Art and Play
I encourage my Graphic Design students to maintain a sketchbook and to have drawing materials with them at all times. One never knows when and idea might strike and if one is unable to get it onto paper or into a digital from right in that moment, it may disappear forever: POOF! The pieces in this section have all been created in this spirit. Sometimes, sketches such as these move into full-blown, completed work for a client, and other times they remain as one-off little things that sort of just gave birth to themselves. Many of them were me playing around with a new take, though on composition, or a combination of different elements just to see where the experiment might lead.
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A mesostic is a poetical form developed by the American composer, John Cage. I set some of my favorites with images. Here, I warped the cloud image so it would appear that the curvature of the hand was bending the light like glass.
This mesostic, on the word MAGIC, was set over a photograph while standing on the early Richard Serra piece at the Storm King sculpture park in upstate New York.
This is a demo piece I created for a design class. The task was to create a word-based logo, that used no more than a single letter that was fron an actual font. All of the other elements needed to be composed of non-alphanumeric shapes.
I call this kind of piece a poem, even though they employ only one or two words. Much can be said with the combination of image with word(s).
A demo piece for undergrad Design class. it uses word play combined with multiple image elements to develop a meaning that the words alone do not. We were working in the form of book covers to make the exercise a bit more practical.
The next few pieces are all "Ambigrams." the term, coined by designer John Langdon, describes a word that can be read either in multiple ways or in various orientations. Tarot cards may be read right-side-up or up-side-down. This is readable when it is flipped.
Playing with the idea that a chrysalis is an object that hangs beneath a branch or leaf, and the butterfly is one that flies up and away. This setting of the word "change" may be read from both perspectives.
Both of these quotations make me think of the Hanged Man Tarot card. It depicts someone who has chosen to invert themself in order to see the world in a new way.
A logo for a vocal ensemble that focuses on contemporary repertoire. The name it self "We Sing" is a play on words with the homonym "wheezing." It may also be turned upside down and still be read properly.
I wanted to play with the idea of a field of stars not feeling as flat as it is often depicted. So, I played with the idea of using an absolutely flat painting as the background of the image to contrast with the volumetric space indicated by the cupped hands.
These are a few cards from two Tarot decks I am designing. The top cards are from a Qabbalistically-inspired technique developed with a mentor. The bottom are from a deck that illustrates my personal style of working with the cards.
I also compose music. Every once in a while, I typeset a piece of mine that has a blank page left over when set as a booklet. For those, if I have the time, I will often compose a work of art to accompany the work of music.
For many years, I drew a snowman cartoon each winter. These are some of my favorites.
Quite often, when I have an idea for a new technique that I want to explore, I'll take a page out of Vincent's book and practice it through a self-portrait.
When I started working at the Waldorf School, I installed a shed on the field to hold the movement class equipment. On the inside of the door, I put up a 6-foot by 3-foot chalkboard. A few times a year, I'd put a drawing there to inspire the children.