Cahulawassee Blues

Here's the concept board for my latest painting project. We have to create a landscape image that relates to the relationship between man and nature. At first I wasn't enthused at all, because let's face it: landscapes suck. However, looking at the wide range of contemporary artists out there working on the subject (Lisa Sanditz, Sharon Ellis, Amy Chan, etc) really inspired me.


This is kind of my own surrrealist take on that kind of introspective "Apocalypse Now"/"Heart of Darkness" trip down the river. I want to transpose the claustrophobia of the jungle into a delapidated urban setting. I picture the character kind of quietly paddling down this empty flooded ghetto; sort of a tourist in an ambiguously post-apocalyptic scenario. He's actually taken from a photo my brother took of a river surfer in France.


I'm currently fixated on the work of contemporary American artist Tomory Dodge (see: above). The way he crafts his compositions out of these haphazard rectangles of colour is amazing. And I really dig the allusive qualities of his subject matter. Definitely the primary inspiration behind this current piece.

I'll post more updates in the coming week. Right now I'm currently trying to assemble my first canvas -- that is, cutting the wood, fitting it together, and stretching the canvas. Good stuff.