Curious Connections

Artist: Anthony Waichulis
Medium: Oils
Price: $5,000

Description

14" x 11", oil on panel. 2012. A little info about this piece: “Curious Connections” is a fun experimental piece that I had created a few years ago. The intent with this piece was to infuse the colorful, playful subject matter with a greater sense of mystery and tension by employing less-comfortable, (or rather aesthetically agitating), spatial arrangements. When this piece was on the easel, I was invested in much research into the aesthetic experiences that may result from the manner in which we may group image components together to assign meaning, how this effort is reinforced so that the viewer continues to search for a “discovery” with an image (i.e., how an implication is more alluring than one that is explicit.), and how we work to build a mental tunnel between concepts that appear grossly dissimilar on the surface, but instead share a deeper “connection.” I am hopeful that the array of visual clues that I included encourage much exploration of this piece. Some of these clues include: a significantly left-heavy composition that (hopefully) seems quite intentional, a few markings on the chalkboard that hint that there is much more to the picture than what is contained on its surface, the inclusion of a chess piece (aiming to communicate that the composition was indeed a well-thought out strategy), and of course, the cat (a common representative for the curious.) One of the less-obvious clues here is the playful representation of the crescent moon and the chalk-mark opposite it which I hoped would communicate a rocket heading to the moon. This was a visual attempt to subtly communicate the idea behind the phrase “shoot the moon” which is used to communicate the idea of “taking a great risk or going for broke.” (Something that really summarized the idea of making a painting that attempts to deliberately (but playfully) antagonize many of the mechanisms of the aesthetic experience.) There is much more here to discover and I hope that you all enjoy the investigation. 😊
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