Art – Recent Work

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Travel Reading

May 6, 2010 in Art - Recent Work, W.I.P.s, ` | 16 comments

Travel Reading cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 16 1/2 x 11 5/8” (42 x 29.7cm)
medium: cut paper on wood
click here or the image to read the big book.

It’s been a while since I’ve taken a vacation. In fact, today was the first time I’ve escaped from Tokyo in months (to Kamakura, for a bit of temple hopping and mountain climbing and local beer and sausages. ‘Twas awesome).

They say that “getting there is half the fun”, and generally I agree. It was certainly the case today, with the train ride jammed full of good conversation and weird observations. Not to mention the long, satisfying nap which was the return trip. Sometimes though, all I want to do is find a way to distract myself until I reach my destination. Wrapped securely in a cocoon of books, movies, music and sleep. All the while doggedly ignoring everything springing up all around.

Travel Reading cut paper art by Patrick GannonI’ve been trying to work on a slightly larger scale recently. It gives me a chance to tell more complicated stories with more subtle emotions and concepts. Not to mention that some of the papers I’ve picked up recently are just too beautiful to slice apart. Take, for example, the background paper in this piece. The deep blend of colors mixed with the gold ink is just stunning in person. It’s really a piece of art unto itself.

Travel Reading cut paper art by Patrick GannonOr the subtle variations in color in the beastly blue.

Travel Reading cut paper art by Patrick GannonFinally, here’s the scribble I worked off of. The concept popped into my head more or less fully formed, but with an entirely different cast of inappropriate characters. By this time, I had revised them to their near-finished state. The big hands on the mount’s front limbs were a late addition. It’s surprising how much intelligence those opposable thumbs add to a creature; they make all the difference between a beast of burden and a sentient creature.

Travel Reading cut paper art by Patrick Gannon

Tripping Over Perspective

April 5, 2010 in Art - Recent Work, ` | 8 comments

Tripping Over Perspective cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 8 x 10”
medium: cut paper on wood

Given “Travel” (the theme of the recently wrapped-up Sound of Scissors), most folks would picture the glittering lights of Paris, the sun-baked desert pyramids of Giza, or the stone noggin chorus line of Easter Island. Then they would draw that picture. I, however, am not most people. By which I mean that I never get to go to any of those cool places. Instead, my mind wandered to the kind of travel that I do get to enjoy.

Evidently, the kind of travel that I enjoy begins with me dipping my head into any convenient hole or hollow whereupon it is rent from my body molecule-by-molecule, cast through time and space, and finally bonded to the underside of a nebulous, floaty, precipitation-prone bundle of gasses.

On the other hand, I coulda been thinking along more metaphorical lines when I was sketching out this moody forest scene. Something about how different experiences force us to re-evaluate the things we’ve always taken to be universal. Perhaps travel inside ourselves. Maybe even a short trip through the metaphysical astral plains. Y’know, that sorta high-minded nonsense. Read the rest of this entry »

This Lightning Won’t Forge Itself (Fūjin Raijin Diptych, l)

(sold)

February 3, 2010 in Art - Recent Work, Exhibitions & Events, Japan | 6 comments

This Lightning Won’t Forge Itself cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 7 1/4 x 10 3/8”
medium: cut paper on wood

Raijin and Fūjin have always struck me as the odd couple of the Japanese Shinto pantheon. Two ex-demons pressed into service by the powers-that-be, they are forced to work together despite their opposing personalities. If they are The Odd Couple, then Raijin is a moodier version of Felix. Focused, determined, ominous. He doesn’t have time for Fūjin’s playful, needy antics. Or does he? Is that the slightest sliver grin at the corner of his mouth as he dutifully ignores the looping breeze?

