ABSTRACT PORTRAITS & ERODED EXPRESSIONS • PART 2

 

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗛𝗨𝗚𝗘 𝗗𝘂𝗺𝗽!

Back in 2014 I started to work on a series called 𝗔𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗿𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 and posted a bunch back in the day (160 or so). But I eventually stopped posting because I jumped onto projects or something else. But I still had about 210 other pieces that I never got around to post or put on my website... So here they are.

These were hand drawn (some with paint), then colored digitally and tweaked in Photoshop. I still do plunge back into that creative vibe everything now and then, and I have made HUNDREDS more since then... But I haven't scanned any of those and don't think I'll ever find time to color them either... But they do exist in black and white in my piles of drawing books.

What gives me the most pleasure out of doing those, is being able to have a direct physical relationship with the medium by letting out my energy through the self-provocation of various more or less unconscious mind triggers and see where my hand leads me (often happening with music playing in my headphones, and never with a specifically chosen group, but my usual very eclectic playlist). It's a very crude, raw and immediate process when I'm starting, and after the initial spark and spurt, I just let myself go with the flow it's leading me on. But I think the most fun part for me, is to look at the piece after and try to suck out what the imagery evokes to me in the form of a character name or title. These are not random! There is alot of "soul searching" to arrive to a satisfactory title for them. The names/titles include some or all of the following aspects: humor, darkness, social commentary, slang, word plays like bizarre and/or cryptic homophone-like manipulations. And I'd like to believe that the fun part for the spectator (if any), is to try and decipher why I gave them their name by trying to see it through their abstract nature. Some or clearly more obvious than other, but yeah.