Meander across the page, does a weaving path of mosaic shapes in this illustration. I wanted to use one of the paper collages derived from various books, printouts, and lists I’d made over a year ago. The particular collages I used had been sitting around for a while because I didn’t feel bold enough to tackle the projects I knew I wanted to carry out on them. The collages came from a large eighteen by twenty-four inch piece of paper on which I glued various other paper media materials to. I cut up the collage into smaller pieces, thus providing myself future material for more works than one, though smaller.
Here is the result of what I drew on to one of the cut out collages. I didn’t feel bold enough to engage in these preparations because I was worried that I wouldn’t make anything that would satisfy the standards I’d set with previous successes. In an instant, I decided one day—a few days ago—that I would just start drawing on one of the collages with some magic markers that I have readily available in my little studio.
The result here is identical to the original drawing in composition, but not in color. The colors in this version are completely different. After tinkering, filtering, and manipulating other versions, I came to this version number nine, and felt a degree of success that satisfied me. I hope it visually satisfies you, too. Art is like food for the soul, and eyes are like the mouths that consume art’s cornucopia of visual taste and experience.
A friend had mentioned that my art looks “Kleeesque” to me one time, and I hadn’t thought about Klee’s art for some time now. I used to be very inspired by Klee’s work years ago. I remember checking out a huge book from the downtown library in Riverside, California on Klee’s work a long time ago. I would listen to Tchaikovsky’s Nut Cracker Ballet after I took the books home I checked out at the library, and turn the plates of images of Klee’s art in color with awe.
I used to be obsessed with Van Gogh’s art; I wanted to paint exactly like he did. I did a couple paintings and drawings that resembled Van Gogh’s style, but mostly I felt frustrated that I couldn’t do what Van Gogh did. At a certain point, I started asking myself if I wanted to be known as an imitator of Van Gogh’s art. I realized that I wanted to develop a style of my own. In my studies of other artists, I found the cubists, the surrealists, and Paul Klee to help me explore other avenues of expression. I resolved a sense in me that I would use Van Gogh and Paul Klee as a sort of polarized standard for which I could bounce back and forth the ideas of my own that I was developing.
This digital representation harkens me back to that stage of development in my artistic career. I titled it Be To The How as a poetic play on words. While there is no bee buzzing around in this organic portrait, it seems like there possibly could be. Nonetheless, “be,” as in “being,” is an existential notion, and I felt that the relationship between being and action (how to) was a pertinent observation. It looks like a being—perhaps a worm—is learning how to travel across a forest of grass and flowers as it stumbles across a bit of enlightenment for it’s culminating lesson for the day.
You can see some of the text and graphics from the collage showing through the colorful shapes I’d drawn on to them in this piece. In future projects, I’d like to let the graphics and text be less covered up by my drawing so as to give more play and emphasis to the collage work I accomplish.
This piece is 23 x 19 inches
Matted, glassed, and framed, this piece is: $400.00
Postage and handling is: $50.00
For a total of: $450.00
(I recommend you get the print glassed yourself, instead of me glassing. This is so you can avoid possible broken glass when you receive it).
Price for an unmatted print is: $90.00
Postage and handling is: $5.00
For a total of: $95.00
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Art of eVan 