Art of eVan

I had fun playing with the lighting effects in this one. Yes, I created the face on this pumpkin. I was invited to do so, and had fun carving out the face as well. So this work is really a combination of three things: carving a pumpkin, taking a picture of it in the right place, and then manipulating the lighting effects of it on the computer. Happy Halloween!

In this piece, I selected the faces of two clocks of which can be found in the Czech Republic, called Prague Orloj. The faces of these clocks are originally from a picture I happened upon in my Twitter profile feed. Someone had retweeted an image of this clock. It’s part of the architecture of an old building in Prague. The Prague Orloj is a medieval astronomical clock that is quite a work of art in itself. It’s considered the third oldest astronomical clock in the world that was created in 1410 A.D.

I started integrating selections of the faces of the clocks into a piece I titled Entropic Order. The picture I posted back on September 22nd, called Shredded Narcissism, is a derivative of this same background. Perhaps you’ll see the similarities.

You’ll note that there is a lot of detail in this picture. It almost looks like it could be a morass-like melange of chaos or mashugana; in other words, it looks like it could be the work of a schizophrenic artist; in other words, it looks like it could be just too busy, or too cluttered to bother making peace with. Yet, this is the direction I’ve been unconsciously wanting to go in with my art recently.

I’m fascinated by the random orders that phenomena in nature produce. Like when you look at the dirt on the ground, the clouds up in the sky, or on the scales of a snake, or up close at a butterfly’s wings. Nature has a way of blending consciousness back into itself for a rest of the mind. So, while I’m not intending to confuse the viewer, I’m attempting an overload so that a viewer can let go and get lost in the detail.

The circular designs placed whimsically, as if they fell like leaves down into a pond, are orderly patterns that constitute some structure for the composition of this representation. The center of interest is obviously the remains of the largest clock face selection, and the other circular designs surrounding it are like gears that turn on the teeth-like patterns surrounding it.

As I mentioned in my post for Shredded Narcissism, I had originally created a traditional collage in which I incorporated shredded pieces of letters financial institutions had sent to me to get me to apply to their ponzi schemes. Well, instead of using the letters to let them predate upon me, I shredded them and used them for a purpose that I could really profit from. You may be able to make out some of the type or text peaking through some of the spaces of the hollowed out selections and patterns here.

I titled this piece Watching the Sound of Time. I was trying to give time a visual and audio perception to you. I also wanted to provide your eyes with a sense of movement, as gears on a clock move, as water in a stream flows, as chains on a necklace glide from your chest when you take it off. You are invited to watch the sound of time here, where you can take off the rules of perception, and flow with waters of mind that relax from the policies of a standardized world.

In the creation of the drawing this image is derived from, I selected all the blue, yellow, and orange pens I had in my possession, and scribbled the little squares you see represented here. Of course the colors you see in this image are not the colors I used for the foundation drawing. Furthermore, this image shows the squares continuing in diagonal angles, whereas the original drawing shows them as horizontal and vertically positioned.

The squares, themselves, are not perfectly aligned, and this is the effect I wanted. It gives it that human, child-like quality that many artists are wont to get away from in order to prove themselves as masters over their novice years. Yet, the child-like state is where artists need to enter into in order to escape the dictations of perfection.

I decided to make this image as part of my Wrecked Tangles (After the Crash) series. While it could fit into my Micro-Chimerisms series, I decided it could be a part of my Wrecked Tangles series. It reminded me a lot of the beginning works I produced from my Wrecked Tangles (Encircled) series–in particular, the C series.

This image also reminds me of another dream I had long ago in which I was above planet earth in my dream body, and as I looked around out into space, I saw that it was not empty after all. Every direction was composed with tiny keys, or mosaic pieces, that, if I could get the tone correct as if I were playing a piano, I could almost instantly teleport across the universe to whichever identification that particular tone took me to.

So here you have the idea here of all the subtle variations of color, and how they each can represent a memory, a place, a dream, an idea in the constellation of your mind, your universe. You have to render yourself sensitive enough, however, in the attenuation to different states of consciousness. This, then, enables you to learn how to have more control over the dimensions you visit.

