Clippings from the Production Yearbook
The moment I saw it, I took an immediate liking to the found image of a hand and quill pen on a variety of paper samples from 1950. I came across them in a mid century graphic arts yearbook, what was essentially a trade publication. The samples were each exhibiting a different weight, texture, finish and edge. I imagined that a young illustrator came up with the idea for his or her work to be included on each sample, and in 1950 at the cusp of the modern age, it was a bit progressive to cite the 19th century.
I have always been intrigued with the self-referential nature of culture and how old aesthetics are recycled in order to make new and current. With the idea of this cultural salvaging in mind, I decided to create my take of a mid-century modern geometric abstraction on the paper sample, thereby combining contemporary retro with that of sixty years ago. My hope is that fifty years in the future my drawings will evoke a similar reaction in another artist.
The moment I saw it, I took an immediate liking to the found image of a hand and quill pen on a variety of paper samples from 1950. I came across them in a mid century graphic arts yearbook, what was essentially a trade publication. The samples were each exhibiting a different weight, texture, finish and edge. I imagined that a young illustrator came up with the idea for his or her work to be included on each sample, and in 1950 at the cusp of the modern age, it was a bit progressive to cite the 19th century.
I have always been intrigued with the self-referential nature of culture and how old aesthetics are recycled in order to make new and current. With the idea of this cultural salvaging in mind, I decided to create my take of a mid-century modern geometric abstraction on the paper sample, thereby combining contemporary retro with that of sixty years ago. My hope is that fifty years in the future my drawings will evoke a similar reaction in another artist.
