An actor that does not get the love they deserve
Faces 5
In college I had a pair of shorts that had these colors, depicting some sort of beach theme. They were cheap and obnoxious and I loved them. No one else did. That in mind, I consider this work risky as they are not ‘good’ colors.
This piece is more in the graphic vein. I tried something different with chunky hatching. I think it is fun. In 87 I made a series of prints that were heavily influenced by Nagel. Over the years, Nagel sunk slowly into my DNA, especially with graphic designs. The pose, the hard edges, flat color fields, and expressive highlights stem from studying that school of poster and advertising design.
Faces 3
I occasionally do a series of Black Power images. I’ve been an ally and an advocate fighting against racism in a real way since 1987. I spent time learning about black history in college, given lectures with the NAACP, protested, supported black politicians and fought racism in every job I’ve had. Different forms of African art has permeated my color sense and design aesthetic.
I was feeling I needed to do something with flourishes. I was playing in garish colors as I do. This was a little new as I was using the flourishes to add texture as well as moving the eye.
Faces – 2
I wanted to do a piece on the hundreds of years of death the average indigenous person carries. Something subtle.
I know more about indigenous people than the average American, which is horrifying as I know so little. The majority she’s a face, a race, an controlled image. Not a person or a people or a culture. Indians, to use the name most still use, are different from indigenous people. Indians are a carefully crafted fiction that takes the place of the people. It is malleable. It is deceptive. It absorbs guilt and allows one to imagine Indians as anything you want without confronting reality.
I crafted a generic Indian face, an elderly indigenous man who typically is what is used. Harmless in his age. Foreign in his look. Non threatening.
He is ghostly. Vaguely there in front of you. Behind him is death. Acres and decades of death. You aren’t supposed to see it. You aren’t meant to. That would make him real.
Faces – 1
I’ve been working on a series of faces for over a year. The current batch is all digital.
The inspiration for the series came from being intrigued by the number of artists who paint less and less detail as you move away from the subjective target. The less relevant to their perceived focus, the less detail. While I find this a valid and sometimes interesting way to manipulate your viewer, it has become overdone and a way to say you are stylistically lazy.
In the series, I have expanded on my arm series and set some rules. The focus is the entire face. A neck and hand may be occasionally appropriate, but not the norm. The background must enhance the face in some way. The face must have an appropriate style used to convey its emotion. Above all else, the face must be interesting.
So we have the above. This was the first face to successfully achieve my criteria.