Cat People

Cat People © Taylor Barnes

I love the felt hats with cat ears and they are the inspiration for this illustration. 

While working on this piece I visualized a story in which, the hats were being worn by actual cat people. They needed those little pockets to put their ears into and keep them warm - human earmuffs wouldn't hide or fit their little cat ears. Even though they walked among us unnoticed the predator in them would surface from time to time. On those occasions the pupils of their eyes would contract to look like cat eyes and they would freeze and become fascinated by their prey.  

I am still not certain if they are dangerous. This character is cute and cuddly like your typical house cat but looks can be deceptive because she does have claws hidden under that window sill...

  

I Don't Know Where I am Going...

I Don't Know Where I am Going... ©Taylor Barnes

This piece is exploring the idea of weightlessness, both emotionally and physically. Titled, "I Don't Know Where I am Going," it is a response to moments when we are carried into unexpected directions, we can't see the way, we feel disoriented, and there is a loss of control — it is not always a bad place to be. The element of air and a sense of openness is prevalent in these recent pieces. Don't we all crave a feeling of freedom and possibility? A sense of "where will I land next?" Savor the moments when routine is challenged, because tremendous inner growth is often the reward. I have a feeling this theme will reoccur over a few more pieces.

Goddess of Freedom

Broken ©Taylor Barnes

Personal work is always so interesting. You never know what may emerge from the inner depths of your mind. Recently I took a friend up on the idea of participating in a guided meditation for 21 days. I was certain I would never follow through and if I did I would find it impossible to sit still.

To my surprise I have become addicted to the stillness. The imagery that I see during these moments has been rather self-revelatory. The idea of floating has been dominating my inner thoughts. Floating has so many correlations emotionally that I can't even begin to define what this means to me. So rather than write about it I have decided to do some illustrations around the concept of floating and weightlessness.

This one is about breaking free of the constraints of the material world. Hope and gratitude are also present on the journey. I call her a goddess because she is demonstrating my higher self in it's finer moments.

Selfless Portraits - Altruistic Art in the Facebook Era

Selfless Portrait by Taylor Barnes

Recently, I came across an article about a new Facebook app, Selfless Portraits. The idea is to create spontaneous, hand-made art based upon the prompt of a Facebook profile photo. In return someone will create a piece based upon your photo. It is anonymous and random which, is very appealing to me.

An artistic challenge - no matter how it is posed - can reinvigorate our commitment to our craft and help us the hone our creative decision making skills as an artist. I can honestly say that how I chose to approach such an open ended project surprised me.

As I reflect upon my process, twenty-four hours later, I feel that this public art experiment was a wonderful, private moment shared by my mind, my hand and my instinct.

As I approached this sketch I had planned to go with color and at the last minute decided I wanted to work in pencil. Color was the natural first choice because of the vibrant tulips but once I made the decision to go black and white I was primarily working with shape, line and shadow. If this was going to be interesting then those elements had better be compelling.

I started with light shading but quickly realized that the man in the photo was more interesting than the tulips he was holding. - His hands carried all the character - full of expression and life, they became the portrait.

The face is barely there as an anchor. The piece built from the foreground to the background. And then I was left with the tulips.

I love to draw flowers and struggled with the idea of making the tulips the only color or at least rendering them. But it was their shape, bisecting the man's face and casting shadows that was far more interesting than the eye-catching color. The shape was the designer's choice. I created an added element that could only have worked in black and white.

When I finished I realized that this exercise in a quick portrait of a perfect stranger had opened up the process and showed me a little more of how my artist's mind works to solve a creative challenge. Patience, the willingness to give yourself over to the challenge one moment at a time, the spontaneity of changing gears when an new creative opportunity offers itself are the elements of process.

I suppose some would call this artistic growth... I call it fun!

The Circle of Design

 

thebubuzz.com

I recently completed the redesign of Boston University's, The BU Buzz — their online student magazine. This job resonated with me more than others because I was working with one of my former students, Leora Yashari who is the fearless Editor-in-Chief. I found myself reflecting upon the impact that out giving, our words, and our actions have on others. When you teach, your students are dandelion seeds taking flight, landing and blooming but a little bit of you goes with each of them.

