Friday, May 8, 2009

Further Bonelands Information, For The Curious

This atrocity is explained in one of the posts to which I link below. (I adore the brutality of the gratuitously unsplit infinitive.) The artist Glendon Mellow has spoken of a developmental phase in a work of art that he calls 'the uglies.' This would be an example.

So next week I'm gonna be presenting to a group of people who might actually be in a position to aid my cause -- this is the final for my Art Marketing class. Here's what I wrote for them about the series in my submission packet.

The Bonelands is a series of digital prints done in conjunction with my novel-in-progress, The Songs Of Stray Souls. Rather than illustrating passages in the story these pieces are intended to inspire settings and creatures and events. This process lets me harness my visual imagination and create without the limitations imposed by verbal thinking.

This was the first time I used photography as part of my process – prior to this, I never even took snapshots. I borrowed a digital camera and made use of the collection of bones and succulents that my spouse and I have accumulated over the years. In order to achieve the effects I desired, I had to carefully pose and light the individual elements with the finished composition in mind.

This was a breakthrough for me. I learned more about light in two weeks of taking digital photos than I had in twenty years of drawing. Although drawing does play a role here; since I make use of cropping and distortion in order to fit the elements in these pieces into a preconceived design, the process felt more like drawing with photographs than traditional collage.

Many of the pieces in The Bonelands were originally published in Swill Magazine as black-and-white pieces intended for xerography. As always, the limitations imposed by the process of reproduction proved to be sources of inspiration rather than limitation.

The use of hard black-and-white made it possible to cleanly reproduce these images at any desired size, and when I began to color them I found myself in a position to experiment wildly. From flat, muted colors to vibrant, highly saturated renderings making use of strong, almost violent contrasts in both hue and tone, the shared origin of the pieces allowed the series a unity despite the varied moods and impressions of the individual prints.

Man, I can talk a ripe old load of bullshit when needs must.

If you're interested here are some previous posts that go into the process of creating The River King in a bit more detail.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

The Bonelands: All The Images From The Series


Totem


The Tower


The River King



The Mask



The Last Tree We Saw



The Island



The Gates Of Horn



The Gate Of Dreams



The Elders




The Canyon



Ozymandias



Natural Bridges



The Kicker



Guardians



Dirty Windows



Blossom


Right now I'm in the process of finishing off the final project for my art marketing class. It's a request for a grant to print, mount, and show my Bonelands series. Part of this involves putting together a CD with jpegs of all the images from the series. Most of these have shown up on this site before but this is the first time the whole shebang has been visible in one place at one time.

Now imagine a gallery with these images printed 3' x 4' on canvas. That's what I'm hoping to be able to do...

Dear Mr./Ms. X,

I am writing to introduce you to my artwork with hopes that you can assist me in getting a grant. The work in this package represents a finished series of digital prints entitled The Bonelands. I would like to be able to display these images in a gallery show. In order to do this, I need funds to print, mount, store, and ship these works. In addition, if there is no specific gallery space available I would need funds to promote this work by printing and mailing out packages like the one you now hold.

If you’re interested in seeing more of my work, I’d be happy to send you further samples or arrange to show you prints at your convenience.

Thank you for your attention,

Sincerely,

Sean Craven


Grants. Hmm.

Grants.