One of the best perks about working at a cultural institution like the Barnes Foundation is that occasionally I get to do something really cool. Usually, it’s something like visit the conservation lab to see what masterpiece is being saved from certain doom by the dedicated team of conservators, or listen to a guest lecture for staff only, from scientists who have been studying the pigments (more…)
Beech Hedge at Hospitalfield House. 13" x 17", oil pastel, soft pastel and charcoal on watercolor paper. © 1998-2012 J. Thomson. Reproductions available on Zazzle.
Untitled drawing (water-soluble colored pencil on laid paper). 1998.
Here is another untitled “automatic” drawing I made when I lived in Scotland in 1998 that I found today while organizing my studio. It’s approximately 5″ x 7″, and I probably intended it to be a postcard, but I never sent it to anyone.
I’ve posted this drawing on my Zazzle site, where you can buy high-quality reproductions.
An untitled drawing (water-soluble colored pencil on laid paper). 1998.
I found this drawing (and one other, shown in the next post) today in my archives while organizing the studio. It’s one of a small series of drawings I made the year I lived in Scotland. I remember making this drawing sitting in my studio at the top of the tower at Hospitalfield, around April I think. The sky was bright but overcast, and evidence of spring was all around.
These abstract drawings were made in the same manner as automatic writing… I just started drawing without any pre-conceived notion (except for colors, of course) of what form would appear. It was a very meditative thing to do, and doing it seemed to calm me down from some of the frustrations I had while living there.
I’ve posted this drawing on my Zazzle site, where you can purchase high-quality reproductions of it.
The polling place is NOW OPEN! Spoonflower’s weekly contest is up, and I am one of 82 artists competing in this week’s “Your Town Toile” contest. (By comparison, last week’s bicycle design contest yielded over 200 entries).
Polls close on March 7th. You can vote for as many entries as you like (but please vote for mine, pictured below). VOTE NOW.
Trailer Trash Toile fabric by the yard, by J. Thomson © 2012 All rights reserved. Available from: http://www.spoonflower.com/collections/14219
This gallery contains 38 photos.
If you browse around the web today, you’re likely to notice something different… blackouts and censored photos in protest of two bills circulating in Congress right now (SOPA and PIPA) that threaten the Internet as we know it. I won’t write about these issues here now (but you can click … Continue reading
NOTE: This is the first part in a series of posts documenting the progress of an Art installation I am working on with the working title “Lorem Ipsum…”. Look for other posts about it under the heading Fine Art/Installation Art/Lorem Ipsum in the navigation header above.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet… is a standardized passage of dummy text used since the 16th century by printers and graphic designers in place of actual text, when creating a layout or typeface for example.
As a fine artist and graphic designer, I often use text in my artwork. I like the additional layers of meaning pieces of text can contribute to a painting or collage, but the whole content of the piece never relies on the text alone. Although the line between graphic design and art is sometimes blurred, for me it is a question of what takes precedence in a piece: the text/typography, or the art/graphics. It is the marriage of both that creates the visual content of the pieces I create.
Last week, I was brainstorming for some ideas for a new series of artwork I wanted to create. (more…)
Ever since my early painting classes as an undergraduate in art school, I have been interested in incorporating text in my work. Using text in contemporary artwork is nothing new, and some artists use text exclusively. I’ve been inspired by the works of Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Cy Twombly, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and the Dada collages of Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, to name a few artists who used text in some of their artworks. I am intrigued by the possibility of adding additional layers of meaning to a piece through the use of text. Such uses have the potential to support the main idea of a piece, or contradict it; either usage is valid. The use of text in visual artwork can also serve to make the piece more accessible to the general public. I think of it as a way of giving the viewer another handle to hold onto when grappling with the piece.
One of my early painting professors, Erin Palmer, offered a critique of a text painting I made as an undergraduate by asking whether the painting could be successful if the text wasn’t readable (ie, if it were in another language, or if it were illegible text). (more…)
