A new painting... 16 x 16 inches. Acrylic on birch ply.
A product of process and intervention.
 

Commission complete.

   Blue Tower I, II & III (triptych), 2016.  Acrylic on birch ply, 30 x 35 inches each.

Earlier this year I finished a commission of paintings for the boardrooms of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP in Charlotte, NC. This firm has many artists' work in their offices around the USA.  

The law firm was moving to new premises in the Bank of America Plaza skyscraper - an impressively shiny tower.  The location is ultra modern, and their offices are on the 22nd and 23rd floors with full height glass walls on the outside. Awesome views.... standing that high above the city with only glass between me and the drop blew me away. 

Tower (reflection), 2016. Acrylic on birch ply,  40 x 70 inches.

The building with its shiny glass as boundary between office and city intrigued me.  My work plays with flatness and space - i.e. shadows are flat silhouettes representing spatial situations, and mirrors are seemingly impenetrable surfaces but reflect infinite depths. Previous paintings and photographs have focused on curtains and views through windows (of homes, trains or cars). 

Tower (night), 2016. Acrylic on birch ply, 30 x 60 inches.

The geometric structure gives form to the monumental power of commerce, but the way it is treated can take it in a number of directions.  It would be easy to show the brutal, fascist side of skyscrapers (like Hugh Ferriss), or zero in on their faceless anonymity, but my reaction is different.

The seemingly impervious and faceless buildings also house people who make choices each day.  The huge windows must make the outside environment more visible than many other offices do, and the occupants could be encouraged to notice clouds, and the different qualities of light during their daily round. Perhaps by capturing some of the fleeting and intangible beauty of this miraculous world, I could remind them how precious it is.

Construction (vertical columns), 2016. Acrylic on birch ply, 38 x 60 inches.

I created the initial proposal for all the paintings in Photoshop, translating my early sketches and ideas into images that conveyed the concepts, and which looked finished enough to make meaningful decisions about.  

Construction (layers), 2016. Acrylic on birch ply, 39 x 50 inches.

To mix things up a bit, these vertical pieces are riffs on using value and color to construct the illusion of flatness and depth.  Each boardroom was named after a city where the firm has other offices. This last painting in brilliant blues, purples and yellows, was inspired by the Tampa boardroom. 

Deskilled drawing using gravity

Here I'm using stenciling to create traditional-looking representational drawings that are actually arrived at very differently.  The images look as if they could have been drawn using pencil or charcoal, but are created by the objects as they deflect iron ore particles. 

Heather Lewis, Folded Lace, 2013, (detail)
granular ilmenite, acrylic medium, paper, 17.75 x 15 inches 

This is nearer to industrial stenciling processes than the overhead projector drawing, in that it does not involve any hands on adjustments... but it doesn't mean that no skill is involved.  For example Balinese craftsmen deskill the creation of repeat patterns in batik fabric by using preformed stamps, but this is in itself quite a skilled operation. Their process is part of the evolution of unique images into the mass production of fabric lengths. (Note, I'm not interested in replicating images - we already have that in the bag. I'm interested in exploring what non-traditional approaches have to offer drawing itself.) 

Traditional drawings usually need to be "wrestled" into completion. They progress by being continually observed, evaluated and adjusted. Re position certain lines and sections. Make it darker here, add detail there, remove that section completely because it is redundant etc. So, I also had to evaluate the results of my gravity stenciling. Like proofing an artist print I guess. 

Heather Lewis, Brush, granular ilmenite, acrylic medium, paper, 9 x 7.25 inches

In the first few stenciled drawings of each item (not shown here), the image was found to be lacking - it was too pale, not enough contrast and therefore definition of the object. Or it was not composed satisfyingly, etc. As the stenciled drawing is a "one shot" affair, each time I adjusted the process itself I created a new drawing until it met my criteria of worthiness. One difference to the traditional drawing evolution is that the layout of the stenciled drawing is always "correct" - it is directly derived from the object and cannot be otherwise. 

So, the deskilled stenciling process is effective as a means to collect information, and, directed by very traditional decisions, produces what could be seen as a drawing in traditional terms.  

Deskilled drawings - with projections.

To continue exploring stenciling as a process within traditional drawing, I am using an overhead projector to form the original image. 

I discover that this method helps with the layout but does not take skill out the drawing process! It is difficult to draw from a projected image and observation skills still apply as much as they would in any traditional drawing. 

I experiment to find objects that are more than silhouettes. Clear plastic and glass work really well on the overhead as seen below - this is a projection only. No drawing as yet.

