Doug Russell is a graphite artist whose work captured my interest at the first glance. He graduated with a masters in Fine Arts from the University of Iowa and is now working as an Art Professor at the University of Wyoming. Russell chooses to explore two major creative directions, both entangled and knotted natural forms, and monumental architecture compositions. His work is highlighted by great deals of repetition and variation. This idea is shown best by his drawing, Ebb and Flow #8; where numerous staircases and stone walls create a continuous flow throughout the piece. The viewers eye is able to move around the painting without any real feel of direction or end.

                          Title: Ebb and Flow #8

                         Medium: Graphite, China Marker, Black Prismacolor Pencil, Ink on Mylar

                         Year/Size: 2011/ 80” x 75”

The other aspect of his drawings that is shown through his work are the use of natural forms such as roots; using high levels of repetition through the entangled roots. The start and end of each root is hard to tell and you are able to wonder the drawing by following his knotted formations.

                               Title: Another Nature #7

                               Medium: Black Prismacolor on Rives BFK

                               Year/Size: 2007/ 30” x 22”

Gary McMillan is an artist that mainly works with graphite and acrylic as his mediums. His creations are very detailed and look as if it were a black and white photograph. Choosing to focus on film and its relationship to painting, McMillan references what he see’s in everyday life to an old fashion science fiction film sequence. I became interested with this because of his idea of conveying a whole film sequence into one snapshot. It allows you to see a whole sequence of events in one still image.

Title: Village of the Damned

Medium: Oil on Board

Year/Size: 2006/ 12” x 16”

McMillan tries to capture the qualities based on a writing by Anne Hollander in her book, Moving Pictures, she states, “…set the viewer’s psyche in motion, reveals arbitrary rather than describe thoroughly, disturbs more than satisfies, and strongly suggests the impossibility of seeing everything at once.” (Hollander, 1989, p.7) 

Title: Invasion X

Medium: Acrylic on Linen

Year/Size: 2009/ 15.9” x 24”

The second artist I chose to highlight for this weeks research was Joshua Howard; a gallery setting painter that mainly shows his work around the New York area. Joshua’s artwork grabs my attention through his use of very abstract objects and themes, as well as his distinct line-work and imagery. His focus for the themes of his work is his ability to show his fascination with astronomy through paint. Josh is interested in how life can only occur on one small planet and the question of; does art only occur on earth? These questions and concerns are shown through his experimental artwork, using acrylic and ink on “different” canvas’, such as wood or other objects.

Title: Round Midnight

Year: 2006

Medium: Acrylic, Ink, Paper, on Wood Panel

Size: 48” x 48”

Another reason why I am fascinated in his work is by the use of social symbols and commonly recognized images that are present throughout most of his work. This creates a connection between what seems very abstract and random, to the true physical world and process in which Joshua is trying to portray. This idea allows for the viewer to create endless definitions to his work, making them focus on their own personal definitions of the social elements and applying them to the chaotic background that is present in each painting.

Title: Secrets, Lies- Myths and Follies 

Year: 2007

Medium: Acrylic, Ink, on Wood Panel

Size: 28” x 28”

For this weeks artist research I chose to dive into the work of Yasemin Kackar-Demirel, who was born in Istanbul, Turkey and now resides in New York City where she has focused her work. Yasemin’s creations are done through the use of multiple mediums; the most used are pastel, acrylic, and colored pencil. Her work is shown to have numerous layers of different medium to create her work, that at first comes off very abstract and chaotic. As the viewer spends more time looking over these pieces, you can see a great deal of line-work and detail around the objects she chooses to create.

Title: Summertime

Year: 2007

Medium: Acrylic, Pastel, Water-Color and Colored Pencil, on Paper

Size: 37” x 50”

The reason I find myself so drawn to Yasemin’s work is her extensive use of layering and coloring, using different mediums to create depth and feel in her artwork. All of her work would look great when blown up to poster size; her extreme amounts of brush strokes and layers give an abstract feel that looks good at first glance but offers a detailed experience of what she is trying to convey upon the second look. The paintings are almost like the three dimensional illusions you have to stare at for a long time in order to see; you cannot see her true content with a mere gaize.

Title: Fragile Matters 4 

Year: 2008

Medium: Acrylic, Pastel, Colored Pencil, on Rice Paper

Size: 32” x 18”

For this research I came across an artist, Michael Hall, who uses his connection with life to inspire his very chaotic and complex creations. His work is highlighted by the use of countless number of lines, where he layers his objects on top of one another creating a certain depth to the pieces. The detail of Hall’s work allows for the viewer to get lost in the artwork, discovering new objects upon every look. 

