I created this invitation for last year's ARTspace open studio. While I was making it I was thinking about paper cutting techniques as a way of telling a story. The visual branching of ideas paired with the Rorschachy reflection of form.
September 26, 2007
open studios at my studio building
ARTspace Maynard
patterns and shapes
painting sketches
September 17, 2007
a sketch for a painting
a logo for my girls
be strong and bloom
Pretty Sweet: The Sentimental Image in Contemporary Art
Curated by Nick Capasso
An installation of 75 laser cut acrylic mirrors configured in a loop-de-loop installation
In March 07 I traveled to Shezhen, China to sort out production for a series of paintings. The factory painters were mostly young and all talented. Like 1980's art students they wore concert t-shirts, took frequent smoke breaks, and played alternative music very loud from a tinny CD player. All of the painters were either friends or relatives of one another.
The factories themselves looked less warehouse and more apartment building. The office of the factory I visited had not only wall to wall carpeting but wall to ceiling. It was a plush environment.
The Da Fen district, where all of the oil painting factories reside, is marked by a giant, (very communist) statue of a hand holding a paintbrush. Surreal doesn't quite express the region. The images shown do not depict the artwork I was working on, but rather, the artwork these factories all too often produce.