ABOUT
Steve Smock’s latest works are a revolutionary break from the Utah artist's previous painting styles, which range from traditional landscapes to expressive abstracts. The series is defined by linear patterns combed across the canvas with machine-like precision, as narrow lines are spaced an equal distance apart in a definitive design. Drips and splotches of paint ride the rows to reveal the artist’s fingerprint, but even these imperfections have an eerie regularity to them. The works range from simple sophistication to chaotic complexity depending on the number of layers and color values he chooses to work with. Pieces with single linear layers emulate seismic waves actively measuring tectonic activity, with the blips of paint denoting shifts in the Earth’s core rather than in the artist’s hand. As layers build, intersecting lines form moiré designs that eventually cover the canvas and, from a distance, recall the mysterious undulation of Arctic northern lights. These “Multi-colored” works have also been interpreted as carefully stitched tapestries or rippling curtains.
The oscillating effects of Smock's linear abstractions are achieved through his carefully calculated palette of reactionary colors and meticulous painting process. The artist works from an aerial perspective; he walks on cardboard or on a raised wooden platform so as not to damage preceding layers as he applies thin lines of paint with a large rake engineered from steel and wood. Each stroke must be dry before adding an intersecting layer, causing the process to go on for months and contributing to the tangible texture of the finished piece. Smock says of the process:
“When I’m making the paintings I’m very close to them. I’m actually standing over them, or working on my hands and knees on top of the roomful of canvas-- so I feel almost as if I’m inside the work. I lose sense of the edges and composition and sink into the painting. I want that experience for the viewer, as well. The scale creates a situation where the viewer almost isn't able to consider the composition of the work, it’s all just one-point perspective. So when you sit right in front of a piece, you never look at the edges, and because you don’t see the edges there’s no more composition. You never worry about balance, you're just inside the work. Once I've gotten the viewer inside the painting, the meanings they find there become deeply subjective. But it’s all something that’s metabolized through the body and direct experience.”