Now, as a special treat, I will give you what so many people over time have inquired, and depending on my mood or how elusive and broad I wanted to be, I answered or usually skirted around their question, which is: What does the 84 stand for? since it wasn’t the last 2 digits of the year of my birth nor a particularly great year for me. Seeing as to how I was only 10 years old at that time(1984), you could say most of my life in that year was big-time or smack in the middle of being a kid. The 84 in Chrs84 stands specifically for the piece of literature George Orwell produced, the landmark book titled 1984. As a teenager, this was one of the single most influential pieces of work I read at that time. Of course it went hand in hand with Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World masterpiece, and together, they opened up a whole new relationship between consciousness and the written word. It will always be one of the top books that taught me the fundamentals of conveying massive issues through literature and a story. Then 1984 and a Brave New World went perfect with Animal Farm and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, combine these with the Diary of Anne Frank, The Good Earth, A Clockwork Orange, The Stranger and Naked Lunch and you could say that, literally, I was a changed man and never looked back. Would you believe that every one of these books, minus Naked Lunch, constituted the core of the Board of Education High School English curriculum? Nowadays, based on the younger people I speak with, I’m not even sure if any of these books are required reading. Oh well, the times have changed; what could we expect? Anyway, out of the respect for what that book meant to me, out of all the numerical digits I could have chosen to accompany Chrs, which is my first name minus the “i”, or it’s also the first 3 letters of my first name and the “s” is the first letter of my last name, I chose 84, clicked the link on the Aol create a screen name page to check if it was available, and it was, and the rest became history.

 

 

Fun fact:

In one of the earlier online version of the game Mahjong, called Mahjong Towers II (speed oriented), those boards created by the Author: Chrs84, are my boards and that author is none other than me. I can proudly say that at the prime and height of my playing, I was in the top 10 of the greatest Mahjong players in the world, those also playing at that time, and you could safely rank me at least top 50 of All-Time in Mahjong Towers II, world wide! There was a time that you could see my top 10 ranking scores across at least 200 different boards, yeah, I was a monster player. I used to work at home and had the wonderful opportunity to master the game. Secretly, from time to time, I dream of a glorious comeback. I made hundreds of boards, many that were unique and beautiful and downloaded in people’s copy of the game, some boards may still be popularly played today.

 

My best Wishes

Christopher-