Detail View: CVPA Student Collection: 2016

resource_ID: 
2016mphelan_005
artist_name: 
Phelan, Mark
artist_variant_name: 
Mark Phelan
artist_nationality: 
United States
artist_vital_dates: 
1969
UMassD_CVPA_degree: 
MFA - Fine Arts
graduation_year: 
2016
area_of_study: 
Paintings
additional_acad_degrees: 
BFA University Massachusetts Dartmouth
medium: 
acrylic, charcoal, shellac, oil on panel
work_title: 
Four Feet High and Rising
technique: 
painting
work_date: 
2016
dimensions: 
83x61
description: 
My paintings are an entry to a point of inquiry. I am interested in examining within myself that which makes me feel compelled to paint. This compulsion I have named Painter's Punctum. Roland Barthes defined punctum as the aspect of an image which contains meaning beyond the formal description of the image's contents. Why do I continually return to a subject, a theme, or a way of image building again and again? What is it about the way I draw or what I paint that drives me to investigate it over and over? These are the questions I answer with the help of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Alberto Giacometti, Walter Benjamin, and others, and with the aid of the antiquated apparatus of diving, space exploration, and construction. Using objects as metaphor, I navigate the recesses of my mind in search of the right questions to ask in order to keep me on the path of investigational painting.
collection_name: 
CVPA Student & Alumni Collection
type: 
image file
format: 
.tif - tif file
creation_date: 
2016
upload_date: 
2016
note: 
master file
copyright: 
LUNA Collections are for the sole purpose of instruction and study by faculty and students attending University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dartmouth Massachusetts. All other purposes are prohibited and require permission from the artist.