Seventy Five Choices....

Wow!

I've been working with only a few permutations of background color, shape, and style and have already come up with 75 interesting designs from this process. At this point, it's time to choose the nine (!) that will become part of the exhibition at Art Expo.

I'm examining various types of software that will allow me to let my friends and colleagues vote on the most interesting pieces. These choices will show up on primaryblackandwhite.info, while the most popular pieces will be printed.

I had some interesting Web site hosting challenges, as I thought that I'd be able to host the domain "blog.primaryblackandwhite.info" and "primaryblackandwhite.info" at different places. This seems not to be the case. In any case it's fixed and this blog will be hosted separately and linked to from the main site.

The Meaning of "Primary, Black and White"

"Primary, Black and White" is the title of my new series of work. The title refers to the process of creating this series using a limited color palette; namely, the colors blue, red and yellow -- also known as the "primary colors" -- and black and white.

The title also refers to Alexander Theroux's book, The Primary Colors: Three essays that explore the qualities and extol the virtues of blue, red and yellow.

The work in this series will be created using the Englyph Writing System, translating selected text from the book into my unique visual  writing method.

Selected works in the "Primary, Black and White" series will make their debut at Art Expo New York 2011, March 25-27, 2011 at Pier 94 on the Hudson river in New York City.

Options and Constraints....

As this is my second full Englyph-based series (the first being Fifty Gifts), I choose to learn by doing (something I do best). I chose to reduce my color palette to the three primary colors in order to work within a set of constraints (a practice I also enjoy).

This project will consist of images made with the colors red, yellow, blue and black and white. Each Englyph "word" can have numerous colors within it, and the background of the image will be a flat color chosen from the aforementioned array of colors.

There are other image-building considerations, as well. I have chosen to work with Latin alphabet-based glyphs made  using the glyph-building rules of Englyph in three shapes: circles, squares and rounded squares. In addition, the glyphs can be drawn as solely outlines, solely filled shapes or a combination of those.

This leaves us with numerous possible combinations of shape, color, and style. I'll list them all, again:

Colors:

• Red
• Blue
• Yellow
• White
• Black

Picture Elements:

• Englyph Words
• Backgrounds

Shapes:

• Circle
• Square
• Rounded Square

Style:

• Outline
• Filled
• Filled & Outline

I've been looking at my options, in terms of which images I will make, given the permutations that are possible with these options.

About This Blog...

Documentation is an important part of any process-based art practice. In the past, I have kept the studio and my thought processes apart from my presentation of the work.

This project will be different. Even though I have done a good bit of preliminary thinking and work on "Primary, Black and White," I am now going to make the process more evident through documentation, of which this blog will be a major component.

I am also interested in making this project more of a participatory conversation, to a degree. More of this I will discuss, later...

In The Thick Of Things....

From the few screenwriting books I've read, it's important at the beginning of a story to drop the audience right in the middle of the action.

That's where I am, now-- smack in the middle -- working on the art work for my new series, "Primary, Black and White."

I've been doing the tedious work of arranging the "word glyphs" that will form the complete images I am creating for the Art Expo New York 2011, an art fair in which I'll be participating from March 25 - 27 at Pier 94 in New York City.

I am creating nine images, each at the size of twenty by twenty-four inches wide and tall, respectively. These images will be hung in the five feet by ten feet booth which I will occupy, at the Fair.

Booth 189, to be exact. I'm quite thrilled and quite nervous, as well.

There are many administrative tasks to accomplish, along with making the art, but for now, I'd have it no other way. Who is to say that all of the activities surrounding the art practice cannot be subsumed into and considered a part of the practice, itself?