Respond and React New Works by Clint Davidson
Clint Davidson, Assemblage with Black and Blue No.1, 2017, Collage/Mixed Media on Panel, 18” x 24”
Clint Davidson’s body of work focuses on paintings with no preconceived image in mind. Traditionally, this method of painting would be called “Non Objective”. Davidson embraces this process and lets it guide and inform the decisions he makes. The title “Respond and React” reflects in a concise way the process in which this work was made. Typically starting with one color painted over the entire surface, Davidson responds to the clean field of color with marks or collaged shapes. From this point, it becomes a series of “response” or “reaction” to previous decisions made in an effort to build a relationship between materials, colors, marks, activity, and inactivity. The ultimate objective is to make a well designed and dynamic final image that was built from the process of response and reaction. When working in this manner the materials, marks, colors, and the relationships between these elements become the subject matter.
There are recognizable elements such as bits of typography and graffiti marks which allude to Davidson’s other interests in the vast world of contemporary art. Davidson takes these elements and changes the traditional context of them to suit his needs. By using these elements as subject matter and giving them new purpose, he achieves a stylized and distinct visual language that is specific to him and his story as an artist.