All of the subjects in this collection represent the success that comes from giving yourself the freedom to experiment with your talents to express your vision. The heights than can be achieved when you are able to freely express your vision unlimited. I sought to honor the influence that these subjects have had on the world by experimenting with my own talent to express my vision. With each experimentation I take a step in their footsteps, growing closer to successfully expressing my vision.
Experimenting with a new medium
I often get asked how I thought to use thumbtacks as a medium. Well, it all began with Froot Loops. Seriously. I originally sat in my apt/studio looking for materials that had vibrant colors and considered cereal as my medium. Luckily I moved away from Toucan Sam when I found a mixed color pack of thumbtacks.
Experimenting with my canvases
Using thumbtacks as a medium also forced me to transform the way I used my canvases. The challenge was keeping the tacks in place on the canvas. The solution came when I bought ALL of the hardware store's expanding foam to spray the back of the canvas.
Experimenting with scale
It’s All About the Benjamins is a massive piece because it needed to be. Not because it had to scale for a bill, but because you have to take a moment to absorb it all. Who is that? Why is he black? What does the "slaves" refer to? There are 3 canvas stitched together to make this large canvas, then a wrapped another sheet of canvas above it. Two of the pieces are blank but one is a piece of president Obama that I ultimately scrapped. Not purposefully but fatefully enough there is a piece of history built on top of another.