restrained sweetness
I was mucking around with paper yesterday, seeing what I can do with these little drawings. I had so many ideas, but the paper I was using wasn’t holding up well. I ended up going for the good old arches, and including a painted tone on a pencil drawing. Now I think I am in love. This little drawing went from a sketch in my book, to a sacred little object. The amount of clean white paper on the border, the simple lines, the reserved paint, is so restrained and minimal, it makes the sweetness and simplicity of the image so much “louder”.
As you know I have been struggling with finding a way to print drawings on the printer. It just brings so much more to the table than I really want to deal with. Its adding a whole process to the production of the “thing” that I just don’t want to deal with. I want to create objects of art that have lives of their own, and that exist because I handled, loved, and crafted them. Not that I am against reproduction, its just that I have mountains of original work that I would love people to have on their walls, rather than a photocopy. So. I have been thinking about creating these precious drawings, that can be reproduced by hand. At this point that seems more feasible than paying premiums for a print shop to do it. And this way the product is an “original”.
In a way.
But then, that also seems weird doesn’t it?
June 3rd, 2010 at 4:55 pm
I love this picture – everything from the extra border to the perfect amount of shading with paint to the cup of matcha in your hand. Love, love, love it!
June 4th, 2010 at 6:41 am
I love the monochromatic simplicity of this painting.
I find it so hard to do something simple – I like to layer on the details and add depth. But something simple like this is so powerful.
I think you could def. sell something like this reproduced by hand. Sometimes if what you are trying to do just seems too complicated maybe that’s not the right solution for you right now. I think they would be more precious as original pieces.
June 4th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
cool cool cool. I like it too. My friend Gerald suggested screen printing, which is totally awesome. I may get into it. I LOVE printmaking. But there is also something cool about the pencil line drawing. And it doesn’t require any more art supplies than I already have!