This Summoning Wind / This Lightning Won’t Forge Itself diptych cut paper art by Patrick Gannonclick here or the image to see Titans Clash

Raijin and Fūjin are fascinating and awesome (in the traditional sense of the word) as typically depicted raging through a storm. When I sat down to sketch this piece, that was my first approach as well. After a while, I started wondering how they spent the quiet hours between typhoons. What kind of relationship evolves between the people who spend all of their time together; coworkers, best friends, husbands and wives, Gods of thunder and wind.This Summoning Wind / This Lightning Won’t Forge Itself diptych cut paper art by Patrick Gannonclick here or the image for the big frame-up

This Summoning Wind (Fūjin Raijin Diptych, r)

(sold)

January 13, 2010 in Art - Recent Work, Japan | 7 comments

This Summoning Wind cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 7 1/4 x 10 3/8”
medium: cut paper on wood
click here or the image to let the big wind free.

Confined in a leathery sack, the wind swirls and gusts, waiting to be loosed as a gentle zephyr or a raging hurricane. The keeper of the wind is Fūjin 風神, one of the oldest of the Japanese Shinto gods. All along, I thought it was an amazing coincidence that Fūjin, along with Greek gods of the wind Boreas and Aeolus, carried the wind in a sack over his shoulder. If Wikipedia is to be believed, it is because the Japanese deity evolved from the Greek. Go figure.

Fūjin here is part of a diptych. You can probably guess who is featured on the left half. There’s a whole story to be revealed, both thematically and artistically, when the halves are placed side by side. For the moment though, I think I’ll keep things simple and let the old windbag speak for himself.

Where the Forest Ends and the Flesh Begins

January 6, 2010 in Art - Recent Work, Japan, ` | 12 comments

Where the Forest Ends and the Flesh Begins cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 38 x 27.2 cm ( about 15 x 10 3/4″ )
medium: cut paper on illustration board
click here or the image for a more titanic tiger

Each new year is a time of renewal, a clean slate where the previous year’s missteps have been scratched out to make way for hopes, plans, schemes and triumphs. Who better to lead us out of the dark than the fearsome tiger.

Of course, the trick with a beastie as temperamental and finicky as the tiger is to know whether it’s leading you into the light or pouncing on you from the inky shadows.

One year ago, I waxed and whined about how weird it was to use cut paper to mimic another medium (in direct opposition to my cardinal rule of paper cuttery). Well, I still feel a little awkward faking sumi-e, but I really liked the result so I decided to try it again. This time, I tried to take it even further, playing around with different shades of grey (and some truly cool new papers) for the bamboo. The tiger’s outside line also got nixed, playing up the natural camouflage /positive/negative aspect that makes this cat so cool. Read the rest of this entry »

Vixen (Inari)

(sold)

December 21, 2009 in Art - Recent Work, Exhibitions & Events, Japan | 11 comments

Vixen (Inari) cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 17.2 x 29 cm ( about 6 3/4 x 11 1/2″ )
medium: cut and torn paper on wood
click here or the image for large-scale foxiness

Blinded by cleverness into seeing only cleverness, undone by our own cunning.

The fox makes a great symbol, from Aesop on up ’til now. No other two-legger or four-legger embodies that same complicated and conflicted mix of clever, cunning, hunger, pride, independence and nobility. They serve beautifully as both hero and villain, sage and fool, in just about every culture. Look at Inari, Japanese god…or goddess of…well, just about everything. Plus, they just look awesome.

Like Words of Carrion Comfort, Vixen is a little bit of an experiment with shape and texture. Where I used mostly color combinations to try to bring out a softness in Carrion, here I combined that with a little bit of torn paper and some translucency.

Vixen (Inari) is also part of The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.

Words of Carrion Comfort

(sold)

December 16, 2009 in Art - Recent Work, Exhibitions & Events, Japan | 9 comments

Words of Carrion Comfort cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 17.2 x 29 cm ( about 6 3/4 x 11 1/2″ )
medium: cut paper on wood
click here or the image to crow louder

If there ever was an argument for spontaneous generation, it is the carrion-craving crow. The park near my home is infested with the big-beaked birds and they are eternally carrying out raids on the neighborhood garbage bags. But for all their ever-present…um, presence, I have yet to see a baby crow. As a boy I collected discarded robin’s eggs, without ever finding the slightest evidence that crows hatch. Instead, they seem to come into the world fully formed and filthy.

