Chaos, Calm and Order

I wanted to take a different approach to my work. There are a few things I want to look into that I believe connect with the idea of the sublime but I want to forget about the actual sublime for now and focus on separate elements. 

These include: 

Chaos - Order (although originally I had put Calm as you will see bellow)

Nature - Human environment

Terror - Awe

Power - Fragility

Elevation - Low

INTENSE 

OVERWHELMING

I stated with chaos. I put on some chaotic music, got out a bung of materials and let loose. Bellow are in the order that I began them but I was working on most of them simultaneously, letting paint dry at occasions and not at others. 

CHAOS

These mono-prints followed on from the tests done on terror and awe from the previous post (see this here). This is why the image of the eye is still visible here but i started to use more chaotic hand movements. This moved me on to trying this chaotic way of using my material. 

Mixed media on paper

Mixed media in sketchbook

Mixed media on A3 paper

Close up of the piece above

Mixed media on card

Close up

Mixed media on card

Close up

After photographing the pieces I felt that the this piece related the most of the idea I was trying to put across, for myself, about chaos. I started by playing around with it in Photoshop but then things started to flow a little better.  

Inverted

Photo of a mountain (taken by me) layered on top

This is three layers, the inverted image, a cut out piece from the original which was cut out at random and the photograph of the mountain.

Using the photograph of the mountain as a template, I cut out part of the original painting.

The previous image layered with the inverted image.

The colours, the lines, the textures and the layers make for a pretty chaotic image but I wanted to step it up so I made a GIF so add movement. The extreme contrast in colours also creates movement but then a more chaotic atmosphere is added with the change of different colours and the slight movement. The strobe-like change of colours I think is effective in creating the chaotic atmosphere I was looking for. 

CALM

I accidentally went into looking at Calm rather than Order. I think this was partly because I needed some calm after being immersed in the world of chaos for some time.

I chose a light pallet that was mainly blues, like the sky or calming water. 

I used cut outs from a book on Chinese Birds (I'm not sure of the title) that I had kept from a while ago.I find these very calming. The imagery within the circles in the complimented with calming colours and form. 

This didn't work as well. The colours are successful but I don't think the use of the triangle works, it is too jagged. The use of the circles in the previous image works better.

After I had done all of this is when I realized that really, the opposite of Chaos is Order. Bellow are a few ideas for Oder in relation to Chaos.

The fist mad squiggle reminded me of a heart rate line, which I have previously looked at in regards to this project. 

I then wanted to go back and look at the opposite of calm. There are a few words such as rough, unrest, excite but violent stuck out to me in terms of the violence of nature within the mountains. The experiment bellow was done with a violent mind whist listening to music that I thought suited. I think it relates a lot of the idea of chaos.