Title: Maffa Moofa

Medium: Pencil and Pastel

Size: 10” x 16”

The amount of strokes used to complete each one of these pieces is extremely impressive. In some of his works the amount of lines layered on top of one another is so dense it begins to look as if the canvas disappears. The work then becomes one continuous drawing that pulls the viewer into the abstract scene.

Title: Face on the Bridge (2008)

Medium: Pencil and Pastel

Size: 40” x 60”

The artist I chose to research this week was I-Ling Eleen Lin, born in Taiwan and raised in Thailand through an international school where this artist adopted many international views. This upbringing is shown in an abstract way through Lin’s art; highlighted by the idea of a non-place (a place with no history or identity). Lin seeks to recreate this feeling of dislocation and detachment by portraying an outside view on different cultures. With the usage of multi-mediums, Lin creates colorful and detailed depictions of certain atmospheres through symbolic representation.

Title: Theme Park (2009)

Medium:Ink, Watercolor, Gouache and Charcoal on Paper

Size: 48” x 36”

The reason I am drawn to this work is the way Lin allows to let the chosen medium take form on the canvas. You can see a sense of chaos and control over the medium at the same time. The use of space and layout of this work is also very interesting, it conveys a feeling of movement as your eyes are directed around the image- following the flow of the artist.

Title: Drifter

Medium: Oil and Ink on Canvas

Size: 16” x 22”

Artist: Tim Gagnon

Medium: Paint

Tim Gagnon is an artist that uses paint to create very life-like images with subjects ranging from landscapes, plants, animals, and people. The reason I find myself drawn to his work is his use of shading to create a three dimensional look to a two-dimensional painting. A great example of this idea is the way he creates the image of a tree with no leaves; the shading techniques allow for depth to be seen at each limb, offering a feeling of the physical object in the natural world.

Title: Tonal Tree

Size: 24 in x 30 in

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Another great aspect of Tim’s work is the subjects he uses and the ideas he is able to generate during his creation process. His work consists of both thought provoking ideas and the processes in which occur in everyday life; by putting his imagination to work along with actual life experiences he is able to come up with content that is unique to his own style. His work I enjoyed most was that of his Surreal Landscapes, where he attempted to show how changing times affect trees and the physical changes that tree goes through. This idea is very unique and I had not seen anything like this before my research. 

Title: In The Near Future

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 24 in x 30 in

Artist: Chris Ousley

Medium: Oil Paint, Charcoal, Pencil

The paintings of Chris Ousley have drawn my attention through his use of urban and everyday landscapes in which he uses in his work. The reason this artist is interesting to me is because I am very interested in photography and to me this is a form of “photography” without using a camera. Chris uses the landscapes he comes across and uses his mental image of that scene to recreate the memory. Although this is not an exact replica of what the landscape looked like it is a visual image of the artists memory. 

Title: TN Confederate Soldier Memorial

Size: 7 in x 5 in

Date: 6/29/2011

By not using a camera it allows for the artists imagination to play an important role in how the painting ultimately takes shape. The freedom in which is allowed by this technique of painting creates pieces of art that are one of a kind and cannot be recreated down to every aspect. This artform is a mental snapshot of what the scene looked like, just as if one took a picture of it with a camera.

Title: Overcast Afternoon

Size: 7.5 in x 11 in

Date: 5/3/2011

Artist: BANSKY

Medium: PAINT (GRAFFITI STENCIL)

Title: Maid In London

Banksy is a graffiti artist turned political activist, where his satirical stencil work can be seen littered across major buildings from London to the United States. He is seen by his local government as a wanted individual for his markings on public buildings, but to his fans he is seen as a great artist. It is very hard to impossible to find images and video of Bansky himself because he wants to remain invisible to the public eye so he is not prosecuted. 

The reason I am so drawn to his work is that he bases his skills from a form of street art and illegal graffiti, yet his is one of the most well known stencil graffiti artists in the world. He is now a self-made famous artist that is still doing his work illegally even though he is known around the world and his work is very recognizable.

Title: Girl and a Soldier

Artist: JAEHO JUNG

Medium: OIL BASED PAINT & VINYL STICKERS

Title: After I Leave  Year: 2008

The artist I chose to research for this week is Jaeho Jung. This artist use oil based paint to create his works and sometimes uses collaboration with sticker use when making wall paintings, such as the gallery work shown above. Most of his work is based on the idea of “recall”; a technique in which he uses to invoke a recall to the viewers memory. He takes this memory recall and emphasizes the idea that one cannot fully remember every accurate detail of a memory down to the smallest detail. He uses the additional memories placed on an event that are created by imagination and conveys it into paint. 

I am drawn to this artist because of his multi-medium techniques of using oil paint and stickers to create his work. I am currently working with mediums such as vinyl stickers in my professional life and to see how someone can manipulate sticker images into a gallery piece is very interesting. It creates a sense of layering images on a two-dimensional canvas.

Title: January Year: 2008