Lee Patrick [Johnson]

I decided to let go of all emotional and physical attachment to the object-based nature of my work and approach it from the angle of performance, movement, form and existence.  I have been trying to approach the formal transformation of my dimensional work more the way I approach my paintings and drawings: based on gesture, form, color and composition.  I am working on neglecting the object completely so that the piece becomes about imagery, form, and atmosphere (a portrait of sorts -- See Robert Wilson).  I’m interested in myself becoming part of the piece but for my pieces I neglected any sort of emotion so that the focus was more on the composition and form.  This turned out to be much more difficult than I thought seeing that I ‘transitioned’ more or less every object I’ve created in the past three months into new forms: digital video, photographs, and new construction elements.  I was a compelling experiment upon myself as an artist to see how I reacted to the neglect, seeming destruction and alteration of my ideas.  I want to begin to utilize more color/video filtration, projection, viewer digital media interaction and post-production alteration to explore the realms in which my previous work has been neglected.

I see this very much as a starting point for a new phase in my work.  I am interest in using the printed photographs of the installation as the raw elements for further two-dimensional and three dimensional work.  As far as cinematography and filming are concerned I am interested in creating a much more elaborate and focused set based on my drawings, ideas and concepts.  In the context of the objects I am not as interested in physically deconstructing my work in further pieces as much as transitioning it.  I am not sure exactly how I am going to approach this but I am interested in personification/portraiture of an object and that could be a direction to take.  Regardless of the aesthetic choices I want to push my work into collaborations, events (”happenings”), social/public art or just random encounters.  I will be approaching my ideas and work with no inhibitions what-so-ever just to see what happens (that isn’t really too far of a stretch for me).  Experimentation is critical right now.  Back to work.

Form and object (Video I uploaded to Youtube)