Embrace Details

As promised, a closer view of the graphite drawings in Embrace (thanks for the pics, Jessica!):

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Axioms of Gesture

For those of you heading to New Mexico in the upcoming month — come check out my lenticular print drop-ceiling installation, Altruism w/-1/2 Spin at the Runnels Gallery at Eastern New Mexico University for the Axioms of Gesture juried exhibition. Axioms of Gesture is ‘a digital show devoted to the spirit of human movement. It will explore the artistic interpretation of human movement and how people move through time and space.’ Axioms of Gesture runs from the 3rd through the 29th of September. Pictured below is an image of Altruism w/-1/2 Spin as it appeared in my thesis exhibition Schema in 2009:

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Figure Drawing Update

I didn’t get a chance to attend too many more figure drawing sessions since the last time I posted some drawings, but I have updated my Figure Drawing 2010 Gallery (two of those images are pictured below) with some of the highlights from those sessions (the first ten images in the gallery are new). They are taken from sessions from both the Fine Arts League of the Carolinas in Asheville, NC and the William King Museum in Abingdon, VA and they are all pretty much either 10-minute or 20-minute drawings with no tweaking after the time was up.

I’m looking forward to experimenting with different media (other than just graphite) for my next figure drawing sessions.

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Embrace Process Part 2

And, now, continuing the story of the process of Embrace. . .

Moving beyond the whole ‘poop cloud’ concept, I decided to bring it back to being more representative of actual body parts embracing one another. This drawing is a mass conglomeration of those drawings. The final dimensions of this graphite drawing are approximately 4 1/2 feet x 3 feet (a work of art unto itself!):
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An additional drawing to the one above:
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And, since I cannot resist the idea of developing a good drawing — I proceeded to do some inks and markers over the graphite drawing to see what I would come up with. I really like how this came out (though I didn’t really use it for any of the final drafts of Embrace):
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The next image is an example of what I like to call ‘dynamic linear mapping’ in which I use tracing paper (or a light box) to draw with a brush pen on top of my own graphite drawings to highlight the movement and forms in the drawing using only linear elements:
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Then I decided to invert the ‘dynamic linear maps’ and use the negative spaces instead of the positive black lines to what it would look like — and I liked it!:
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The purple color looked great in the concept stage, but, in reality, it would make the wall and that whole corner of the room too heavy. So, I decided to throw some white into the mix to make it lighter. Getting closer to the final piece, but still needs some tweaking:
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The purple just wasn’t going to cut it, so I resorted to all white and decided to make the framed pieces glimpses into the original graphite drawings that were completed:
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And, voila, the final piece! I hope to have some details of those graphite drawings soon (as they are barely discernable in this picture):
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Embrace Process Part 1

The developmental process of the finished Embrace mural installation was very long (and quite interesting I think!). So, in this post and the next, I’ll show you how I came up with what you see in the final piece.

A view of the site before my meddling:
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A few images (of the many) of the poses (of TJ & Jessica) I referenced while developing the imagery for the installation:
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My first concept drawing based upon the figure drawings of TJ & Jessica:
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A little Photoshop magic used to superimpose that first concept drawing over the actual space (I didn’t think it looked too good — so, back to the drawing board!):
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I redrew the original drawing in a more fluid, cloud-like style. Unfortunately, some referred to it as the ‘poop cloud’:
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Still liking this drawing, I plugged it into a scaled vector file (in Adobe Illustrator) to see how it would look. This is where the idea of using frames on top of the mural worked its way into the plans. But, what to do in those frames had not yet been decided. I also toyed around with the possibility of extending the imagery onto the windows via paint or vinyl, but that got scratched in succeeding sketches. Overall, though, I couldn’t help but see a ‘poop cloud’, so, back to the drawing board!:
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End of Embrace Process Part 1.

Embrace

Embrace, completed on July 6th, 2010, is technically my first commissioned installation work. I use the definition of the word ‘commission’ loosely though, because I wound up doing this project for free (and it was my pleasure to do so!). The proud owners of Embrace are two very good friends of mine, TJ and Jessica Lee and the piece now adorns the back wall area behind their bar, framed by two windows on either side. They have been very patient with me as I have had the area behind their bar in some disarray for the past year (or more?) — thanks guys!

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