Friday March 3rd from 5pm-8pm is Gallery Night in Downtown Ithaca! I’m real grateful to be part of the Group Exhibition at the CAP ArtSpace. “Our Daily Bread” is up along with beauty and talent from regional artists.
Program Director, Robin Schwartz, asked each artist to write about their inspiration and process for their work. Here’s a look at the inspiration and process for “Our Daily Bread”…
“Our Daily Bread” highlights art as a commodity, the use of appropriation, religious devotion, and the role of artists. It was created in an open assignment during my graduate studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Ironically, the work critiques the commodity of illustration as an art form that “puts bread on the table” over personal artistic expression. It poses the questions “how do you make something new and original?” and “how do you survive making art?” The rat in this image is an appropriation from a Banksy piece which reads, “I’m out of bed and dressed, what more do you want?” A star has been added to simultaneously emphasize and mock the significance of art making and artists. There’s a fine line in authenticity, where our images come from, what they mean, and why. There’s a fine line with the artist’s ego-a balance between loathing self-deprecation and an inflated sense of worth. This piece instigates the line between artistic authenticity, appropriation, worth, and the paradox of religious-like passion for art and jaded apathy of the whole thing all-together.
Created digitally, the original sketch of the rat was done in pencil and scanned into Photoshop. It’s a trial and error type of process. At the time, I was privileged to use Cintiqs-where you can draw right on the screen like a digital sketchbook. I now work with a Mac, Photoshop, and a Wacom Tablet for Digital Work. My primary art tools are ink and line.
The show will be up for the month of March. The ArtSpace is located in Center Ithaca on the Ithaca Commons at the Visitor Center.
