Flat Stanley, Cheap Markers
Clement Gets Abstract, ink on paper, 2008 by Sarah Atlee. Some rights reserved.
In which I discover that cheap markers are just as useful as the expensive ones.
A poor carpenter blames his tools, right? I often draw with Prismacolor markers, known for their vast chromatic range and luscious blendability. And I’ve been known to paint with a W&N Series 7. But I also love tools and supplies I find for cheap or free. It’s all in how you use them.
In 2008, on a whim, I picked up a 36-pack of thin markers from the kids’ aisle at Hobby Lobby. They turned out to be some of the best pens I’ve ever used. These off-brand beauties had soft tips, a variety of colors (that tended toward the magenta end of the spectrum), and showed surprising versatility. Not long after I began using them, they dried out and began acting more like colored pencils. Suddenly I could layer, layer, layer. Just like using washes of acrylic paint.
Alas, Hobby Lobby changed their off-brand-brand of cheap markers (the newer ones have chiseled tips that don’t play well) and I haven’t found another set of these since then.
Clement Gets Abstract was created in July 2008 as part of a community journal project about Flat Stanley.
Which Art Student Are You?
This series by illustrator and art educator Chuck Dillon (his website, his blog) speaks directly to my art school experience. I’m not sure which category I fit in to, so I’ll just go with the one that happens to look EXACTLY like me, down to the paintbrushes stuck in the overalls pocket:
Brownnoser by Chuck Dillon. Click image to view source.
Figurative Collage Set on Flickr
Sketch for How May I?, mixed media collage on paper. Click image to view on Flickr.
For about ten years now I have collected pictures to use as ideas for new pictures.* I often start a painting by gathering a small pile of image sources, either intuitively, because they seem to go together, or for a specific purpose. I used to create a pencil-and-paper sketch of these various sources, attempting to synthesize them visually before starting the painting. I would also scan them, resize them, struggle through PhotoShop layers to get them to fit together just right. At some point I thought, “what I really want is this head on that body,” and went: rip, slap, tape, done. I realized that the collage is visual shorthand for my pictorial plan. It didn’t have to make sense compositionally; the collage is a convenient way for me to gather a group of visual sources onto a single page. Plus, the faster I make the collage, the more unexpected and interesting visual moments show up in the result.
I’ve scanned a bunch of these collages and uploaded them to this Flickr set. Enjoy.
*Old-school illustrators call this a swipe file. Though it was years before I learned that what I was doing was a traditional practice; before then I thought I was (gasp) stealing and that it was (gasp) wrong. Thank you, illustration.
London Shop Fronts
Hao Wah, Peckham High Street, SE15, from the London Shop Fronts blog. Click image to visit the site.
As the London Shop Fronts blog reveals, every place in the world has a unique character that may be difficult to define, but is instantly recognizable. It’s one of the things I love about Oklahoma City.
I’m drawn to the flat, almost clinical documentary style of these photographs. Although these are architectural spaces, the frontal perspective flattens the real-life objects into an abstracted array of color and texture. And the homebrew typography is always wonderful.
Related
Paho Mann, photographer. See particularly the Reinhabited Circle-K series.
Bernd and Hilla Becher, architectural photographers. See the Framework Houses series at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for examples.
Core Evidence at Mainsite 02.13.2009
Faye (Runs Hot and Cold), acrylic on canvas, 2008.
Click image to see full-size, click here and here for detail views.
I will have three paintings in Mainsite Gallery‘s annual group invitiational show, Core Evidence, which opens this Friday, February 13th, 2009. Mainsite is located at 122 E Main St. in Norman, Oklahoma. The reception, part of a Norman Artwalk, will be from 7-9 pm. The event is free and open to the public.
Core Evidence will display art from the featured artists’ current bodies of work. Each artists is represented by works that comprise a “core sample” of their ongoing techniques and concepts. Featured artists include Todd Stewart, Paul Mays, XVALA, and myself. The group show runs concurrent to a solo show of paintings by Steve Breerwood.
This show at Mainsite is part of the Norman Arts Council’s 2nd Friday Circuit of Art, a scheme developed by the Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art, the Norman Arts Council, the Norman Gallery Association and the CART (Cleveland County Area Rapid Transit) Trolley. Patrons are encouraged to park their cars in the Downtown area, at the Firehouse, the Campus Corner area or surrounding areas and travel by foot or by CART Trolley to participating events destinations. Signs and information will be available at all participating locations and in the parking lot at University and Main at the Norman Arts Council Event Tent. For more information please contact the Norman Arts Council or visit the Norman Gallery Association website.
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