Inspiration from the Old

My upcoming show (see previous post) has got me to do two things: 1) create more work and 2) create different and exciting work.

I recently went out to the First Friday art walk on Sante Fe in Denver with a few of my Swimming team-mates from TOPS. The work I saw was sometimes exciting, a lot of times abstract, and a few times disappointing. I am not an art critic, but being that I have fairly high standards for my own paintings, I have an eye for what works and what doesn't. I got something out of seeing this new work, however. The way I felt that night was similar to that feeling I got in school while wandering the hallways, checking out what the Fine Artists were painting; what the Graphic Designers were creating, and seeing what Sculptors were constructing. This always got me excited to think outside of the traditional illustration box I was sometimes stuck in.
In my first 2 years of college, I had an assignment to paint an abstract piece in Acrylic. It was a challenge because I wanted parts of this piece to represent a wet sidewalk on a rainy day. (Representing ideas in abstract work? For shame Elliot for shame!) I did it nonetheless...

Now, ask yourself as I did, "what the hell were you thinking?" If you get an answer please email me... Regardless of why I painted this, I was looking it over the other day. It got me thinking about the work for my show. The gears were turning with an amalgam of First Friday art and this piece... Hmmmm... I incorporated some strategically placed paint splatters, as well as some representational imagery in this new piece. Here is a sneak peek:


It will all make sense eventually- when I'm dead perhaps, and the Anthropologist has dug up my teeth and has moved on to studying primitive post-modern pop-art in 100 years. Unless of course I have been revived from my cryogenic chamber along with Walt Disney. In which case I can explain my process. See you at the SHOW!

Elliot