From another perspective, this image also looks like it could be a stone mosaic on the wall or floor of a temple. Perhaps it could be in the atrium of a nice hospital where patients can go relax in their journeys of healing; it could be on the floor of a fountain in the middle of an atrium of a museum. I remember the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska has a fountain in the middle of its atrium, but it doesn’t have a mosaic embedded on its floor.

Here is one of the final images I developed in my conclusion of creativity tonight that I drew from Mysteries of the Cab–the image previous to this one. I selected hollowed out portions of the original, and put them as layers into a new image. I titled that piece Luxated Strata. I will have to post that one at a later time though. I just wanted to show you the beginning and ending of my productivity for yesterday and this evening.

Take note of the patterns in the lower right corner of Mysteries of the Cab. They are also on the wings of the bird. These patterns just synchronistically appeared after I copied and did a mirror image effect of them. These uncanny organizations just happen regardless of me in the processes of my assemblages, whether if they’re traditional or digital.

So here we have what I titled Dragon Bird as a result of further mirroring, replication, and assembly. It was just as clear as day to me that it was a bird with spread wings flying. The center of interest also seemed to have an abdomen like an insect, like a dragon fly. Hence, it further became an icon representing my efforts in developing hybridizations between creatures, abstractions, as well as traditional and digital art.

I had a dream long ago in which I was in a forest and I witnessed these large thunderbirds flying around in the sky. I could see the massive, powerful, alien looking birds through the spaces between the leaves and branches of the trees. I was apprehensive of them, but they didn’t seem to be interested in catching me for dinner. They flew like UFOs fly, turning on a dime at break neck angles.

These thunderbirds had long feathers streaming from their wings and tails that had beautiful patterns on them, sort of like how moths or butterflies have. I never painted the birds from this dream, but I did record the dream in a dream journal I was keeping at the time. I find that keeping a dream journal keeps a door of creativity open for an artist. Dreams introduce ideas that I never imagine entertaining in my conscious state.

This image here reminded me of that dream I had. It also makes me think of my distant ancestral heritage with the Cherokee tribe. Though my great-grandfather on my mother’s side of the family was not recorded in US census records, he still existed as Cherokee. I’m proud of that. I had no intention of creating bird like this with outstretched wings, but it just popped out at me after a certain point.

At first, I thought of titling this piece Intraluminal Autoclave, but I realized that, while I did see where I could take that title, it was too dry and technical sounding. At least, that’s how I feel about it now. The title I thought to be more fitting was staring at me in front of my face. It’s the bold words you can sort of make out behind the patterns I drew in front of them on the left side of the picture.

Mysteries of the Cab became the revised title for this image. The words were cut out of a book titled Magic, Words, and Numbers, by Stuart Holroyd. It’s a book about Supernatural phenomena and their relationships with magic, words, and numbers. Other materials incorporated into the preparation collage include print-outs of mechanical diagrams. Others are print-outs of text from scientific publications.

The above was to be the surface upon which I drew the patterns and designs with ball-point and gel pens. While I thought that this image may be a little too busy, or a little too cluttered, I figured that this was the direction I wanted to take it anyway. I love the different patterns and designs that pop out to me when in the process of creation. For me, this is tapping into the continuum of creativity.

After scanning the image onto the computer, I found myself to be not as impressed with what I made as I thought I might be. I manipulated the image with curves, inversions, color flushing, and filters–but still to no sense of fulfillment. So I let go of my efforts at metamorphosing my creation for a day, and then came back to it. I made several other variations and transformed pieces of this image into other works of art.

This is the reason why I’m posting this image. I want to show you the original foundation of the piece I concluded this series with. What I stumbled upon was quite surprising. There seems to be extra hands helping me when I create art. Hence, the idea of the supernatural is suggested in this image. My mind first has to penetrate into that continuum of creativity before I can accelerate with better and better ideas. It’s a paradox however, because even work I find to be most crass and repulsive I know can be used as material with which to produce something great.

