I began by pondering the subject of architecture. Man seems to make everything in squares and right angles. We put everything into boxes. I suddenly got the idea of a person within a floating cube. I constructed a three dimensional cube out of yarn. Of course yarn is flimsy, and so I tied black yarn from each corner to the ceiling and floor, stretching it into a solid shape. I then stood inside… This is one of my favorite self portraits to date.
Gerhard Richter, “Muot Selvas. Piz Güz, Piz Lad”, 1992
Gerhard Richter is a very well known German artist works with painting, photography, and even glass. I love his body of work where he adds paint directly over photographs, especially when he matches colors within the image or contrasts them with something very vibrant and different. The combinations of mediums is very hard to do and I think he has found a way to do so flawlessly and elegantly… In this piece he is painting with oils directly onto photographs, smearing them, creating a split reality, both ordinary and abstract. Of course, given some of my latest works, I take interest in his photo paintings. See more at https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/art/
I have been exploring the idea of photographs that suddenly stretch out into a minimal field of view. This single image speaks of both vision and abstraction. Clearly it is based in photography, giving just a hint of reality and therefore making it partially relatable to the viewer. However, the stretched out pixels begin to subtract all form and rather focus on the color palette that makes up the whole of the scene. It reminds me of something like a Bridget Riley op art or a Mark Rothko color field painting, and so I see the final product working better as a very large print on the wall. Someday I hope to make a giant print of these. Someday.
Myself and a small group of photographers are making themed images for the following year as a creative challenge. I usually can’t keep up with these so called “challenges” however I shall try… The first theme was “On The Tree” and I thought, perhaps nothing physical had to be on the tree, but rather one’s attention. I created a small terrarium, inside a tiny tree, then made this self portrait.