A History Of Art

Back to the Studio today to work on the piece that is now officially titled "A History of Art". This is the print that has been referred to as the Tower project going back to mid-April. It's reached the point where it's time to talk about it.

The original inspiration came in a classroom, watching my students work. The first image in my head was a bunch of artists all working on a massive artwork made up of bits of historical work piling up, especially my personal favorites. The idea evolved a little over the next few days. The image of many small figures working on something massive brought to mind Bruegel's painting The Tower of Babel (I had been looking at him a bit lately when working on my Employee print) , so that became my model. And it became less about the general history of art, and more about all the things that influenced me as an artist. The title is about my history with art, which includes some examples of fine art, but also commercial art/design, pop culture, architecture, plus some of my early creative impulses and outlets.

To do justice to the idea this print has to be big, so it will be 36" x 24" (same as Employee, but vertical instead of horizontal), and unlike my other large prints, this one is intended to be colored. It's organized with the earliest influences on the bottom, with later ones building on top, just as the tower would be built. And like Bruegel's, mine will narrow a bit as it moves toward the top, but not be completely symmetrical. (An artist's path through life tends to be a bit irregular.) There are 6 or 7 levels, plus stuff on the ground in front, in the background, and in the air.

Today's work was adding the top layers to the piece in this large rough sketch. I'm sorry that there's not much to see in this form (the main reason I haven't shown any of it before now), but things will be clearer when I start the drawing on wood. There's a lot of details to be worked out, reference material to gather, and I'd like to see if I can find room for some of the many things I had to leave out, but I am hoping to start the block drawing by the end of the week.