Process: These magnetic print/drawings were created by making a graphic printing plate from magnetic material. Butcher paper was laid over the plate and iron particulate was sprinkled over the surface. The vertical lines are indicators of the magnetic material beneath the paper, while the other material lands outside that forcefield in entropic disarray. Water was then sprayed over the entire surface allowing for the particulate to oxidize. The surface was then fixed and mounted to blotter paper.
Imagery: These images came from photographs I took while living in Southeastern Ohio. This part of the country, at the time, had recently experienced the closing of many coal mines. The region was mainly small communities with very few resources and typically little commerce peppered throughout the foothills. One had to drive over an hour to find any established commercial spaces. What I found common to the region were these left over 7 up signs. The signs advertised liquor stores, lodges, and small restaurants among other local gathering places. The signs carried the largely familiar logo on the top and the local information on the bottom. They were polycarbonate signs lit from the interior.
Local Color: Thomas Hart Benton felt that regional subject matter would not become transcendentally universal, and that it would be reduced to local color. This concept of 'local color' was further explored by Jackson Pollock at 18 when he went on the road and wrote in his journal, "The miners and prostitutes in Terre Haute Indiana gave swell color-their both starving-working for a quarter-digging their graves." This local or 'swell' color Benton taught Jackson to look for with his own response to the landscape and space. In this tradition, my series explores a specific region of the rust belt and the landscape punctuated with the popularly familiar, yet local sign.
Imagery: These images came from photographs I took while living in Southeastern Ohio. This part of the country, at the time, had recently experienced the closing of many coal mines. The region was mainly small communities with very few resources and typically little commerce peppered throughout the foothills. One had to drive over an hour to find any established commercial spaces. What I found common to the region were these left over 7 up signs. The signs advertised liquor stores, lodges, and small restaurants among other local gathering places. The signs carried the largely familiar logo on the top and the local information on the bottom. They were polycarbonate signs lit from the interior.
Local Color: Thomas Hart Benton felt that regional subject matter would not become transcendentally universal, and that it would be reduced to local color. This concept of 'local color' was further explored by Jackson Pollock at 18 when he went on the road and wrote in his journal, "The miners and prostitutes in Terre Haute Indiana gave swell color-their both starving-working for a quarter-digging their graves." This local or 'swell' color Benton taught Jackson to look for with his own response to the landscape and space. In this tradition, my series explores a specific region of the rust belt and the landscape punctuated with the popularly familiar, yet local sign.