Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Louis Mateo – Homage: Relief Interpretations

Rock Creek Helzer Gallery

Reproductions of existing works

March 2003

It is interesting to speculate what goes on in the minds of master painters in the process of converting their ideas into visual forms. My own attempt at decoding these works is really an investigative process. I’ve attempted to supply my own interpretations based on the artists’ handling of the picture elements. The two-dimensional uses of color, line, and value, have their own equivalents in 3 dimensional form.

The visual components taken separately that are in play in these superb pieces may not stand on their own. But in the context of the whole piece, they are totally consistent. These masterworks create their own rules. The prevailing quality of these pieces is its own syntax, wholly descriptive through color, values, intensity and line. It is a direct and masterful reflection of the artists’ own voice and confirms that the whole is indeed more than the sum of its parts.

My materials are easily available such as cardboard, plaster of Paris, masking tape, white glue, acrylic and gouache paints. Kneading, twisting, folding and curling can often manipulate cardboard into surprisingly plastic forms. Plaster can be molded, scraped, and carved. These are simple technical and learnable processes. What is more challenging is attempting to deconstruct the works’ complexity that is at times deceptively simple.

A note on the reproductions: The reproductions used in the interpretations where collected from magazine, books, and the Internet. Given the nature of printing technology and pigment chemistry, these reproductions may not accurately reflect the original coloring of the actual pieces. Time also takes its toll on pigment stability in the actual pieces long after the artist is gone. Even in its reproduced form, the artists’ use of the visual elements reflect the vision and singular originality of their creations.

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