Eric Pon

Love is a Place

Culminating body of Thesis Work

“Abstract Expressionistic Intuitive Automatism Disengaged "Oh, in dreams I'm wading through heavy water, love is enormous, it's lifting me up, I'd rather be sleeping- rather be falling in tidal waves, ride where the deepest currents flow." - Liz Harris, GrouperGlib Fluent and talkative yet shallow and insensitive; This painting was a reaction to a traumatic situation which I wouldn't otherwise consciously understand. I met someone last summer who told me that we traumatize ourselves, to teach ourselves, our lives most vital, experiential lessons- that couldn't have been learned without the shock of disaster. Now as this work exists, with its teachings professed not in retrospectivity, but in actuality, might we begin to accept the existence and validity of powers, energy like forces, which are constantly at play that we human beings just cannot fathom, process or even imagine. When many things the mind forgets and ignores, in synchronicity how the heart's voice cannot help but yield- to all which we've been listening for, within our voice one's truth is sealed. Glib- only after we've decided to finally speak, talkative and insincere, does the painting's cypher outwardly creep, as finally its purpose like insight, becomes clear.TriumphAt Last As the first piece in this body of work this painting was initially a cover up and was intended to be a much different figurative piece. It's taught me how important it is to forget what you're doing completely, and that when you come back to what is now freshly discovered, Is to continue reworking it into what you needed to be. A vital lesson I somehow actually had forgotten through my Academic career- if you are not happy with it, It is not finished. Ironically, the richest aspect of this painting being it's texture- Would have been impossible to achieve without the insatiable , desperate chaos which ensued over the course of half a year, on this prepared surface. disasters made up the underpaintings and layers of completely unassociated images until ultimately, it translated itself into the focal point of this body of work. Wanting something so badly then letting yourself have it, when you've waited for so long, when there's something so profound, so beautiful, it's elation forces you to exhale- to sigh, releasing the breath you've been holding on to... At Last. ParoxysmThis piece was done at the quickest and with the least intent to be a final piece. It's the validity of abstract expressionism that I truly understand, when I accompany it with the words intuitive automatism. We as artist judge ourselves and our fellow artists consciously, and subconsciously, solely on our literal representative ability, and our figurative work. As trained artists, it's understandable why overlooking preliminary steps might lead to feelings of diluted authenticity or the finality, the concept of abstract expressionism itself lacking validity. The Blue DreamEveryone has a unique perspective, comprised and attributed by the intersectionality of the detriments and privileges which make up their unique lived experience. With the basic predispositions of (Gender, Class, Race, Health, Sexual Orientation, Disability, Age ect) we, therefore, have an undertone to everything we do that situates ourselves within an innate bias. This bias filters everything we sensually experience, and our consumption of art is no exception. It's this critical notion of Subconscious bias, that affects each one of our unique perspectives, and actually in part, help defines what we know as traditional Perspective, which really is everything. There's not much that can dramatically shift a world of difference in an instant, and while we know we cant change ourselves overnight, but we can definitely change direction. With this in mind I've created a vast dreamscape out of oil paint that invites one in, tantalizingly, Only to contradict with its title, the ultimate audience directive. ”