It's been quite awhile since i've added anything to this journal, but I thought I would put some things here that have been informing my current drawing project- drawing from data- as well as some figure paintings that I've been looking at.
First is Robert Rauschenberg. My art history teacher in Richmond worked for him in his studio for many years. Understandably he talked about his work a lot, and made me really familiar with it. His work responds to advertising and mass production in the 20th century, and the way in which people received new information. Part of his response is to layer many silk screened and stenciled images on top of each other. I am always blown away by how carefully composed and layered all of his works are, while still looking like they happened accidentally over time, like graffiti on a wall that has been added to repeatedly throughout a decade. His layering of text to create areas of high and low density, deep and shallow space, contrast, etc. is what I have been paying attention to while working on the drawing from data project.