i heard someone say "the first decision in a drawing are the edges, the format, the four lines that already exist."
Monday, February 8, 2010
drawings
i heard someone say "the first decision in a drawing are the edges, the format, the four lines that already exist."
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
synecdoche
this piece was made for Tom Laduke's Rethinking Art class. The prompt was to make a non-traditional self portrait, no representation of your likeness allowed. I had 1 week.
About 7 feet wide and 5 feet tall... big!
Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which the whole is spoken about by referring to it's individual parts. Like saying "nice threads" when complimenting someones clothing.
The work is meant to be a portrait of me by examining and re-purposing the ephemera that surrounds me (family photos, sketches, inspirational images, post cards, etc.). I made hundreds of photocopies destroying the source imagery. I then took that material and cut it into 'pixels' and reassembled them using only pins. The result feels part map, part satellite image and part painting. I like where it's going... but I don't think it's there quite yet.
It's a really interesting class, and the Critique was great.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
INDIA
I went to India over the holidays to visit family.
I absolutely loved these dioramas of Gandhi's life that were at the Gandhi Museum in Bombay.
this one is pretty embarrassing. i feel guilty because they take out the venom sacks from the snake so they're not harmful, which is really a cruel act. but the guy just whispered "cobra" when i walked by, i stopped and he handed me a basket with a f-ing cobra in it!! i wanted nothing to do with that snake.
I absolutely loved these dioramas of Gandhi's life that were at the Gandhi Museum in Bombay.
this one is pretty embarrassing. i feel guilty because they take out the venom sacks from the snake so they're not harmful, which is really a cruel act. but the guy just whispered "cobra" when i walked by, i stopped and he handed me a basket with a f-ing cobra in it!! i wanted nothing to do with that snake.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
palimpsest
these are a few selections from the work that i made this term in David Tillinghast's Advanced Illustration Studio.
I set out to make something that doesn't really function as Illustration but instead investigates an idea. The more I study the more I realize it's the idea that really moves me and the aesthetics are a distant second. This body of work is the first time I was allowed to start by asking a question and let that inquiry push the direction of the work.
I wanted to explore the process of drawing and try to speak to a theme through the act of making art opposed to simply illustrating a topic.
after talking to some people and reading a little I stumbled upon the word palimpsest, palimpsests were writing or drawing surfaces usually made of vellum. because of the high cost of vellum the surface would be used and reused, so a single page could hold a long history of thoughts and marks. I think this is such a beautiful concept and worked perfectly as a central theme to explore process drawing.
In the end this body of work became an investigation of construction, destruction and memory.
often these drawings started as an incidental mark that lead to a complete image, sometimes the image disappeared completely.
I became interested in the individual parts of drawings, thinking about an image as a construction. these are a few pieces where I worked with the scanner bed and scrap pieces of paper, moving around the scraps until it felt like a picture.
continuing the idea of working with drawings as constructions I took the scraps from the scanner work and arranged them on paper adding paint and new elements to make a finished piece.
one of the most fascinating aspects of palimpsests is that the surface has its own memory. I worked with this idea by writing my own memories on paper, letting them build and overlap to create new memories and destroy others.
after the book was complete I took the left over xerox copies, the experiments and failed drawings and made new compositions.
the cut paper is held together using only pins to further highlight the process and speak to the ephemeral nature of making art. in a bizarre way i feel like the entire body of work was really just done to help me make these pieces.
making this body of work really helped me understand a lot about how I think and respond to art.
I set out to make something that doesn't really function as Illustration but instead investigates an idea. The more I study the more I realize it's the idea that really moves me and the aesthetics are a distant second. This body of work is the first time I was allowed to start by asking a question and let that inquiry push the direction of the work.
I wanted to explore the process of drawing and try to speak to a theme through the act of making art opposed to simply illustrating a topic.
after talking to some people and reading a little I stumbled upon the word palimpsest, palimpsests were writing or drawing surfaces usually made of vellum. because of the high cost of vellum the surface would be used and reused, so a single page could hold a long history of thoughts and marks. I think this is such a beautiful concept and worked perfectly as a central theme to explore process drawing.
In the end this body of work became an investigation of construction, destruction and memory.
often these drawings started as an incidental mark that lead to a complete image, sometimes the image disappeared completely.
I became interested in the individual parts of drawings, thinking about an image as a construction. these are a few pieces where I worked with the scanner bed and scrap pieces of paper, moving around the scraps until it felt like a picture.
continuing the idea of working with drawings as constructions I took the scraps from the scanner work and arranged them on paper adding paint and new elements to make a finished piece.
one of the most fascinating aspects of palimpsests is that the surface has its own memory. I worked with this idea by writing my own memories on paper, letting them build and overlap to create new memories and destroy others.
after the book was complete I took the left over xerox copies, the experiments and failed drawings and made new compositions.
the cut paper is held together using only pins to further highlight the process and speak to the ephemeral nature of making art. in a bizarre way i feel like the entire body of work was really just done to help me make these pieces.
making this body of work really helped me understand a lot about how I think and respond to art.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
r.i.p. moses
I got Moses about 3 years ago. he was a good friend.
unfortunately he recently had some health complications and had to be put to sleep. he was way too young, i am really sad to see him go.
you were such a good boy moses! i'll miss you.
unfortunately he recently had some health complications and had to be put to sleep. he was way too young, i am really sad to see him go.
you were such a good boy moses! i'll miss you.
process
i think this still needs something??
my work is really transitional right now. i'm kind of switching gears in the way that i work and the way that i think about art.
so when i was asked to make an allegorical piece i focused on a process approach to painting trying to talk about transitions and identity and change.
yeah i don't think it's done, it still needs something.
pardon the photography, i need to figure out how to shoot oil paintings.
my work is really transitional right now. i'm kind of switching gears in the way that i work and the way that i think about art.
so when i was asked to make an allegorical piece i focused on a process approach to painting trying to talk about transitions and identity and change.
yeah i don't think it's done, it still needs something.
pardon the photography, i need to figure out how to shoot oil paintings.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
sometimes i still wander...
i haven't touched oils for about 6 or 7 months now, it felt great to get back to it.
22 x 30, oil on watercolor paper... finished?? probably not.
i had such a good time with these smaller pieces, really just laying on the paint. most of it was with a palette knife and went really quick. i think i'll use them as sketches for a larger more ambitious painting... maybe.
sorry for the crappy photos.
22 x 30, oil on watercolor paper... finished?? probably not.
i had such a good time with these smaller pieces, really just laying on the paint. most of it was with a palette knife and went really quick. i think i'll use them as sketches for a larger more ambitious painting... maybe.
sorry for the crappy photos.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
off white, white, whiter.
These are pretty old now, but i don't think I've posted them. Just got the photographs from David Tillinghast. They were done for his class last spring.
photo-transfer, thread and silkscreen on watercolor paper.
photo-transfer, thread and silkscreen on watercolor paper.
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