Is This IS or Is This ISN'T?

Some years ago the venerable master, Chuck Close, made a series of drawings and prints using scribbles with a limited number of colors to create self portraits. To own one of these original scribbles would require a significant portion of my net worth! Why? Because when you own a Close original you own a part of his practice - his oeuvre. Also, quite frankly, he can get it.

I made this drawing using only four colors of pencils: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. I drew it using the same curly-q doodles featured in earlier posts. In doing this drawing I am investigating...
1. the monetary value of art and its relationship to creator vs. creation. Though my drawing is more detailed than Close's, it is not nearly as valuable - because it isn't by Close.
2. the role of appropriation in contemporary art. Often appropriation serves to comment on or otherwise subvert ideas in contemporary art.
3. the CMYK process in contemporary printing.
4. the artist (human) emulating the machine, as I am doing when I use the CMYK process.

So while this is a drawing of Chuck Close, it isn't a Chuck Close drawing.

"This IS - ISN'T a Chuck Close Drawing", 2009, 22.5" x 19.5", colored pencil on paper on foamcore

Memento Mori

Memento Mori is Latin for "Remember you must die" or "Remembrance of death." It's occurrence in Western art is pervasive from far past to near present.

In this drawing the skull is in the distance with the closer hour glass rapidly exhausting its sand. And yet the drawing is close cropped, non-revealing of the future to come.

This drawing is a doodle-drawing made of repeated passes of doodles to create it. I like the juxtaposition of the casual process against the serious subject.

"Memento Mori" 2009, charcoal on paper, 17"x16.75"

Process Drawing

This drawing was made using only four colored pencils: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The colors blend visually to create the various colors and tones apparent in the drawing.

Also I drew it only using curly-q doodles, the kind we often absent mindedly make during idle time.

Here I am investigating how four color printing, known as CMYK, uses three colors and black to create realistic photos.

Click on the photo for a large image to better see how this drawing was made.


"Denise" 2009, Colored pencil on paper, 23x17,