JCR's Perspective

Title: Triangular Briar Pitch

This image started with lines all the same size and a rule that only triangles of certain shape could be drawn. The errors I produced while making this were allowed to change the thickness of the lines and add triangles in places that didn’t quite follow the rules.

The most common comment I get on this piece is that it looks 3D. I believe the varied sizes in different areas and the line thicknesses contribute to the illusion of depth.

Materials: Five hours of my time. Felt tip pen on bristol board.

Title: Interfered Spiral

The genesis of this image was a spiral that I was unsatisfied with—it  was much less symmetrical than I wanted it to be. I almost started over, but I hesitated. In that moment of hesitation I saw a use for this spiral that was completely unexpected. 

I started to cross it with curved lines that I bounced off the lines that made up the spiral. The lines were not allowed to bounce off of the same line twice in a row. After drawing these lines, I started to fill them with straight lines that conflicted with the curves that bore them.

I spontaneously added rules about the orientation of the lines and how they interacted with other fields. The end result is a figure that is a conflict between the straight and the curved lines.

Title: Electronic Could Fish Fan

This one was hard to title because I see shapes borrowed from so many different objects. This piece of art evolved around the shape in the center. The lines coming out from the center object were a spontaneous decision by me that gave me inspiration that lead me to the completion of this image. The smears were unintentional, but they added character and I made no effort to erase them or limit their presence. 

The fin-like protrusions were as unexpected as the rest of this work. I let my sense of aesthetics run wild with them. I made a rule about their orientation, but I felt compelled to break that rule multiple times. I had drawn a lot of pieces with strict rules governing them before I drew this one and I was feeling a bit rebellious.

The chief mistake of this piece may be my drawing so many strict pieces before this one. The result is somewhat funny in the sense that it doesn’t look like a mistake to me at all. My individual whims drove me to create something that looks whole.

The title is true to the nature of this image because I just let my mind blurt out the first three words that popped into my mind when I looked upon my memory of this image. Then I had an urge to add “electronic” in front of the three words, so I did. I believe the urge to add “electronic” came from the angular lines that penetrate the cloud.

Materials: Two hours of my time. Felt tip pen on bristol board.

Title: Samplight

This is an image that I made with the goal of incorporating four of my iterative styles into one image. 

The structure in the top right is a bifrucating branch fractal.

The structure in the top left is an error spiral. An error spiral is a spiral form that was originally inspired by errors I made in drawing spirals with a ball point pen. I experimented with magnifying the characteristics of this form while allowing errors to add complexity and randomness.

The structure in the bottom left is something I call a triangular briar. It got that name because the initial image this appeared in started to look like some sort of abstract thorned bush.

The structure in the bottom right is an I fractal. I started drawing these when I realized that the letter I could be attahed to itself and repeated to fill space.

Materials: Four hours of my time. Felt tip pen on sketch paper.

Title: Concentric Shells

The only rules governing the creation of this image are:

1. Every shell pattern has a seed where the lines converge.

2. The lines must be concentric.

3. The seed of each shell must touch another shell.

4. New shells must conform to the shape of old ones.

Errors are mainly expressed by variations in line thicknesses, and breaks in the adherence to rule 4.

This image plays with my eyes and I see artifacts when I look from shell to shell. I perceive movement in the image as my eyes dart around within it giving me a somewhat unsettling feeling.

Materials: Three hours of my time. Felt tip pen on bristol board.

When I came upon this trunk in Cascade River State Park, I stopped for a moment to stare at it.  A fungus has completely taken over this trunk.  The cracks in the bark are an eerie fungal white.

The twilight sky silhouetted this vulture beautifully.  This photograph really shines in black and white.