{ Monthly Archives }
While I look for the perfect duck recipe, and you consider what kind of porn you’re in the mood for this evening (why else would you be on the internet), why not take a look at the Hergé-tastic comics, illustrations and doodlings of Zombiehopp. With a +5 pencil of nerdiness, this work will make you smile and possibly forget what you just saw some naked chick do with her feet. Oh, internet, you are shameless.
As artists come to balance working in both digital and traditional mediums, the possibilities for creation are slowly expanding, while in some ways the techniques are dying. This is an old argument, and not one I’m going to dig into here (though for the price of a beer at a bar I will talk about it for hours), but take a look at the work of someone like Cam Floyd and you will see that there can be a happy medium between the two. Cam creates work with the traditional tools like charcoal, graphite, paint and ink, but then brings that work into the digital realm to add subtle details and hues. And it’s exactly what needs to happen with his work. His style is smudgy and rough, and the digital gives it some sharp lines as counterpoint to the coarseness. This is a balance, and in Cam’s case it’s done beautifully, creating a mix of smooth and blurry, washes and overlapping values that create a richer, more complex emotional pull. Juxtaposition like this has been used for centuries in all the arts, and now with digital tools refining their controls and behaviors, there are two more ideas to be pitted against each other: digital and analog. Like I said, I won’t drag out the pros and cons of either one, but rather I might say that in that ages old argument the right answer isn’t necessarily one or the other, but possibly both.
I’ve always just assumed that when people say something “shows promise,” they’re saying that it “isn’t good enough.” I mean, yeah, it includes that unsaid addendum that whatever it is has the potential to be great, but it says first and foremost that it isn’t great right now. At the same time, I find myself thinking that things “show promise” all the time, even though I think it’s kind of a dick thing to say. I look at tons of portfolios and only a few of them are any good, but a few more are almost good, they have some good ideas, and some interesting methods of execution, but the artist just hasn’t gotten to the point where what’s in their head is coming out clearly in their medium. All that being said, Conor Whelan’s recent work is fantastic, professional, clean and simple. But if you go back a ways into his portfolio you’ll see some work that “shows promise.” His portfolio, then to now, is a good example of how that promise can turn into perfection given time and diligence. That’s a whole other kind of inspiration for you. And if not, well that’s only because as a writer, I still only “show promise.”
Would you look at that? Two graffiti posts in one day. It’s almost like back in 2004 when I started this site, and spent so many hours staring at wildstyles that I started to see graffiti in the wear-patterns on the sidewalk, in the bark of trees, the reflections on windows, every-damn-where. A big part of my original interest in graffiti was Mear-One showing up in the back of Urb magazine, blowing my fragile, young mind with his distorted dystopias and mystic imagery. Keeping that crazy intense color and contrast alive is SHOK-1, who has can control out the ass. The 14 year-old me in my best friend’s room flipping through Urb and listening to Gang Starr would be shitting himself over these pieces. And drinking root beer, that kid really loved root beer.
