A tiny bit of back story – I’ve been killing time on my subway commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan by making abstract sketches on my phone. I usually listen to music or whatnot on headphones while I draw. I find it to be a simple and pretty effective way to insulate myself against the rigors of the commute. Occasionally I post some of the better ones to Instagram. One of my friends from Instagram asked about acquiring one of the pieces not realizing it only lived in the digital domain.
At some point I realized that the resolution on my iPhone 5 was high enough that I could actually print the digital files out. I tried printing one at work, and it looked fine but not noteworthy.
I asked around to handful of people about getting nicer prints made, but nobody seemed to know much about it until I happened to ask my friend Lumi at work. She was like “Funny you should bring that up. I know three or four places…” Boom!
I submitted some jpegs to one of the places she recommended, and a few days later I got back these lush C-Prints that looked even better than the original digital files! There was something compelling about the vibrance of the digital colors with the analog of the matte paper. Ironically, they look so much better printed that I hesitate to put the digital versions online. I elected to go ahead and post them here because it’s so much easier to share them with a wider audience.
When I was trying to think about what to write about this collection of work – subconsciously trying to justify its existence – I realized it’s actually part of a continuum. I’ve been interested in the space between (or the collision of) analog and digital for as long as I can remember. The pieces have a precision to them that I could never achieve by hand, but they also have something “loose” about them that feels somehow handmade. I also love the fact that they started out as digital media and have become physical objects. It seems like so many things head in the opposite direction these days.
Some of you may remember that I posted another series of “iPhone paintings” a while back – 2011 to be precise. I’m a little embarrassed to link to that page because I think they have come a long way – in no small part to the improved resolution and software on my phone. But it might be interesting to see the arc.
Anyway, it’s been a cool project in part because I didn’t really have any expectations for it. I think that’s part of the reason I like the work. They don’t seem too precious or self-conscious. Hope you enjoy the gallery below.
If you’d like one (or more) of the framed prints please let me know. Thanks.
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(4/12/2015) I added another dozen or so prints to this page.
