If you've ever gazed into a fine diamond and found yourself captivated by how the light affects every facet and your overall impression of the form or lack there of, you will have an idea as to how my digital of paintings appear when printed on metal.
On the surface the piece is shiny and one is immediately aware of the unique optical qualities of my art. There is certainly a kind of reflectivity that makes the image somewhat hard to grasp but in a good way! The viewer is aware that they are looking at something beautiful and elusive, somewhat iridescent perhaps holographic… Maybe like looking at a butterfly's wings under a microscope. All of this complexity seems to work for the image.
Colors and shapes seem to float in their unique space within the image at their own specified depth in a kind of meditation that involves real looking on the part of the viewer. Real looking is work and takes patience.
You can see what I mean here to some degree but still seeing the work in person makes all the difference. For this series of smaller pieces I set up a relationship between the placing of the traditional image and it's importance at the center surrounded by an area for a mat and frame. While these relationships still exist here the viewer is challenged by the central imagery but finds that the artist's hand is most evident around the periphery. The metal print floats above the field of viscous tar, an ancient substance and medium for artists. There is evidence that the tar has been handled in a similar way as the imagery in the print! Colors are stretched to the point of breaking as is the tar… One with pixels the other with a substance. Here I am trying to blur the lines between printmaking and painting but also addressing the art as conceptual.
Let me know what you think. I'll be writing more about this idea soon.
A "finished peace" from my 'Tensility' Series: printed on metal and over sculpted tar.
I suppose you could say that I was partially inspired to produce these works by looking at the art of Gerhard Richter. I was looking at a somewhat cleaner way of introducing the viewer to depth and the chance discovery of underpainting in the final work.