Artist: Marc Magpili
Title: Cohesive Convolution
Materials and Medium: Acrylic on Canvas, 12" x 14"
"Cohesive Convolution" is a Non-representational artwork that seeks to show the cohesion of objects despite how convoluted its environment may be. The painting gets its name from the fact that there seems to be a plethora of different colors laid down on the canvas that seem to look out of place when thought of individually, yet when put together still create a unified work of art. This allows viewers to look into the artwork thoroughly and observe the different colors used in the painting.
The main inspiration for the artist in this painting is the work of American action-painter Jackson Pollock with his drip-painting techniques. The artist felt inspired so as he desired to create a piece with methods similar to that of Pollock's, yet with various differences, such as using a plastic cup to splatter the paint on the canvas.
Made by layering different coats of paint with a flat brush, the artist first wanted to capture the feeling of enormity with his initial idea being a single droplet of paint on top of a whole canvas-ful of a solid layer of a different color, however, this attempt proved futile. In doing so, the artist resorted to experimenting with different colors of metallic paint until he eventually decided to continue with a coat of gold paint. Afterwards, the artist recognized the possibility of a new blank canvas, and thus he resorted to splattering it with different colors of paint by using a plastic container.
With this in mind, the artist moved away from the theme of enormity and decided to use the theme of finding beauty in chaos. With the painting looking overcrowded at first and considerably a mess, it is until one stops looking at the piece and begins observing it that its true beauty emerges. It is only until doing so that one can see the other colors in the painting, rather than just the blacks and whites visible at first glance.
Cohesive Convolution aims to tell people to look for the beauty in chaos, the good in the bad, the light in the dark. That of which cannot be achieved by solely looking at the situation, but rather by observing and digesting what one sees, allowing them to fully see the finer details and appreciate the true cohesiveness in convolution.
