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Artist of the week: Jordan Daniele

Courtesy Jordan Daniele

The Concordian spoke with the multi-talented artist and Concordia student about inspiration, overcoming creative block, and more

What makes an artist? Concordia’s very own Jordan Daniele, who is a painter, creative and artist, delves into this complex idea by peeling back the layers of his own work. Largely inspired by historical artists and influenced by Jean-Michel Basquiat-style expressionism, Daniele emulates a deliberate childlike approach to painting, citing “childhood is something everyone can connect with.” He feels it is important to remain a kid at heart. 

TC: What inspired you to take up painting?

JD: I have been studying art history for four years now and I’m still studying it to this day. I’ve reached a point where I want to move on from learning about artists that already exist and become one myself. I’m still not certain I want to be an artist as a profession, but painting is something I enjoy, so I might as well explore that while I can. I think that because I’m a fairly reserved person that painting has given me an outlet to express myself in a way that comes most naturally to me. I’ve never been great at speaking up, but now, with my most recent work, it has allowed me to speak my mind on the canvas in a way that I never could with words.

TC: What would you like people to take away from your work?

JD: For me, it’s all about expression — what I’m going through, what I’m thinking. If even one person can connect and find solace in it, that’s what it’s all about. Even if my work can brighten someone’s day, add some positivity to their mood, that would be cool. When I was just starting out, I used to paint more abstract, random brush strokes, Jackson Pollock-type work. Then, my dad actually inspired me to branch out and venture into more figurative work. Before that, I had never really thought to have a message embedded in my work. My primary focus was more aesthetic-based, and finding the beauty in arbitrary brushstrokes. I wasn’t overly concerned with incorporating a definite message because it’s supposed to be subjective. I want people to connect with it the way they want. If they want it to have meaning then they can find one hidden in the brushstrokes — if they don’t, then that’s cool too. Everyone will have their own experience with it.

Facial Features by Jordan Daniele

 

TC: How often do you face creative blocks? How do you overcome them?

JD: Actually, a few months ago, when we were in lockdown, I was painting everyday. At one point I was making five paintings a week. This went on for about a month. I would often go back and paint over those paintings too, so I actually created more than what’s physically out there. So in terms of creative block, sometimes I get stuck on figuring out whatC exactly I’m trying to portray or I get stuck wondering if it should have a meaning at all. Sometimes I won’t paint for a month if I’m particularly frustrated. It can really get you questioning your abilities when you get stuck like that. I’ve caught myself thinking “Am I even good at this anymore?” But I learned that when you get in that headspace, it’s best to just take a break. Once you clear your head, you just have to paint — just go for it and trust that something special will come out of it.

TC: What themes do you find yourself drawn to?

JD: I listen to a lot of music. So, I like to incorporate lyrics into my work. Music plays a big role in my inspiration. I could do a whole painting filled with quotes from a song if it resonates with me. My work has a lot of jazz influence as well. I like to include the actual instruments in my paintings. Sometimes, something as simple as a sound or phrase that gets stuck in my head can spin off and evolve into its own theme and inspire me to explore something new. There isn’t really a single thing that I find myself drawn to, it definitely depends on my environment and what catches my attention, but music and sound are consistent themes.

TC: Can you tell me a bit about your favourite piece?

JD: It’s hard to say because I’m my toughest critic. I’m around my work so often that I’m constantly nitpicking the details of it, so it’s constantly in flux; I can love a painting while I’m creating it and a month later I’ll change my mind. Right now though, I’ve been working on this series of paintings with a bunch of flowers, and it’s my favourite because of the meaning behind it. I start off with quick brushstrokes in the shape of a flower, then I go over it with a more precise outline of it. The contrast of the neat precise outline to the quick and messy shape of the flower is representative of us: people in society. We’re just like flowers. Even when we’re feeling messy and when we’re missing petals, someone may still look at us and see beauty like we do with flowers.

 

The Dark Clouds of Reality by Jordan Daniele

TC: What does being an artist mean to you?

JD: Anyone can be an artist. Of course, it does take some degree of skill for certain types of artwork, but mostly it takes a specific mindset. You have to be ready to take the rawest emotions and thoughts you experience and translate [them] into something tangible. There are so many people who are artists and don’t even know it yet because they haven’t given it a shot. At the end of the day, you just have to be creative and express yourself to the fullest. 

For more information about Daniele or to explore his work, please visit his Instagram page @artistjordandaniele.

