Patterns and Feminine Abstractions: Stylistic Note

Since coming out with my "Feminine Abstraction" set, I've had several  questions regarding the origins of the style I'm using. Mostly, how I developed it and why?

I've always loved grid paper. Even before I was 10 years old, I would get pads of grid paper and make drawings or patterns using the grid. I did this for years, until I was 12 or so. As you can imagine at that age, my work was crude, usually unoriginal, rudimentary, and well... childish. I think I destroyed all of those long ago. I wish I hadn't in retrospect. They might have been interesting in light of what I've done now, especially if I ever gained any type of renown (yeah... that'll happen).

As I started junior high and started taking formal art classes I largely stopped doing these grid based images for several years. In high school I'd make several patterned images, several of which are in my deviantArt gallery, using traditional media. These were mostly accomplished with a ruler and a compass. Grid paper, and the grid, never entered into it. But it was during this extended "break" from grid-based drawing that I found out about the work of the De Stijl movement led by Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. I didn't know about some of their political or social positions but that wouldn't have mattered to me much at the time anyway. What struck a core with me was the principle of complete abstraction; the belief that any object could be abstracted completely, or to an arbitrary extent; the belief that everything can be expressed as a collection of horizontal and vertical lines; the restriction of the color pallet to only the primary colors. I don't agree with their rejection of symmetry, because I happen to quite enjoy playing with bilateral symmetry, and I don't agree with Mondrian's rejection of diagonal lines, but then neither did van Doesburg. I didn't remember their names at the time, and still don't most days, but that idea stuck with me.

I went to college to be an engineer and suddenly I was doing homework on a type of grid paper called "engineering paper." For the first time in years I had a ready supply of grid paper again. As you can imagine after a while I started sketching on it again, but in a different way, but I wasn't satisfied with the inherent imperfections in the work. There's a limit to how precise you can be with a pencil and there was no way to get rid of the grid after I was finished. The thing that allowed me to make the picture ultimately marred the final product. So I started looking for a way to use the computer to digitize the image. I could control that image down to the fineness of a pixel, reducing my imperfections, and I could erase the grid when finished.

I started out really simple, just regular geometric shapes essentially laid out like tiles, but as I gained confidence that got boring really fast. So I started "mixing it up." I started using more irregular shapes and letting them "float" in the image more and to make more complex and expressive patterns. These first, regular, patterns form what I call the "Tesselation" set, and the more flowing and expressive images that followed I call the "Patterns" set. Every time I'd draw the idea out on grid paper, and then put the finished pattern/design into a bitmap to clean it up and get rid of the grid. My naming probably impresses no one but I always believed that interpretation of the work should be left to the viewer. If I give the picture a name I'm guiding the viewer to an interpretation they may or may not agree with and I think that hurts the image in the end. In the end though these works were strictly non-objective. I wasn't abstracting anything. Anything people saw in those images came from them projecting onto the image, not from me. They've been compared to tattoo designs and tribal art. Some of the comparisons obviously please me more than others. So how do the "Feminine Abstractions" come out of this?

Well, in the Spring of 2010, after earning my B.S. in Chemical Engineering, I decided to take some art classes and earn an A.A. in Visual Arts, just for fun. I ended up taking an Art History class at the same time I was taking a Life Drawing course and working on some of my patterns for a design course. Somewhere in there it hit me: abstract a female form/outline, apply my patterning style, and use that method to make a new type of image. From there, it took 9 months for me to get up the courage and confidence to make the first image, and face the possible blow-back and criticism from my family and friends. Fortunately it seems I underestimated them. Both family and friends have been largely supporting, and at least understanding as I continue with the set.

There are 9 images in what I call the "Tesselation" set and that's done. I'll probably never make another.. I'm now about 3 images into the "Feminine Abstraction" set and 16 images into the "Pattern" set. I'm not willing to call it quits on the "Patterns" set but I'm going to be focused on the "Feminine" series for the foreseeable future. I'm finding that the "Feminine" set is vastly more popular than the "Patterns" anyway. Heh... wonder why? Must be the approximated curves...

As for how I make these, and is there a connection to math? The shapes are mainly chosen for feeling or "looking right." Some (in the "Feminine" set) are designed to abstract/suggest features of the body, like the belly button, etc. or they follow shadows or curves on the body. So there are no equations or rules for the arrangement. However drawing and planning these out on the paper requires a fair bit of counting of squares and slope calculations and intercept calculations, etc. When I put them in the computer I put the image into a bitmap and draw lines from pixel to pixel using reference points, slopes and lengths. So I'm doing a fair bit of mental math to make one of these, just not necessarily for design.

As for why? I had a long series of art teachers that mostly disapproved to these works, even though I loved them. In some ways, continuing with these papers is a final rejection of their opinions. No, these are not just things I make when I'm bored. No, these are good and they are worthwhile, even if they aren't "spontaneous" enough or in-keeping with some old-man's opinion of self-expression. Is it any wonder that my High School art teacher declared me "un-teachable?" But most of all, I do this for fun. Always have. Always will.

Sorry for the long explanation/life story, but that's more or less the "complete" origin story for how I came to make these.

-Visitant

Feminine Abstractions:
01: fav.me/d389g2q
02: fav.me/d397gzq
03: fav.me/d3ac4ci
04: fav.me/d3b6tkw
05: fav.me/d3dq5mb
06: fav.me/d3g2mpf
07: fav.me/d3grbv4
08: fav.me/d3h2p0m
09: fav.me/d4ane7x
10:
11:
12:

"Eros": fav.me/d3dgw4v