Artist's Statement, Steven Gutierrez

Artist’s Statement- Steven Gutierrez "Gute"

Anti-Orthoism (A.O.) breaks the barriers of the typical, orthogonal-shaped canvas. It begins with a careful planning process. A concept generated from visions, eventually develops into a much more detailed, precision built canvas stretcher that is almost sculpture-like in form. It's not about a "shaped canvas." Anti Orthoism involves a much deeper thought process which requires time to combine a series of sketches, notes, and brainstorming.

The exploration of various concepts relative to the subject matter such as literature can begin with a synopsis. This is a great starting point to gather ideas and arrange them into a composition. In this early stage of development, the artist is at liberty to communicate their thoughts in multiple dimensions. The basic, general scheme of the design determines the form of the painting where a hierarchy can be generated. From this, an axis can attach secondary elements to the main body of the canvas. This example can be seen in A.O.1, my first Anti Orthoism painting. The process eventually ties an assortment of elements which communicate directly with the subject.

Anti Orthoism was developed as a means of limitless exploration of a painting. The rectangular and square shaped canvas have boundaries. Whatever the artist is painting, the four sides of a canvas will always stop the artist from continued work. This creates negative space, halting the creative process, and above all, it conforms to the status quo.

Most things (99%) made by human hands are either a rectangle or square shaped object, just look at your surroundings. I have intentionally applied traditional materials to these works to reiterate the fact that these are paintings on stretched canvas. However, they are not limited to these materials.

The vision is to propel artists into a "new way" of thought, and a nontraditional perception of what a museum painting is. The objective isn't to fit in but to stand out. To produce original works of Art that don't relate to anything created before.

Think of it as the continued evolution of fine-art painting.