Visuals courtesy Jordan Daniele

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Ar(t)chives Arts

Existential art: a brief look at Alex Colville’s Pacific

Pacific, one of Colville’s most well known works, challenges viewers to be inquisitive and to derive their own meaning from this complex piece of art

I first encountered Alex Colville’s work in an introductory art history class during my second year at Concordia. Our professor had us observe several works from the Canadian artist, and try to decipher the meaning behind them.

Colville was primarily concerned with realism, deriving inspiration for many of his works from his life in the Maritimes, as well as his experience serving in the Second World War. Although Colville has quite a few noteworthy paintings, there’s one that has stuck with me ever since I first saw it: Pacific (1967).

This work features a man leaning against a wall as he vacantly stares out at a tranquil body of water. However, this won’t be the first thing that viewers notice. Behind the man rests a pistol on a table, its barrel angled towards the observer. Although Colville’s work often explores themes such as the use of power, postwar anxiety, and morality, coupled with his interest in French existentialism, it appears that the artist would prefer that his audience attempt to interpret what Pacific means to them.

In several of his paintings, Colville presents a landscape that is eerily serene, where he then juxtaposes it with a chaotic subject. His pieces, especially Pacific, leave us with questions that are uncomfortable to confront: what is the man in the painting contemplating? Why is the gun angled towards the audience? Will the man end up using it?

His work draws us in, and instead of providing clear-cut answers and satiating our desire for more vibrant, serotonin-boosting pieces, these paintings demand that we be inquisitive. They expect us to dig a bit deeper, and to get into the heads of the subjects that Colville so carefully crafted.

When viewers are unable to decide on a narrative and make sense of a subject’s motives, they may walk away feeling uneasy. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Art that gets us thinking, especially pieces that cause us to ponder existential questions we may try to avoid, might help us view the world a bit differently. Sure, it can be gloomy to try and make sense of a painting like Pacific, but our own interpretations of a piece often say a lot more about how we view our society and ourselves, rather than the direct intentions of the artist.

In a world where many things tend to move at breakneck speed, there’s nothing wrong with taking some time to engage with a complex work that requires careful introspection from its observer. You might even learn something new about yourself in the process.

 

Visuals courtesy of Taylor Reddam

Categories
Ar(t)chives Arts

Mathematics and spirituality: decoding Hilma af Klint’s work

A brief overview of the Swedish artist’s esoteric paintings

You may recognize Hilma af Klint’s works from their abstract shapes in bold tones of purple, yellow, orange and blue. Combining distinct floral and geometric elements, the Swedish artist’s paintings were greatly inspired by the stages of life.

Born in Stockholm in 1862, af Klint went on to study at Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Meanwhile, she began to immerse herself in spiritualism and Theosophy, a religious movement established in the late 19th century.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, a key characteristic of Theosophy is the belief that there is a “deeper spiritual reality and that direct contact with that reality can be established through intuition, meditation, revelation, or some other state transcending normal human consciousness.”

Af Klint’s inclination towards this system of beliefs greatly led her to founding “The Five.” The group consisted of women artists who gathered on Fridays for spiritual meetings, wherein they would pray, meditate, and conduct séances, which included the practice of automatic writing and mediumistic drawing exercises.

During one of her meetings with The Five, “an otherworldly ‘guide’ instructed af Klint to design a temple connected by a spiral path, and commissioned her to make paintings for this temple,” according to the Guggenheim. This would subsequently lead af Klint to create 193 works, known collectively today as The Paintings for the Temple. Created between 1906 and 1915, the series of works is recognized today as one of the first examples of western abstract art.

In 1907, af Klint painted a series of 10 works titled The Ten Largest, which demonstrate her interpretations of the messages she believed to have been receiving. The works display connection to the universe through recognizable shapes and patterns such as flowers, cells, eggs, and orbs.

The paintings, which resemble both diagrams and art, draw from science, botany, geometry, and colour theory, offering a glimpse at the way in which everything is connected. Af Klint’s contrasting use of holistic and scientific symbols display the artist’s methodical, yet almost “radical” and abstract approach to artmaking.

Aside from af Klint’s revelatory works, what is remarkable about her practice is how contemporary it feels. The works merge spirituality and science in a way that is seamless, aesthetically pleasing, and that manages to feel relevant today.

As stated by artist R.H. Quaytman in the Hilma af Klint catalogue published by the Guggenheim Museum in New York, “If you . . . didn’t know anything, you’d think these paintings were made ten or twenty years ago. You would not know how old they were. And what’s so thrilling about her work, I find, is how contemporary it feels.”

It is outstanding that works created over a century ago are still pertinent in our age. Perhaps af Klint’s revelations offered her a glimpse into the future.

Graphic by Taylor Reddam-Woo.

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