The premise of this show was, at first, to just have some artists bring in their sketchbooks for the viewer to leaf through as if they were finished pieces on their own. Basically a book show. After I broached the subject with a few of my friends I realized that even though they all work from some kind of source material these materials rarely fell into the category that we would consider a sketchbook.
What is a sketchbook? I consider it a database and source for the artists to build their pieces or projects from. Artists need to have images and information readily available for use in their work. Because this material is in the form of notes, raw images, drawings, photographs, color studies, scraps of images, video clips, storyboards, musical notation, audio clips, quick sketches, detailed sketches, installation diagrams, CAD drawings, construction permits, engineering approvals, negatives, collages, digital video, etc., they often have an intrinsic or an actual beauty of their own. While they may not stand on their own as ``ART'' they often have a quality of spontaneous invention that may be refined out in the final piece.
By making the supporting material visible, viewers arrive at an
understanding of how and why artistic decisions are made. I want to make visible
the wizard at work behind the curtain--the
mistakes, wins, clumsiness and vituosity inherent in art production.
As many finished pieces will be shown as space restricitons will allow. Seeing the finished pieces will allow the viewers to make sense of the supporting material.
Aull uses his source material, drawings, tracings, transfer-sheets as working resources while the paintings are under construction. Once they are finished he works back on the source material and turns them into drawings. Aull is an example of an artist who makes use of all his source material and works not only forward but backward throught the source material. Click on the image at right to see a short sequence of how Aull uses his source material.
Palanker works from the roughest, fastest sketches, from notebooks strewn conveniently all over her studio, house and car and/or from tissues. There is no method. She develops the material from different references. Some are found images and some are choreographed photos and videos. She has an ancient thermo-fax quality video printer that she can take print video images from and calls it, "simply the best tool I've got." The final pieces are developed from all this stuff which she will eventually ignore completely and improvise the final image. Click on the image at right to see some of her images.
Karen Schwenkmeyer has begun recording the messes her son creates. The project is a documentation of her labor and of her son's personal development. The project will take several years to complete, the final piece being in the form of an installation.A sample of her photographs can be viewed by clicking on the thumbnail at the right.
Here is a link to Shannon's current work: EARTH STANDS/STILL
Lucas develops her work by reviewing plans and by visits to the site. She will then build a scale model of the space using simple materials like wire mesh. Lucas will then make drawings and sketches for concept often drawing directly on the blueprints to be later transfered to more accurate plans before she builds the scale maquette in the model space for presentation. To go to her website click on her name in the header. Or to see an enlarged image of the sculpture at right click on the thumbnail and spend some time looking through her portfolio.
Hayden develops detailed plans, engineering drawings, concept sketches, models that have, like an architect's drawings, an intrinsic beauty that doesn't get shown too often. Hayden's work has been installed worldwide. Hayden is planning to show the supporting material (including drawings and a small model) for a piece he installed at 21550 Oxnard in Warner Center. Click on the image at right to go to an enlarged image or go to his website by clicking on his name in the header.
Jehle uses his sketchbook like a notepad to register ideas and to work out ideas in a no-risk environment.Then he transposes them to paintings. Of course not every drawing gets to be a painting so he can use his books like a library ot mine for images. Sort of like a rainy day fund in case he should run out of ideas when he's old (just kidding). Click on the image at right to see an enlarged image or go to Jehle's website by clicking on his name in the header.