Tag: colors

Anniversary of a Close Call

With each of my Cinefield® pieces I try to one up myself or stretch forms in some manner. For this piece, I wanted to create a work where one can go back and even with repeated viewings find new little moments. I feel it succeeded, this being the most rhythmically complex piece I have ever done (so far!).

In the past, I have not gone into certain aspects common to the creation of all Cinefield® pieces as I was conscious of it sounding too close to boasting. All the images are from photos which I personally took. I always have a rough outline of what I am doing in pencil on the paper. However, when I look at the photos I use, often limiting myself to one or two which I just print in multiple copies, I do not know what will go where. I can have two copies of the same photo and cut them up completely differently. All the pieces are very tiny. I do not know what tiny piece goes where until I am laying it down.

I work with anywhere from one to three 11×17 sheets on tiny paper confetti sized pieces. I stand at table looking at the paper w/pencil outline for design and then see what I have cut up and where I feel it should go. What this means is that every Cinefield® which represents hundreds of hours per piece, each work session is an act of complete improvisation.

This piece is 11×17 . no digital magic, just my trusty scissors and adhesive applied with brush.

A.I & art. There is still a misconception about A.I generated artwork. A.I, if you ask it to create a city scene, does not spontaneously create a work from scratch. It pulls different aspects of pre existing work by others to create a sort of frankensteined version, more often than not without permission of the original artists. Copyright your works before doing anything with them, this includes posting on social media. If your work blatantly shows the artist’s hand i.e it looks done by hand, it’s not as much a worry as mediums such as photos et al.

by Wayne Wolfson

CINEFIELD® Carousing

Often when you read a biography on artists, in any medium, I have noticed a commonality. There seems to be a career sweet spot. This is when they have established their voice, have an audience and can comfortably exist while serving the process. They are not necessarily as big as they will become.

What makes this the sweet spot is the ability to still 100% follow one’s own North Star. No consideration is given towards audience nor critic expectations. New directions can be taken, old ones dropped.

The tragedy of all of this is that this phase is often recognized by the artist only well after the fact.

I am lucky to recognize that I am in the sweet spot. With no forced upon restrictions nor expectations, I experiment. Even when it is a direction I decide not to go in, this freedom fosters evolution.

My last Cinefield®, I wanted to make more rhythmic than previous ones. With this one, I wanted a greater density. I went with a more limited color palette as to make it more noticeable. I tried several new things with this piece which will now just be part of my regular process.

With all my Cinefield® works, I only use photos which I personally took. Another different thing for this one, I only used two photos (in general with these works I don’t use too many, but this is even less). The piece is 11×17 inches. No digital magic just scissors and adhesive applied with a tiny brush.

Errata: copyright. People, especially with visual work, prominently display copyright notices. Definitely copyright your work, before you post it anywhere, before you submit it anywhere. However, the watermarks and notices are a distraction and according to many gallerists and editors I have spoken with, the mark of an amateur. To have the notice on edge of paper, it can be clipped off. To have giant watermark, your are wrecking effect of your piece.

Some might complain that to copyright everything one puts out can be cost prohibitive. With drawings, things where an artists hand is so blatantly present, it is not necessary. As for the rest, it actually makes an artist assess their work better. No one hits a bullseye each and every time. If you are considering copyrighting a work w/its accompanying fee, you have to be more honest with yourself.

Copyright is not a forcefield which will prevent people from lifting an image you created. It gives you a quick recourse to take back what is yours. Generation Instagram feels that if it is online and they like it, it’s a victimless crime to use it as content. Copyright allows you to get it back quicker or really drop the hammer should someone actually be monetizing one of your creations.

by Wayne Wolfson

Selfie Yellow Driving Gloves

I had gotten this great pair of gloves right before the pandemic which sat in their cool little case for so long that I had forgotten about them. Going through my clothes, I came across them, still patiently waiting to be worn out.

This is a selfie on tan paper. New gloves & coat.

11×14 inches watercolor & tan paper

Rarely do I promote my for sale things be it my books or visual works. I want an audience and not customers. Personally, I also find it a turn off to want to see what an artist you are interested in is up to and every post ends w/a sales pitch. However, we are in the gift giving season. I have some art for sale. Have a peek. (these are truly limited, not merely sales pressure verbiage)

http://www.waynewolfson.com/works-for-sale

by Wayne Wolfson

CINEFIELD® – For Ron Carter

Long have I been a fan of Mondrian. My library is full of many books on his work. He would arrange the orientation of some of his canvas in a diamond shape. The work was done with this in mind and it was more than merely going for an unorthodox positioning, the shape was part of the tension and release for the pieces.

I decided to challenge myself, doing my version of this. I cut down a piece of heavy tan multi-media paper to a different shape for me. It was not mere arbitrary move though, I had in mind before starting the rhythm of the piece. To facilitate further evolution, I had in mind to make this cityscape a day time scene since most of my others pulse with a nighttime luminescence.

For a longtime I have been a fan of Ron Carter. There is a new documentary Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes . It is well worth seeing. It shows a man whose lifetime devotion and joy is in serving the process. At a time that I was being pulled in all different directions, it served as the perfect reminder of what’s important.

As is always the case, all the photos used for this were taken by myself. There is no digital magic, I used traditional method of scissors and adhesive applied with a brush.

by Wayne Wolfson

CINEFIELD® – Nocturne 10

I always have several things going on at once. Currently I am in the middle of finishing a big project (full length novel) while about to start several others. My CINEFIELD® work tends to start to sprawl across my studio. And despite now vacuuming/sweeping daily when working on one, there is still paper confetti snow flurries and sheets of tiny pieces waiting to be used that find their way onto every available surface.

There is a great pleasure in my working in this medium. Mess aside, they are also very time consuming. I don’t want too long a time to go by without doing a piece as, like all my other mediums, it’s very much become a part of me.

The solution was to do a smaller piece which makes far less mess. Surprisingly though, smaller pieces are more difficult because the already tiny components must be even smaller. And the smaller general area means far less space to create sense of tension and release. (I equate this aspect to way back in the day, early vinyl had technical limitations, so the average record time wise, was shorter than later. Because of this, great jazz soloists, when doing their thing had to take far shorter solos than during the Long Playing era. This limitation forced all the greats to learn to make their statements within the confines of the medium’s limits.) I am always up for a challenge as I feel it facilitates evolution.

Like all my works, ever image used was from photos which I personally took. There is no digital magic, I use scissors & adhesive applied with a brush. The piece is 2×4 inches.

Free Advice: Aside from blogs, most people are on one if not all other social media sites. Adding to the non-stop stream of Twitter. Instagram etc. are new posts from whomever one follows. If a minimum of 500 people are being followed and they are posting every day, when combined with everything else one has going on digitally, it reduces what could be meaningful content (learning something new, interactions etc.) down to white noise babble.

If you are an artist/anything in the arts, then the goal should be interaction, creating an audience who will be curious to what you do next. If you want to exchange ideas/interact, in general, this too will be hindered by the deluge.

Even some of the better blogs would benefit from posting less frequently.

Last time I posted this idea, people got defensive. There are only so many hours in the day a productive person can give to bowing their heads in prayer to the screen of their phone tablet. I am not commenting on anyone’s legitimacy but merely offering way to be a better, more effective blogger.

by Wayne Wolfson