Mysteries of the Cab, again, was cut-out from a book, but the full words were Mysteries of the Cabala, and this was a chapter in what used to be the book I already mentioned. I felt there were some similarities in title with the song by Bauhaus called Spy in the Cab. Perhaps there are other suggestions to your unconscious mind in my usage of pareidolia, but I think I will leave that to your unconscious mind to know.

This image is derived from The Sutured Chimeroplasty. I wanted to use a background I’d created using shredded paper from a paper shredder, a piece of paper with tire tracks on it I found out in the street, and some torn up magazine pictures, along with my newly created Microchimerism. So I scanned the collage of pieces of paper pasted together in order to use it as a background. Then I selected hollowed out portions of The Sutured Chimeroplasty and placed this template as a layer on top of the collage.

This process allowed for the collage to be seen through the spaces of where the hollowed out mosaic pieces were, hence enabling a more complex and layered appearance to the new image. There is a lot more to the image that I created these new effects in, but I found one particular area of that image interesting. So I selected it and made it into an artwork unto itself for which the results of you see here.

I titled this piece Shredded Narcissism after some thought. The shreds of paper that can be seen here are actually remains of credit card ponzi schemes that financial institutions send out to everyone as junk mail as desperate attempts to land people into more debt. I thought it would be a great idea to, not throw away all of the paper shreds, but turn them into some sort of artwork or other. After all, the shreds have words and numbers printed on them. Luckily, the words, advertisements, and sentences are shredded enough so that my viewers don’t have to see another advertisement in the time they give to looking at this work.

At first, I thought the story of this picture could detail shredding a bankster’s lies to people, which can still be a thread to explore in reference to this depiction. I decided to use the word narcissism for this image instead because it holds more meaning to me. Artists are basically narcissistic. I know, because I’m an artist. I create art work for people. I don’t create it out in a vacuum in space where there’s no one around.

The narcissism I’m addressing in this image, however, is to communicate the fact that most artists don’t “make it,” and either a) have to endure continual marginalization, rejection, poverty, failure, and so forth, or b) get lucky and become wealthy and famous by their own creative means. Both cases require abundant amounts of narcissism, as the realities of the world really have no care nor interest in the inspirations that an artist has. I suppose this image communicates that the light within shines on regardless of recognition or none.

I’d recently purchased some gel pens at a warehouse store, and, in order to placate the pens’ desires to express themselves on some paper media, I set out upon drawing something new and random. I didn’t realize, however, that most of the pens have sparkling and metallic ink in them. I wasn’t seeking this kind of ink in the first place, but I just decided to roll with what I purchased and see what I could do with them.

This is the first drawing that I produced with those pens. You can’t really tell that the ink has sparkling and metallic qualities to it. I thought that the scanner would pick up these effects after scanning the drawing on to the computer. I’m not phased by this however. It’s basically the colors that I was after in purchasing the gel pens. After all, there are 100 pens included in the set. I couldn’t pass up the deal they were offering for them, sparkles or no.

I’ve been wanting to create some more of my Microchimerisms (TM), and this image you see here is the latest effort in that direction. I got the idea of a “chimerism” from my studies in the medical field, as well as the association it has with mosaics and mosaicism. Mosaics are basically little pieces of colored stone that are assembled together into a coherent work of art. Traditionally, mosaics are found in early Christian and Byzantine art.

Mosaics in the medical field refer to cells that come from a single zygote. In other words, different types of cells that come from the same individual, thus making up a structure, organ, or system. Chimerisms, refer to the presence of cells from different origins, put together as amalgamations for systems, organs, or even organisms. In fact, the ancient mythological Greek Chimera comes from this notion, being a beast with heads, tails, and feet from different animals.

The chimerisms I’m creating, as pieced together mosaics, comprise inanimate, abstract beasts, if you will, that accost the viewer with intricate detail and meticulous character. In this piece, I pixelated dots in between some of the mosaic bits, thus creating a sutured appearance. When you see someone who has undergone surgery, they often have stitches around the sight that was operated on, and the tiny dots I finished this image up with remind me of that.