Oh, Ruby (Click this image, to see the entire suite of prints called Outlaws).
Alive and in-flight
Each screen print, unto itself, depicts but a moment. A second, if you will, inside of the theatre of decay. Abrasions, cracks, erosions, chips, brake, in an easy-going race towards order, once again. Like fluid, under lens, spreads out in the most predictable of ways…it is decay, takin’ down the wall.
These works provide, but a fleeting glimpse, putting melancholy at a distance. Like the dipping of a toe into the water, these hyper-realistic works allow a brief, abject moment, via allegory, to ponder without fear, as the viewer gains insight into their own mortality. There is a belief that to understand our own nature, is to understand the world at large, and vice-a-versa.
These are not pale, melancholic, shadowy, murky, vanitas paintings. They are bright, lively screen prints, delighting in Screen Printing’s rich history of activism. Created in the style of Hyper-Realism, they offer up simulations of macro-views of decaying, ephemeral Los Angeles Street Art murals, painted by female street artists. As is the case with the crumbling wall, Equal Rights, is a system in this country that is in dis-order. The artist links arms with other women Artists, as a collective transcendence of her experience, in the U.S., as a female.
The Artist has been photographing these ladies’ murals since they were created (some for over ten years), recording their process of decay. Focusing on the macro; eleven images of tiny specks of decay, no larger than one inch squared in size, were chosen as reference. Over the course of two years, these Serigraph Prints were created, in the style of Hyper-Realism. Each print was meticulously rendered; consisting of 12 or more hand drawn layers, each requiring over 60 hours to draw and 10 hours to print.
Because they are hyper-realistic, the Artist was able to take certain artistic liberties. She still strove for meticulous likeness to the image, but exaggerated tiny areas for drama. Some lines were darkened, to create the illusion that these decay spots were in flight, and colors were taken out to punk rock neon for effect.
Lured by their beauty; these works will not hold the viewer in its allure, for long. They are loud, vivid, disease-like, unapologetically yonic, almost abrasive, exclamations! They are not a resignation to the inevitability of physical decay, they are a celebration of the fact that decay hasn't claimed them yet, and that in this moment there is life and it must be appreciated.