The Process of Emotional Abstractions:
Metaphysical & Surreal Energy Interplay
"Everything is energy and that is all there is to it."
- Albert Einstein
"Information is light; light is information. The more you become informed, the more you alter your frequencies. You are electromagnetic creatures.
Everything that you are, you broadcast to everyone else."
- Barbara Marciniak
“Emotional Abstractions” is an improvisational, collaborative art process that originates in social settings when my energy vibrates with others. These ink drawings that I let others initiate on the blank paper freeze life’s fleeting moments in a time capsule. When I transfer the sketches to canvas, these intangible energies are then choreographed into surreal emotional abstractions.
In 2018, I realized that our emotions are charged energy and we each have a frequency that other people interact with. My Emotional Abstractions process begins with the energy vibrations I experience at the right moment. When I feel the right vibration, I invite people---sometimes strangers, sometimes those I know---to bring their energies to the improvisational interplay. The lines of this series begins with a single energy marking that the participants leave on blank paper. During this process, you never know what you're going to get, like when you come up to a bar on a Saturday night. I want to learn how my energy interacts with others' and how I express myself, and this process has proved to be exciting, unpredictable, surprising, and as unique as each individual who participates in it. My artwork is always playful, so no matter how dark the energy that comes up is, I find a way to play and engage with it. I freeze time and energy, the two things that make up our whole existence, in these paintings.

THE BEGINNING STAGES OF EMOTIONAL ABSTRACTIONS
September 27, 2022
Instagram Link
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Behind the scenes of Emotional Abstractions, Step 1 & Step 2--the improvisational moment and then the initial drawing. Each of these 6 people I met at a bar left their marking on the page. I connected them with lines in a way that made sense. Then, everyone told me what they were thinking or feeling when they drew the lines. The lines start out chaotic, but I connect them to create something out of them. This is only the beginning, as the drawing will then become a full painting.


AFTER HOURS
September 8, 2018 - 5:43AM
Instagram Link
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1:8 ratio. After everyone, including me, made their personal energy marking, we stopped to take a photo to remember the moment. This photo shows the first stage of making Emotional Abstractions.

BEGINNING TO FINAL ARTWORK ON CANVAS
Step by Step Process
Process I

Beginning of the interactive energy marking, 1:8 ratio. Both the chaotic tangle and the agitated spiral of madness came from the intoxicated "after hours" energy.
Process III
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I didn't want the jagged, sharp lightning bolts of male energy protruding into the painting, so I replaced them with a triangular form.
Process II

Guiding the scribbles and tangles more into shapes, dark lines. Looking for natural forms in the chaos.
Process IV
Final Improvised Ink Sketch (9"x12")

I took out the horned marking at the bottom that felt like it carried negative energy, but instead of erasing it entirely, I changed it into something more playful and friendly.
Painting
acrylic on canvas, 30"x 40"

I transferred the sketch to a canvas and made final edits. The tangles became much clearer spirals, and out of the scribbles a beautiful peacock was born.
CIRCLE OF LIFE
October 1, 2018
1:1 artist to group ratio
Instagram Link: Evan Franka returs in 2022 to view the final canvas after 4 years.
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One simple line by Evan Franka, whose father is a New York artist Robert Franka, evolved into this acrylic on canvas painting. Evan found that his father's artwork was similar to the curved lines that appeared in the drawing, showing how these energies converge in the spontaneous moment of the process. From just that simple vertical line in the middle of the page became one of the works I'm most proud of.
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Process I

Finished Improvised Sketch

Painting
acrylic on canvas, 60" x 48"

SWIPE RIGHT
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Instagram Link to the Process (​Jan. 29, 2022)
Instagram Link to my Exhibition (May 3 - Oct. 1, 2022)​
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I started working on this in ArtBar in New York (You can see the words "ArtBar" in Process II). From there, the manager saw it and asked me to do a show there. I had my work up in ArtBar for 5 months - it was originally meant to be 1 month but ran through October 1 because ArtBar was so happy with it. ​
Process I

Process II
Finished Improvised Sketch


Painting
acrylic on canvas, 60" x 48"
