Synthesize

Inspired by the mixed media approach of my most recent painting Sure Would, I decided to go full collage on this one.

(21.5″ x 44″ mounted wallpaper on cardboard)

The base of the ear was constructed from several old painting, chopped up and appropriated, dating back to high school.

The inner ear was originally two separate water color symmetry experiments from my old art class, the blue one at the top I ended up cutting up and layering on itself for some texture.

The outer ear was outlined and cut out from some beautiful copper like wall paper.

 The hair was made from 3 separate paintings. The original idea was to use a painting of space I had lying around, essentially a black canvas with white dotted stars, however, I quickly ran out of material, but this set the tone for the somewhat cosmic tone I took, eventually decorating the ear itself with paint stars, and even salt for some of the finer details. After I depeleted my space canvas, I cut up my original draft of the ear that I painted last summer, an overall black piece with splashes of color blended together. And finally, I rounded out the hair with left over scraps saved from Mercury.

Otherwise, the hat was made with several layers of oil paint, the arm of the glasses was a nylon material, and the I finished the piece with some light pencil texturing and an acrylic gloss.

This was a wildly fun and experimental project that I worked on the past few months. There may be more of this style in the future, but only time will tell.

Thanks to Mordecai for the photographies.