Leora is no longer my student and yet we can start a new dialog because of the language of design. Design is constant with changing variables. Maybe once it would have been a print conversation and now it is a web conversation but good design is still at the center. The desire to create beauty, symmetry and effective communication spans all generations.

The process of putting this magazine together and watching my former student apply the things I had taught her in a real world setting was gratifying. So please visit this site and see the energy and creativity these dynamic editors are bringing to the web! thebubuzz.com

Think Pink!

Pink is everywhere this week with Valentine's Day right around the corner. This color has been gradually been creeping into my work more and more. It used to be a muted yellow green, then a rich eggplant, which gave way to a vibrant orange. But lately it is pink, pink and more pink! Since pink seems to be dominating my design vocabulary I felt it warranted a closer look.

Painting/sketch from my children's book, "Louise's House" © Taylor Barnes 2013

The famous fashion designer Elsa Shiaparelli created a shade of hot pink/magenta that made her famous in the 50s. Inspired by the color of a Cartier diamond, she said it was, "bright, impossible, impudent, becoming, life-giving, like all the light and the birds and the fish in the world but together, a color of China and Peru but not of the West - a shocking color, pure and undiluted." And the color "Shiaparelli Pink" was born.

Others in fashion has been fascinated with the color pink. Diana Vreeland, iconic editor of Vogue magazine, once proclaimed, ""Pink is the navy blue of India." The fictionalized version of Vreeland, portrayed by Kay Thompson in the movie "Funny Face" sang, "Think Pink!"

There are many shades of pink:   

Blush,  Rose Pink,  Salmon Pink,  Orchid,  Fuchsia,  Hot Pink.

All of them are some combination of red and white. If you examine the psychology of color, then pink is generally the sweeter, slightly more innocent sister of red. 

Pink represents hop… look at the use of pink for the ribbon logo to fight breast cancer, or the "silence = death" AIDS campaign logo. Pink represents girlishness, femininity and innocence. Pink is happiness and love. Red is passion and lust. Pink is youthful and Red is pink all grown up.

But pink has it's moments of sophistication. Pair it with black and suddenly it is very chic. Pairing it with a darker color makes it assertive and confident, yet elegant and subtly sweet.

Pink can be emotional and immature but at the same time it is utterly the color of romance! Therefore Pink is the perfect color to represent the sometimes fickle, sometimes challenging but ultimately unforgettable concept of romantic love.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Somewhere Between Art and Technology...

Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2, by Marcel Duchamp 1912

The title of this post, Somewhere Between Art and Technology, is where I reside at this point in my life. I used the famous Marcel Duchamp painting, Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2, to illustrate this feeling. The amazing thing about this work was how the intellectual components of the painting ushered in the cubist movement. To think that this painting was done in 1912 astounds me when I liken it to fractal design now. How could Duchamp have been that dialed in? What did he see in 1912 that the rest of humanity did not?

As I ponder this idea I overlap it with the premise of an article I read recently stating that all of society is overlooking the mammoth change technology has brought upon humanity. This is difficult for anyone under the age of thirty to really understand because technology has been playing a vital role most of their adult lives. But as a person who was brought up in an analog age and stands squarely between both worlds, I feel a bit like the figure in the Duchamp painting - fractured and processing information on multiple levels. As an artist I once again relate to this painting as I try to meld my hand work with my love of technology.

As our culture struggles to retain it's humanity while balancing it with the technology it loves, what will happen to artists, writers and creators of all genres? I do wonder if we devalue the artistic process now that so much of it can be duplicated by software. How will we know when something is truly innovative and the product of real talent? As plagiarism is on the rise the line is becoming blurred ethically. Only recently I discovered that a piece I ran on this blog was used in a facebook post which was shared over two hundred times - often without my name attached.

That incident caused me to consider the idea of watermarking my work but ultimately I decided not to. Why? Because I posted it in a public forum because I wanted it to be seen and I wanted it to be seen unmarred by a watermark symbol. That piece was there to be evocative. If I wanted to be paid for it I would have not shared it in such a public venue. These are the decisions that we make as artists floating somewhere between art and technology.

I straddle the world of social media to help dissipate some of the aloneness that the artistic life can create but at the same time I need to manage my addiction. Constantly seeking a conversation, contact with the outside world, or an idea to discuss - social media is at times a wonderful fuel and a supremely superficial level of pontification. Balance... that I what I strive for between Art and Technology.