Saturday, June 2, 2012

Design out of context

It always fascinates me to see what happens when a portion of a design is removed from context to stand alone. Sometimes it makes the fragment look complex and sometimes it just looks contrived.

So, I was very pleased to see the hearts for JOY Jam from a tattoo-looking stencil. This is way out of my comfort zone, but while thinking about how to make hearts to appeal to the mostly male population of co-workers, my friend Bill (he's "Bill-iant") became the inspiration.

Bill is young enough to be my son, about 6' 3", and a musician. He's smart, interesting, comes from a very different background than I, and has tattoos that take my breath away. They (the tattoos) tell a story of the battle between good and evil and extend from his lower calf to up over his shoulder—at least the parts that are visible. 

Searching through my stash of kewl stencils, this one caught my eye. It kind of looks like what I think a tattoo should look like—and the rust-dyed fabric with pale tannic-acid grays was the perfect background.



Here they are cut out!! How amazing are these? I think even the über cool Bill will like them.





The heart count is now 29 toward the goal of 100 hearts for JOY Jam! There is still a long way to go, but this afternoon in the studio has been quite productive and I'm happy!

Anyone else have photos of their JOY Jam hearts to share yet?

1 comment:

Grasshoppa's Art Adventures said...

like this one and yes Bill will certainy like them. Nice to see stuff geared to guys!