MORE TEST PRINTS

I typically shy away from using representational imagery, but because of the nature of this particular commercial assignment, it was a must.

Here are some studio shots from earlier this summer, showing the various, working test prints in action, as well as the partial stack of silkscreens. The test prints are made on newsprint, corrugated plastic, and gessoed, wood panels. Using/creating the test prints as I was simultaneously working on the 'master' panel was crucial in solving color choices, compositions, imagery juxtapostions, etc.

TEST PRINTS

I am just a few days away from moving into my new studio, so the excitement level is pretty high. As I begin to pack up the cramped mess I currently occupy, I stumbled across these "test prints" that I created earlier this summer. They functioned more like working sketches than actual test prints, as the final piece was a 4' x 8' screenprinted collage of imagery and techniques. The 'final' piece was an editorial illustration of Elvis, John Wayne, Bruce Lee and Evel Knievel...the test prints above, on (***gasp***) 18" x 24" newsprint, were used to work out color and image compositions as well as test/empty screens. Of the thirty or so test prints, I consider 5 or 6 of them 'strong' enough to be finished pieces in their own right, despite the ragged edges, pinholes and non-archival paper.

CAGE

We all need 'Heroes'; people that we (subconsciously) make bigger than life, people that inspire and enrich our lives. I rarely speak in hyperbole, but I can say, without doubt, that John Cage has had a more profound impact on me than any other artist I have ever known. His involvement with indeterminacy and chance operations as well as his employment of structure/discipline in the highest order are absolutely fascinating. His history is also rich and complex with other creatives; Duchamp, Rauschenberg, Johns, Merce Cunningham, Karlheinz Stockhausen, etc...Cage is limitless in inspiration, techniques, curiosity, questions and solutions. He is a truly fascinating individual. I have been studying his work (as well as his many collaborators) for nearly ten years, and it never gets boring (although often very complex and challenging). 

Poet, public speaker, mycologist, printmaker, painter, filmmaker, macrobiotic, performer, composer, Zen Buddhist, this guy did it all.

To summarize, his work is REALLY beautiful stuff.

DREAMS THAT MONEY CAN BUY

Film by Hans Richter, with Rotoreliefs by Marcel Duchamp and music by John Cage. One of my favorite early Cage compositions for prepared piano, very delicate and melodic. 

STOPPAGES DEUX

More examples of the Stoppages, screenprint on paper, each 1/1 and 18" x 24".

STOPPAGES

Stoppages, detail.

Stoppages, screenprint, ink on paper, 19" x 24", each 1/1, 2008.

Earlier this year, I spent several weeks exploring the possibilities of using silkscreens as a 'drawing' tool. By that I mean, I am using the medium (which is typically used to mechanically repeat the same image over and over) to slowly weave a unique and indeterminate line, in a linear and mobius-like fashion. Each print is unique.

The screens are essentially photograms; they are 'composed' by using gravity and dropping a single length of string onto a sensitized screen. It is then exposed and cleared, leaving me with a single, arbitrarily-composed line. I repeat that process a total of three times to create three separate, individual screens, each with a unique form. From there, I begin printing, one screen and one line at a time. It's a very slow process to arrive at 'finished' prints like the ones above; each shade of gray represents a single pass of a single screen, so there are roughly 12-15 passes per print.

These prints were conceptually inspired by Duchamp's  '3 Stoppages Etalon' work of 1915, where he used similar elements of chance and gravity to compose a line. I really had no idea what the finished line was going to look like, it was changing and evolving with each pass of the squeegee. I feel like the result is a little reminiscent of Brice Marden's Cold Mountain works, and I don't think I mind that at all.

ACTION DRAWING

If you 'dislike' the Drip Paintings, then I am sure the Action Drawings will further irritate you. Obviously, the titles of both series are tongue in cheek references to the 'great' modern American masters.

I think that there IS a conceptual connection between these Action Drawings, the Drip Paintings and the Nonrepresentational Photographs; they are all speak to/of/from the inherent syntax of the materials from which they are made. Certainly, each work questions the preconceived function of  the respective medium; instead of being presented with a trompe l'oeil mirror or a window, the viewer sees a seemingly informationless, flat, physical object/plane. 

( And yes, I know I have posted this time lapse link before, but this time I wanted to embed it to make it easier to find/reference. And yes, it IS stupid to draw with a dumb hat on your head, so don't do it!)