"All The Stars In The Sky (1843 to be exact)"

In an effort to exercise the "wit of brevity," I will keep my writing to a minimum on this piece. You may recognize this concept from one of my earlier studies here on the blog, one that WAS written about. Since its back a few pages, I'll spare you the hassle of having to go through everything, and I'll just include the link here:

                "All The Stars," small scale study, and concept writing

The actual large scale implementation that you see above, was aesthetically developed as a result to the conditions by which it was created. Basically, I decided I would use only 3 blue sharpie's for the whole piece, and however many stars I could get out of those three, would determine the scope of the project. If they were still running strong, I would still be working on this piece. As it happened, I made a total of 1843 stars before all three sharpies died, and yes I did keep track of them. 

Although it is a simple concept, I like that the outcome is determined by my initial decisions/restrictions. I am working on a whole series of these pieces, using different methods to determine the somewhat randomized outcome i.e. one canvas, I may decide to draw 10,000 stars, and whatever it looks like at 10,000, is the final product. If your intrigued by the concept, be sure to check out the extensive writing found a few pages back, on the small scale study. In the meantime, here's some fun process photo's.

Much more to come y'all! Most of my recent work has yet to be posted, so I'm going to just bite the bullet and start posting a bit sloppier writing in favor of "getting-er-done," as many so fondly put it...

"All The Stars In The Sky," Drawn in Ball-Point Pen (Small Scale Study #1)

Upon returning recently from my latest adventures throughout sunny Florida, I have had the privilege of satisfying my urges to push quantities of work in an attempt to whet my more-so (recently) mania driven appetite in the realm of visual arts. This is not only because my "traditional" studio practice isn't quite as feasible to maintain outside the studio and on the road, but because of my tendencies to work several pieces at once, and to explore relative concepts that come to me organically and satisfy a certain physical or psychological need within me. Put another way, I don't work on a piece if I don't have the literal need to work on it; similarly to the way a person wouldn't make love or masturbate without the urge to do so.
That being said, it can be observed with practicality that I would return on such a trip that forces me to be exhausting more internal facets of creativity such as writing, poetry, note taking, meditation, photography, etc.; and now feel the need to work aggressive, experimental, physical, and visually oriented works.
Similarly to some of my more meditative work, this piece almost develops aesthetically from within the first marks of its original conception, and is only loosely controlled through the implementation of the process.
Essentially, I very quickly drew and re-drew the simple five lined star that we all learn to make in kindergarten- I did this over and over again using a variety of sizes from one inch stars, to one foot stars, and repeated this for a few hours every single day. Not only did this provide an insightful opportunity for aesthetic development and reflection at the end of every days session, but it provided a certain time slot for me to relax my tensions in the frustrations of art-making by venting creatively.
Many have likened this quality to some of my work as therapeutic, and suggested that I work more toward that field (art therapy), however; although I do not work against, or deny this observation- why must any/all other facets of art be lacking this self healing quality? I was led to believe very early, that this was always a major function of art, no matter what your subject, medium, or intent are. I hope we do not begin to compartmentalize this healthy function of art as a new trend or movement, but conversely- strive to fulfill that personal importance as an asset to any artists working philosophy, whether someone paints a vase, a figure, a circle, or a wall.
I will continue to work off of what was observed in this smaller scale study (2'x2'), and am already considering how I will go about making these into large scale pieces. Since I used only one blue ball point pen, on a scrap board painted over in house paint- I have allot of decisions to consider when making the leap to large scale.
No matter what I decide for the future works, I cannot help but be amazed in the beauty of the single star itself, and then the resulting pattern created by obsessive repetition, and aggressive spontaneity.

A Simple form, untactfully placed;
sequentially repeated, the unit erased-
marriage of function, disparage of form,
essentially deforming the symbol first born.

dramatic reformation is creative masturbation.
clean up your mess, it is time to embrace
this curious new form.

