Friday, February 5, 2010

At Vic's Suggestion. . .


So, a wise man told me I should actually post some of my artwork on this crazy inter-webs. So here we go.
I kick it off witht his self portrait that I started literally YEARS ago and never finished. Honestly, I'd love to do a series of them. Maybe Family & Friends? The idea is that we are all made up of all these pieces.
Oddly enough, I think a lot of my "series" that I've planned in my head or started have had a lot to do with self-image. Hmmm, what the hell does that mean? haha. I guess I just don't quite know why I am the way I am. I can't say I don't know WHO I am. I feel pretty comfortable with who I am. But the why. OR even the why was I anything else before. It constantly perplexes me. I find that I often have more questions than answers. Awesome. Guess I'm normal! :o)
Okay, lets move on, shall we?
Next up, the 10 completed pics of the intended 50. Have any ideas? Critiques? Spew them here. Well, not here. In the comments, thank you. Before I post them, I will attempt to describe where I am coming from (which is always hard, as I seem to be constantly figuring that out). SO. Some of these are obvious, and some are not. What we have is my form of an anatomy study. Muscles to be specific. Some are very obvious and others, less so. I studied from my little brother's flash cards he used when he was going through the massage program. They were simple sketches with bone and the highlighted muscle in a texture. I went one step further and found a "brain chart" that I cut up into the shapes of the muscle portion. Then I used witches brew ink to sketch out the bones and muscle and then layered the brain chart piece as muscle. Then I took a combination of red and purple acrylic inks and used them as think washes and let them dry with drippy goodness. Lastly I used (not for the first time in my artwork) an old sewing pattern as an overlay, and rather than glue it directly to the piece, it was drenched in gloss medium over the entire painting until the pattern paper tore in places.
So there is the method. The meaning? Well, I find it interesting that we have this scientifically normal biology and yet everyone's is different; size, variances is shape, wear and tear, etc. And on top of it, fashion and society tells us that our body should be another certain way; bust, waist, hip, inseam...all these specifics in measurement that everyone should conform to. And lastly but certainly not least, is the self-image that one has as a result. Maybe your body is healthy, proportionate, but your mind tells you otherwise. Perhaps you've made yourself think your body is completely different than it should be. The result is sometimes awkward. And sometimes beautiful. And sometimes just a mess.
Or all of thee above. Okay, so enough hippie-peace-love-all people are beautiful crap. These are 10. Is it worth another 40? Tell me.


Oh yeah, did I mention that I purposefully did not orientate them in the anatomical direction? That would just be too predictable. I think with this mixed up presentation you don't necessarily have to see it as anatomy. It could just be shapes and lines. I like it that way. Also, these are on a small scale. 6x6. And they look great framed and next to each other because of it. It is a great visual with the 10.







All right. To continue with the whole body image kick I'm on in this posting. . . when I started the last series, I started a separate piece on the side. It's incomplete, but here it is here:


I'm really not sure what else I want to do to this one. At first I was just goofing off with it and wasn't loving it. Coincidentally, my father likes this one a lot. Whatever that means. haha.
Okay, I think I've given enough of this stuff today.

Who knows what tomorrow shall bring. . .

1 comment:

VJ said...

The sense of rhythm that you've established thus far in your series is very successful. I also enjoy the fact that the ink washes resonate an organic feeling, while juxtaposed with the order of printed words or line work. There were problems in a couple pieces with dead space... perhaps something subtle to keep the movement going, like masking a design off before the wash?