My theory is that dark and ominous thoughts float out of our heads and congeal in the upper atmosphere. There they take on feathery form before plummeting back down to earth to caw annoyingly and take part time jobs as evil omens.

I’ve been combining cut paper and wood for awhile now, and I really dig the way the natural textures and colors work together. Lately I’ve been thinking about using different shapes and kinds of wood. This is one of the first experiments in that vein. Something about the rounded shape of the wood felt feminine to me so I’ve been exploring ways to get a softer effect from the hard-edged paper, mostly by way of color combinations.

Carrion Comfort is part of The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.

From the Bamboo Forests of the Night

(sold)

December 2, 2009 in Art - Recent Work, Exhibitions & Events, Japan | 13 comments

From the Bamboo Forests of the Night cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 8 x 10 inches
medium: cut paper on board

Good old William Blake knew what he was talking about. Entangled in the vines and bamboo of the shadowy forest, no other animal has quite the same combination of feline grace and stealthy, coiled threat as the tiger.

虎視眈々 (koshitantan) is a yojijukugo, a Japanese idiom made up of four kanji. In this case, 虎 (ko)=tiger; 視 (shi)=eye or gaze, and 眈々 (tantan; the second character repeats the sound of the first) = to aim with ambition. Together, they mean to wait patiently while ambitiously keeping your eyes peeled for the opportunity to strike. That sure sounds like a tiger to me.

The tiger is the third animal in the Chinese (and Japanese) zodiac. I’m not sure why s/he didn’t just eat the mouse and the cow and grab first place. This particular tiger is also the second preview from The Way of Flow running from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA.

The Flow That Will Not Be Stemmed

November 25, 2009 in Art - Recent Work, Japan, ` | 3 comments

The Flow That Will Not Be Stemmed cut paper art by Patrick Gannonsize: 16 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches ( 42 x 29.7 cm )
medium: cut paper on wood
click here to go with a bigger flow!

Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living.

~Bruce Barton

Art, music, violence, fear, words, confusion; all things flow into and out of us. Thought is a neverending stream, sometimes cold and deep and logical, sometimes ragged white water. We are the source and we are the mouth and we are an anonymous bend along the way. We may try to dam the path and stem the flow but in time the flow wears all things down. The rhythm continues; the flow will go on.

Catch this flow and more from December 4, 2009 – January 2, 2010 at C.A.V.E. Gallery, Venice, CA

The Flow That Will Not Be Stemmed cut paper art by Patrick Gannon Read the rest of this entry »

A Hero Must Know How to Accessorize

October 11, 2009 in Art - Recent Work, W.I.P.s, ` | 11 comments

A Hero Must Know How to Accessorize cut paper art by Patrick Gannon
size: 11 3/4 x 8 5/16″
medium: cut and torn paper on wood
click here to Super-size her!

A superhero uniform has only a minimum of necessary features. Gloves and boots are always a good idea for those whose skin is not made of stone or steel. Capes are optional; not everyone can carry them off. Certain nocturnal avengers may favor utility belts and pouches, while those with metahuman powers would find them superfluous.

The only absolute necessity, the one thing a hero or heroine cannot do without, is an insignia. Their logo. Preferably prominently displayed. After all, what’s a hero without marketing?

It’s fascinating to watch the evolution of the superhero costume over the decades. The dudes’ costumes have become less colorful and more practical with body armor, a plethora of pockets and pouches, and most happily, less spandex. The girls’ uniforms… well, they didn’t exactly toss on a pair of overalls to tussle back in the 30′s. These days, it’s gotta be a challenge for the artists to pinpoint which scrap of cloth they can erase without the whole thing disintegrating into separate atoms.

Below you can see a couple pose studies. Read the rest of this entry »

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