I'm currently completing my residency at Kleindorf-Art in Germany! I'm in a small town called Strodehne, located in eastern Germany, about an hour outside of Berlin. Strodehne is a lovely little village, with red bricked houses that overlook the glittering Havel river. It is a quiet retreat, where ducks, geese, swans, cranes, hawks, owls, and other wildlife flock through the wheat fields.
Since my arrival, I have been inspired by the German "fachwerk" architecture, which is remarkable for its half-timber framing. In studying the geometric diversity of the frames, I discovered the importance of squares and triangles and now they are the driving force in my new work. They allow me to create an underlying compositional repetition that connects seemingly varied shapes. This ultimately creates dynamic tension and movement, as well as a sense of interconnectivity across multiple planar surfaces.
Check out some media below:
Strodehne.
The studio. Cozy, eh?
A stunning example of "fachwerk" architecture.
Unique brick laying in between the fachwerk.
Completed composition for a new gel transfer design.
Black and rainbow gradient triangles.
Playing the surface by layering the collage in front of and behind a layer of plexiglass.
Thinking about shadows... and plexiglass.
Mylar layered in between gel transfers?
Corner installation prototype I.
Corner installation design II.
Detail and revision...
Anamorphic pyramid study!
I created an "animated" surface by using a light to illuminate layers within a scanned image.
Ideation for a wall series...
(Me) in the graffiti seas of Berlin.
One of El Lissitzky's "Prounen" at the Berlinische Galerie. Huge inspiration.
When I started tracing the cut-outs for my collages, I noticed how the layers synced up to show a "before-and-after" effect, much like an animation! And I thought: why not just merge the two images! I determined that if I scanned the image while illuminating it with a flashlight, I could breathe movement and life into the layers (in a way that showed more temporality and space than using Photoshop). The next image is the result of that investigation. I will continue to incorporate these animated images further into my process. However, I feel like they'd function better in flatter works on the wall, because they illustrate a movement that corresponds more with the illusion itself, rather than the viewer's bodily relation to the piece. I'm going to keep working through the collaging to see how the contrasts between different surfaces can create new anamorphic effects, akin to my pyramid study that I posted last week...
New substrate ideas:
Surface check... getting close to the final construction!
The white edges of the cut gel transfers echo the hand drawn lines and provide a subtle dimension. I think I'm going to use the negatives of these compositions and make a total of six pieces.
"This is not an acrylic painting." ...Except it totally is.
Final gel transfers precisely traced, cut, and glued together!
Almost done!
Five-month production plan for upcoming exhibition.
