More or Less

During the month of March, artists in the Open Sketchbook mentoring program explored minimalist and maximalist approaches with our Everything's Related: More or Less theme. We looked at the work of Contemporary and Outsider artists who developed their paintings and sculptures using more-is-more or less-is-more processes. These include maximalists Mark Bradford, Joyce Kozloff, Julie Mehretu, Cy Twombly and Emery Blagdon and minimalists Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Henri Matisse and Bill Traylor. 

Weekly sketchbook prompts were further explored on surfaces beyond the sketchbook in a project entitled From the Ground Up. Additive and subtractive methods were used in a layered fashion, balancing the accumulation of materials with reductive actions including tearing off, scratching out, covering up and painting over. We started these works with a 12-piece collage but a month-long succession of materials and methods provided ample opportunities to integrate many disparate elements into fully formed expressions. The exciting works below represent these efforts at this particular juncture as more or less layers may still be under consideration. 

Virginia Carstarphen:

Susan Gamerman:

Katharine Hathaway:

Karen Hovey:

Phyllis Rabineau:

Mary Ridley:

Sue Teller:

Jan Wishinsky:

Kaye Buchman: