Laughing forever, but smiling no more.

My images of the final print and contact sheet of sketches aren't uploading now so this preliminary sketch is all I have to offer at the moment...

Artist statement;

My piece for the impact project is simply disturbing. First of all I’ve done it in my own blood which was actually so funny. This works on various levels; it is not at first obvious, there is a threat to the viewer of biological contamination, and it is reminiscent of an artist’s pain and psychosis. In these ways it seemed to force impact by virtue of medium alone. I was pleased to think that this was, in some sense, a libation. A sacrifice such as this seems perfectly appropriate to me, as an artist governed by Saturn I often feel that art must hurt.

The subject matter is disturbing in itself, I noticed at some point that I couldn’t spell slaughter without laughter. I still find this vastly amusing and tried to compose the letters in such a way as to lead the viewer to this coincidence. A large drop of blood at the center of the composition is a visual spectacle that draws attention to the piece itself and reveals the texture of dried blood.

It seemed like this was met with a frosty reception in class. It's strange to see people responding with repulsion to something I find so attractive. This was one premise I was working on, but I feel like the work as a whole was misunderstood.

I tried to get into the printmaking room to recover the final print (which was directed to a drawer for some reason) a few times, but it was always locked. Now I've left.

This really pissed me off.

To think... it might even be thrown away.

Saturn-Impressionen

I had a tough decision on my hands, with my variety of drafts and disparate impressions of them when viewed on different equipment. Foreseeing this difficulty with the printer I came up with this contact sheet as a draft to choose on the basis of how well the printed image looked, as this was most relative to the final product.



Again the colors appear strangely here, I haven't yet figured out why. Anyway after deliberation one of the last two variations seemed to be the most favored. Rather than settle for one of the two I readjusted the original to make some attempt at compromise between the luminosity and contrast of the one and the perfect tonality of the other.



This was the final print but it's such low quality one can't make out much. If there was one thing I'd change it would be sharpening the background up a little. It would have taken half a day to render at this resolution so I did it at half quality to save time. There is some pixilation upon closer inspection only, which I hadn't intended. The effect is actually kind of ironic since the piece seems detached and digital from a viewers personal scrutiny.

I wrote up this artist statement as well.

The premise of the ‘digiscape’ seemed to me a romantic one. Taking an imaginative approach to banal traditional landscape is ideal to me as an artist as my goals are often focused on expression of abstract ideas. I had first thought of depicting a profound concept within the mindscape that encompasses it that works on various levels.

At the time I remember feeling a bit like Prince Hamlet, along the lines of; madness discrete. The Dane was haunted by his uncertainty of things and hindered from action by the turmoil of his ambivalence. I had it in my head at this point to depict our shared fantasy: somewhere that uncertainty does not exist. It seemed to me this would either have to be in heaven, underground or some combination thereof, I’m concerned by the ambiguity of this relationship. The apparent irony here is the uncertainty of a place where uncertainty does not exist. I should probably point out for posterity that heaven and ground are just analogies for any kind of spiritual and material existence one might experience after death.

Speaking of contradictions and psychoses In heaven or underground has an entirely different meaning. The opposition of the two recalls the mood swings of bipolarism; either a heavenly ecstatic mania or grave anguished depression. I could really relate to these wild mood swings in my poor health at the time, and perhaps because of them felt the need to express it.

The two abstracts are held within geometry reminiscent of existential spheres of existence, or perhaps merely the human brain lobes. These intricate organized and embellished patterns are an abstraction of thought and theology. There is both beauty and darkness to be seen here. Apparently obvious, this all looks very complicated. This seems only appropriate for the complex and at times confused ideas that lie beneath.