This is something that I made recently. It is a (roughly) 15″ x 11″ piece of canvas that has been cut multiple times. The canvas has layers of color and texture, covered by a clear gloss medium. The pattern that I cut out of the canvas came from the outsole of one of my shoes (Air Jordan 29).
With this mini-project I was exploring the cutting of canvas and the use of pattern in a similar way that I did in the second semester of grad school (2011). Back then I was building up layers of color and texture on pieces of canvas, then covering them with either urethane or a clear gloss medium. After a thick and hardened surface was achieved on the canvas, I would then cut patterns of fingerprints into it. The resulting canvases were hung a few feet from the wall (by chains) and, when lit properly, cast some interesting shadows.
This new work, as it is shown here, isn’t working in the same way that the work in grad school did. Here is why: 1) The new piece isn’t big enough. The ones I previously did were much bigger- at least 3 or 4 times the size of this one. 2) Because it is so small, it has to be hung closer to the wall. This makes it hard to see the shadows that are cast. 3) The pattern is too small to be cut out properly. It also is too recognizable as what it is- an outsole design. The ones that I did of fingerprints were not usually easily identifiable as such. 4) The pattern and canvas size are too close to life-size. This contributes to the shoe pattern being too easily recognizable.
So this little experiment didn’t quite work. So what? We start again….
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