Grid

This is maybe going to be part of a larger overall piece, like 64 squares total, although I'm torn because I kinda like it as the smaller grid. Each square is 8x8 so the total dimensions are around 40x24. Its hard to tell from this image but each of these is using the same decollage/image transfer technique I used in previous posted work. I guess now would be a good time to sort of explain what that technique consists of, since I haven't done that yet.

Essentially, for each square, I start out by painting it white with a fairly thick layer of white primer - the same kind you'd use to prime your walls before painting your house. While that paint is still wet, I find an interesting image from the newspaper, or an interesting sequence of colors if I don't particularly want the image to stick out. I then press that down on the painted square until its fairly firmly affixed. Then, depending on what I want in the image, whether I'm going for texture or a recognizable image, I leave certain parts of the newspaper on the cardboard square for longer or shorter periods of time. As I peel away the found image, the paint picks up bits of the pigment, and in some cases, bits of the paper itself. The result is a textured ghostly tableau. I first tested this out on thick paper, but found that working on corrugated cardboard gave a great effect because the primer dried faster at the tops of the ribs and thus picked up more of the image, giving it a striped texture similar to choosing lines on a bitmap when making a silkscreen. I really like this process because I get very physically involved with each image - I sometimes have to kind of fight the newspaper to give me the image I want and it definitely doesn't always work out, but something interesting usually happens. Below is my favorite image from this grid, which I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to stand on its own in the future.

[james brown is dead]

I stole that title from a Mark Bradford painting, but I think it's appropriate. I couldn't find an image of that particular painting of his, but it's in this video (taken by some guy who, from the sound of his breathing, must be holding a very heavy camera) of his show "Nobody Jones" at Sikkema and Jenkins from this February.

I'm probably going to replace the above image with a better one in the near future; its hard to photograph, and my fuckin camera ran out of batteries, so shiiiiiiiiiiit.