Taken From Joseph R Reeves Esq.
(The Life, The Writings, and the Essential Life Writings of Joseph R Reeves Esq: p.26, par.4, WPP. '09)

New Spaghetti Composition!

What can I say, I just cant stop with the spaghetti art. So much of my other work is so very different than this, but what the hell, if I enjoy doing it, what more justification should I need? Of course as a professional artist, its much more complex than all that in my head- but does it need to be? Can art validly JUST be pretty? I find alot more than just that in my thoughts as I make these pieces, but maybe most valuable to me, is the solitude I find when engaging in these precise compositions. This variation of my 'spaghetti series' in particular, brings me back to perspective drawing, and as always with my spaghetti pieces, I can't get over how cheap it is to make such beautiful pieces using only superglue and spaghetti. Sure, maybe its no breakthrough in contemporary conceptual art- but give it some time!

SENIOR THESIS EXHIBITION

This was the piece that I did for MIAD's Senior Exhibition '09. It was a huge success for me personally, and I was fortunate enough to have been given "Best of Show," for the Integrated Studio Arts major- a personal goal that I had in my mind since my freshman year at MIAD.
The piece developed into a merge of video, sculpture, and performance; and was based largely on concepts of personal reflection, intensity of process, and perceptual relativity. For the final few weeks leading up to the senior show, I spent most hours day and night, drawing circles in phonebooks. I would start with a rather large circle, and I would continue drawing that circle with a pen, until eventually I would draw through the entire phone book. I did this with nearly 20 phonebooks, and after the second or third phone book, I even had a developed understanding of how to control the aesthetic outcome of each phonebook i.e. swithching pen types, colors, or the angle of my hand. The result was that the books themselves b
egan to have a beautiful layering of pristine colors, almost like what a jaw-breaker looks like if cut in half.
In the space that I was given, I projected a video of me that was split screen. half of the video displayed an emphasis of my facial expressions while drawing these repetitive circles, and the other half was a close up of the phonebook being drawn through. Along with the screen, was the embellished acoustical presence of the circles being drawn over and over again- a strangely dominant factor in the hypnotic tone of the space.
In the very center of the space, was a large wooden circle that I attained as a result of drawing a circle all the way through the wall using MANY MANY pens! Using the circle as a platform, I arranged the meticulously collected circles from the center of each phonebook on top of the wall circle, and placed them in front of the projection of myself and the phonebooks.
Finally, I placed 6 unmarked pedestals throughout the exhibition, and I displayed the actual phonebooks themselves, in small groups on these 6 pedestals. The intent of this placement, was to draw attention to the strange un-named phonebooks as objects, and to allow viewers to question not only WHY they were oddly placed throughout the exhibition, or WHAT the significance of this was- but also HOW had these strange objects been constructed.
By seperating the unexplained physical objects from my actual space in the exhibition, people were led through a series of questions that they would not normally be forced to consider. By seeing the recurring object a few times on their way to the 4th floor gallery, they had the object in the back of their head- THEN, upon seeing my space, and finding the video installation as well as the presentation of the phonebook centers- viewers were prompted to put together the puzzle, and were lead to discover the answer of HOW exactly the pieces were constructed. This helped to emphasize the great deal of meticulousness that pertained to the construction of the pieces, and added to an even greater appreciation of these objects on the way back out of the gallery when viewers would again come across the object with a newly found sense of appreciation.

Repitition and meditation

This piece was a continuation of a major aspect of my senior thesis project, and although the piece seems quite simple, the concept was what intrigued me most. Every day, for one week, I would take a half hour to stop and sit in front of this 4'x4' panel, and for that half hour, I would simply draw this large circle with permanant marker over and over again. Although the task seems redundant, I found very much peace and clarity of mind within this daily half hour excercise. This gave the piece an important meditative function within my studio, and as the circle developed, what began as simple and repetitive, developed very quickly into a very beautiful and self evolving aesthetic. I believe the circle itself, and the mark making used in this piece, evoke a similar feeling to viewers that was present in my mind when I was creating the work.