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rebeccamock:

Been working on personal projects lately! Here’s a digital painting I did today. :>

A self-portrait in windows and corners. Thinking about Tacita Dean’s piece called “More or Less”, which I saw last night at the New Museum.

Rebecca Mock!!! Three exclamation marks!

My eye wants to take in every wonderful thing in this quiet frozen moment in time: the textures, the soft changes in colour and tone, the map on the wall, that little photo, the bedspread, everything. I want to walk on that smooth polished floor, explore the rest of this little apartment, crane my neck into the next room so I can peek out that window. This is entirely due to Rebecca’s command of light and colour and composition.

A lot of artists think style is the most important thing to good art, but it isn’t. Style is a by-product, and tends to change multiple times over the course of your career. Style can be faked, copied, especially with the tech at our disposal today. 

But you can’t fake light and colour and composition. You either understand them or you don’t. They’re deliberate and planned, yet used poorly can result in pieces that are uptight and lifeless and cold. It can take years for most of us to get a decent grasp of them, even a lifetime. But they eventually become like tools in your kit, like your brushes and pens and paint. And when you know how to master them, you can create little worlds that seem so alive your audience will wish they could walk into them. 

Steven Guarnaccia's books should be in every art and decorative arts museum gift shop. Guarnaccia is a program chair at the Parson's School of Design. 

The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale retold and illustrated by Steven Guarnaccia. Abrams, 2010

Goldilocks and the Three Bears: a Tale Moderne retold and illustrated by Steven Guarnaccia. Abrams, 2010

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Here's a really rough sketch.

When I was a kid I pretty much only drew horses. In elementary school I had a wonderful art teacher who was endlessly patient around my obsession. If we were doing collage, I'd make a horse. Painting? A horse. Working with clay? Why, I'd make a horse, of course. I think my teacher, in his wisdom, let me be creative with my passion rather than squashing it at such a young age.

Thanks, Mr. Fay!