Epic Clearance 2

Part two of my Selfrospective.

     As I mentioned in part one, I was still trying to figure out who I was artistically.  I think this is common enough, but in this case I was trying to define myself in terms of the word artist.  It is perhaps cliche that I, like many artists, constantly struggle with the idea that we are not what we claim.  At any moment we will be exposed as frauds and exiled from our passion.
    
     Having always felt like too geeky for the artists and too artsy for the geeks I always felt that I was in the way and that made me feel cramped. This gave me a strong mental image.  I let it develop over a summer period devoid of "art". It was the first thing I drew when I returned to school that semester, and it sparked my greatest output in any particular style. When my very artsy design major roommate would see these he would tell me "You finally found your style".

2000-2002  and a bit from 2005

This image was in my head for months, maybe years. Waiting for a level of technical sophistication to be emancipated from my cranium.

After a handful of pieces were complete the "cramped" theme became less interesting. I was using ink and conte and just drawing whatever image happened to be floating in my mind while I sat in my studio.

During my senior review, a professor I did not know from class or personally, would suggest that I should read Carl Jung, suggesting that each drawing was essentially a self portrait regardless of content.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I drew this, I honestly did not know it was a drug reference, though I'm sure the phrase was bouncing around in my head when I decided to add the salt shaker.

 Many of the works appeared in my one and only art show "Paint Chip Beer and Chilled Monkey Brains" which my good friend and classmate Jordan Witkov and I hosted at The Frame Gallery.

Epic Clearance 1

     I have years worth of art that I will never do anything with. So instead of just throwing it all in the garbage I'm offering my vintage "Joel Heires" art for free (plus shipping and handling for those not local ;) ). I have a few posts worth of stuff. Most are works on paper, most with tack holes already in them! So take a gander as I slowly post a "Joel Heires" retrospective with some work going all the way back to middle school.

We'll start with 1998 -2000

      Admittedly a "growing" period in my technique, these early paintings and drawings would culminate it my signature "college" style. I will shed very few tears when I throw them away.

There is a first part of this piece which I haven't Photographed yet. The assignment was to violate rules of perspective.

This was one of a couple pieces that were instrumental in developing my dry media skills in a way that would highly influence my later work.

This drawing is about 10.5 feet tall.

After two semesters of drawing foundation courses, there were two semesters of painting.

I dislike painting having what I feel to be a poor color sense and certainly at the time a very weak technical grasp of the media involved. Only years later, having done a fair amount of digital painting , do I even feel like I want to attempt to paint again.

Acrylic on plastic wrap.

During the final critic, many of my classmates pointed out that it resembled the American flag. That was not on purpose but certainly part of what i was thinking of when I drew it.