Art Work of the Month :: January 2014

I discovered GIFiti via the works of INSA on tumblr about a year ago. If you don’t know INSA’s work, check it here –http://www.insaland.com/blog/biggest-gif-itti-yet/  Once I heard the term, it solidified my resonance with it. It also became the energy behind wanting to create more GIF animations based on my own studio, graffiti and public works of art. I had already been generating GIFs and motion graphics for the last few years, but not using graffiti or street art as a subject. As an artist who grew up in NY I was inspired by graffiti and began writing and tagging early on. The craft and inspiration never left my interest or awareness and continues to play a role in my studio based work today. The way that I use graffiti in my work has changed. It has evolved into a series of hybrids that are based on my own connection to the subject matter itself. I will soon post another essay about this process here. Generating GIF work feels like the natural progression of evolution. It is my intention to push the context of graffiti and what it can be as technology and the internet plays more and more of a role in how art can be created, viewed, shared and experienced on demand.

I reached out to Jilly B this past summer of 2013 after discovering her work in NYC. I loved it. I followed up onto the web for more information and images, and loved her work even more. I teach an all street art and graffiti class at Long Island University, Post campus here in NY (check out this recent guest post I did on Vandalog.com –http://blog.vandalog.com/2013/07/teaching-graffiti-history-and-practice/ ) I wanted to meet Jilly and invite her to come in as a guest artist/lecturer for the course, so we met up in NYC. Before the meet up, I proposed that we also generate a collaborative project in the interim of things, this way we could write about it and also share it with our networks to get some feedback. Plus, I feel that collaborating with other artists creates a whole new way to experience our own work, as well as the work of another artist simultaneously. Its all about awareness and making conscious contact with wanting to expand and grow. Relationships foster this. I love collaborating with other artists, and do so on a regular basis. Jilly and I exchanged a few prints that we had both brought to the meet up. We first produced a series of analog works, meaning collage based work pasted onto plexiglass, wood and canvas. (see below) It was in the discovery of e-mailing our progress to each other that I became inspired to animate the works using the GIF format. GIFs have been around for a long time, but have really recently boomed in popularity via several online platforms. I became aware of their expansive potential through various collaborative projects I have co-created and participate in on a regular basis now (check out giffight.tumblr.com and giftheportrait.tumblr.com ) In September I asked Jilly if she would be interested in seeing the first piece I created come to life, she said YES and so it was. On 12/21/13 I hit her up again with the idea to bring her public works to life as part one of a series of new collaborative works. Things are happening organically, I love the immediacy of receiving a still image from Jilly, and then animating it right away. My intuition takes over and it becomes about expressing the moment through that particular image. It is a challenge where I can compliment or contradict the content. From producing results I can then start to work thematically if I want to. I am sure it will lead to more strategic planning as we have a whole new awareness of the potential. Most of all, this is FUN. I make a ton of drawings, paintings, collage, and prints on a regular basis, and now I want to animate those pieces as well. I do think that GIFs, video art, experimental film, and the use of projection will start to play more of a role in public art, street art and graffiti. There is a connection between the ephemeral aspects of these mediums that play a role in how we use the internet today to find content that will entertain and stimulate us. I love the fact that artistic techniques can become energetic skills that evolve based on how we collectively spread and share the information. Our perceptions make them authentic and individualistic, and our ability to apply the information explodes. There is something really great about the transcendence and transparency of the learning and sharing process in our day and age, its in its infancy.

It is a great pleasure to work with Jilly Ballistic, and this is just the beginning of our series! Not every artist is open to have another artist manipulate and or remix their work, Jilly has been wide open and totally trusting. I believe that we have formed an artistic relationship in this mutual openness, and that energy itself is powerful. Im excited to see what happens next as new ideas keep bubbling up. As artists we need to constantly push ourselves out of our comfort zones to evolve and become more aware of the new options that infinitely always await us.