Nathan Suniula - Personal Response

This week, Nathan Suniula gave us a lecture about his works and the inspirations or history behind it. Nathan spoke about how he was interested in the physical properties and the language of paintings whenever he saw them. The idea of curiosity and asking questions, “why” was something Nathan related to greatly, which made me start asking myself questions about my own works. I was surprised when Nathan talked about how his works express an event that disrupts a field. For some reason, I jumped to the conclusion that Nathan’s works consisted of lines and arrows. However, I found it creative how he not only mixed physics with art, but also with his Samoan background. I really liked Nathan’s works with the ie toga, because despite Nathan’s context behind his works, the ie toga itself has its own story.

I guess Nathan was right when he said that as a Pacific Islander, people seem to think that you make Pacific art, which ends up almost pulling you into that direction despite your initial ideas. It was great to see that Nathan didn’t completely steer away from the ie toga in his new works, but instead developed it further by dragging a nail or comb into the wet paint to represent the fine weave. I really like how Nathan’s works are so thick, that where the comb has scratched some of the paint off, the residue still remains, which makes the painting look more dynamic and almost 3D.

An artist that Nathan mentioned was William Turner, and his Fishermen at Sea painting. I noticed a few similarities in Turner and Nathan's works, with the colour palette and the brush strokes. When you look closely at the way Turner painted the sea, it almost looks like the lines Nathan makes in his paintings with a comb or nail. I really like this painting because it reminds me of the bible story where Jesus calmed the storm.