One of my favourite creatives is artist Erik Otto, who spends his time making things out on the West Coast, California. I was fortunate enough to see some of his work first-hand in New York last year, when me and my travelling accomplice made our way to 191 W. 4th Street, to hunt out Charming Wall. Charming Wall is a gallery which hosts imaginative, illustrative work by a host of creatives. Many of them are self taught, which in this case, works out to be rather pleasant. They have an equally charming website, which is worth looking at even if you can't stand art or artists and have no idea why you are still reading this blog. Go ahead and enjoy yourself.
It was in this little gallery that I stood so close to Erik's creations, I wanted the wall to swallow me up so I could somehow enter his world of floating houses and rain clouds. I probably wouldn't stay there for long, but still, there's something about finding things and re-creating them to have a new purpose that is irresistible.
Some of these thoughts perpetuated my mind during the third year of my degree. I began to think about the passing nature of everything we can see and touch and claim to have ownership over, that passes through our hands as our bodies eventually pass through this world. Everything we see is transient. Which means that this place does not exist just for me, and "reduce, re-use, re-cycle" is annoying because it's inconvenient and no one likes being told what to do. However, this air of consciousness, the desire to make something bigger than me, plus my student status, resulted in the making of Le Rubbish out of cardboard, newspaper, bubble wrap, crockery, paper bags, milk bottles and, of course, paint. etc. Here are some images of said collage in the Sofa Gallery at IU, 2008.
It was in this little gallery that I stood so close to Erik's creations, I wanted the wall to swallow me up so I could somehow enter his world of floating houses and rain clouds. I probably wouldn't stay there for long, but still, there's something about finding things and re-creating them to have a new purpose that is irresistible.
Some of these thoughts perpetuated my mind during the third year of my degree. I began to think about the passing nature of everything we can see and touch and claim to have ownership over, that passes through our hands as our bodies eventually pass through this world. Everything we see is transient. Which means that this place does not exist just for me, and "reduce, re-use, re-cycle" is annoying because it's inconvenient and no one likes being told what to do. However, this air of consciousness, the desire to make something bigger than me, plus my student status, resulted in the making of Le Rubbish out of cardboard, newspaper, bubble wrap, crockery, paper bags, milk bottles and, of course, paint. etc. Here are some images of said collage in the Sofa Gallery at IU, 2008.
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Sofa Gallery BFA Painting exhibition 2008.
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