 The arches paper roll is 42 inches wide. The image looks great as a projection, so...off I go.

Roughing in was the easy part!  Now with the image generally in place, things get interesting... 

The image below shows projection and drawing occurring at once. As you can imagine, its hard to see what is projected and what is actually drawn. Its essential to evaluate them separately so I use a piece of blank paper to shield the drawing or to reveal the projection by turns.  

I also make many trips back to the projector to switch it off and on, to compare. You really have to scrutinize the drawing to give it the same values and nuances as the projection.

A drawing  is simply a collection of information that echoes optical reality. Put the right combination of light and dark in the right places, in the right shapes, and the illusion "magically" appears. Its a question of getting the exact relationship between these elements.  

Eventually I even projected the image onto the wall next to the paper (this is not shown) and checked it that way too.  Add, erase, adjust. Repeat... 

Finally...its as close as I can get to the original. 

Study for installation

Study for "Small chair (large shadow)"

Responding to Vincent's painting of his bedroom. In my work the harsh light from a bare bulb near the floor forms a shadow image that is much larger than the chair itself. I will be recreating the huge shadow in paint, which allows the effect to remain visible after the light has been switched off. These elements can be seen as metaphors for Vincent's unorthodox vision, his struggles in life, and the creation of work that has had such an impact after his death.

Why a shadow? I say a shadow can be seen as a drawing according to traditional criteria in that it translates a 3D situation into 2D format, using edges, value, and perspective.

The chair I have used is Asheville craftsman Brian Boggs' first chair - hand made almost 30 years ago at the start of his career. Though not as close in design to Vincent's rustic chairs as some commercially available styles, it feels closer in spirit. The chair has been generously loaned by the Boggs Collective.

More Mylar

Five piece set includes, 2011
Mylar
10.25 x 5 inches

This is directed by an image in a swimwear catalog, which I have traced over with a knife. I see this as extracting elements of drawing from the printed color image. I have bought some of these bikinis online and am very happy with them so the catalog works as a sales tool but I find the images unsettling. The combination of beautiful specifics and implied narrative keeps me in a closed loop so I chose to alter this by dismantling the image’s luscious but unsatisfying qualities. I wanted to extract something less lurid that would be less specific, giving me an exit from the frozen cool of a fictitious life. So I selected elements I wanted to look at from the "realism" of the photograph and transferred these to another situation by tracing a contour drawing. The result is recorded as the cut edges of excised shapes, and presented as a shadow on a second layer of Mylar.

A simpler, neutral image feels more congruent with the reality of volume printing, the relentlessness anonymity of hundreds of thousands of copies of this girl. Without the details of the scene and the girl herself, I am less likely to imagine myself splashing playfully in her place. Without the details and product descriptions "matching slouch tote with logo lining...", "hipster with side cinch..." it is impossible to think about buying anything. I don't identify with the shadowy, ghost girl. I can never be her. Instead, the stereotype is made obvious at the same time as THIS particular image has become singular. There is now a way out of the picture, for me. I can move beyond a specific narrative to contemplate broader issues. ...What about the stereotype it presents? What messages are embedded in its structure?

So I've taken action, I've imposed my will in a different way than the marketers intended. I think it has enabled me to see something more clearly. Is it revenge, a sense of outrage that drives me to overturn this "innocent" image? To rip this small drip-feed of consumer medication from my vein? We live and breathe within the calculated structures of 21st Century life so is it a futile gesture? Yes and no. The image is now the subject of a drawing.

A topic for another day.

Deskilled Drawing

Just installed a small exhibition at the fabulous Visual Arts Center of New Jersey in Summit, NJ.

Curator Mary Birmingham and Exhibitions Manager Katie Murdock along with the staff at the center went out of their way to help and support the installation process.

Studio X gallery now holds my show "Heather Lewis, deskilled drawing" which runs October 7 - December 11, with an opening reception October 14.






















The mural is a painted shadow -
echoing an interactive installation in the gallery itself.






















Objects from a kitchen drawer (interactive model), 2011



As the stairwell is flooded with daylight normally, I had to test the idea out at night. Before painting the mural I took some photos of the original projection, getting a fresh sense of it from a distance, and as it was reflected in the large glass windows.

It took quite a while to get the right objects positioned in the image... I wanted the items AND the distortion to make sense. It worked best with some objects running the whole length from small to crazily enlarged. I ended up wearing my sunglasses while working at the projector tray...!




In the hallway below I have framed drawings made with brake grindings, and drawings of folded industrial mesh and sacking using oil paint.