Yesterday (Thursday February 14th, 2013) my exhibit (at Northern Virginia Community College) was featured in the “Going Out Guide” in the Local Living section of TheWashington Post. It was on page two of the Fairfax Edition of the Local Living section (might only be in the Fairfax Edition?).
They were very generous, giving me a nice big image!
Wasteland: My exhibit featured In the Washington Post.
This exhibit continues to March 17th, I hope you get a chance to come see the work.For more info about the gallery, visit http://www.nvcc.edu/schlesingercenter/
My exhibit Craft and Character: Wasteland will be opening at the fisher gallery on Saturday Feb 9th 3-5pm. This gallery is part of Northern Virginia Community College (in Alexandria VA).
For some of you this might be a great time to see my work in person for the first time!
If you have seen my work, this might be some work you haven’t seen. Almost every one of these drawings is on distressed paper – giving it a rugged aged look. If you came to see “An Exploration of Light” at the Workhouse this summer, you will be happy to know this is all completely different work (Most of it has been hanging out at the Durant Center, for the past year).
I spent over 800 hours drawing these six Pen & Ink drawings. In addition I made special frames that back-light the drawings. This is accomplished by having glass behind the paper and lights built into deep frames. This exhibit was on display at the Workhouse Arts Center during July of 2012.
I am an artist with a unique visual art form that I might call “Neoglyphic” Art. These drawings are made almost completely free-hand through a process of making small shapes or glyphs that build off of one another. These drawings are NOT made by or in a computer, you could even say that these drawings are “written by hand.” Please see my video “Speed Drawing” to see how these are made. These drawings can take as much as two hours per square inch to make.
Some of these drawings take special advantage of the back-lighting, by drawing on both the front and the back of the paper. This creates a hidden layer of the drawing that is only visible when the light is on.
My drawings are typically black and white; however, with light behind the paper it can look like black and gold or black and yellow. Sometimes it looks like I’ve drawn over-top of the black areas with gold (or white) but this is accomplished by not drawing in some areas and letting the paper – and in this case Light- shine through.
Drawings:
-The Dreamer’s Tree
-Identity, Purpose and Significance
-Desert Garden
-Character, Even Under the Shadow of Death
-The Transfiguration
-The Testing of Patience Through the Application of Simple Principles at Various Levels of Scale
This is the debut trailer of the video game I’ve been working on, The Land of Eyas. The video is all from some early development; we’ve taken the graphics even further since we put this together.
As you can see, we’ve used my distinct Pen & Ink style to decorate these stages in the game. My work does translate well from Pen & Ink to game graphics. It is an interesting opportunity to use a traditional medium in a new way. The trees and grass are all drawn by hand on paper first before they become part of the game. Unlike most contemporary games this involves hand-made drawings, not simply digital painting. This gives it a very rich, unique feel.
To learn more about my pen & ink style you might want to look at my other videos or at my portfolio.
On August 5th at 5:00pm my current exhibit at the Workhouse Arts Center will come to a close. This exhibit is the first time I’ve displayed a series of pen & Ink drawings that are all illuminated by lights built into the frames. The drawings are displayed within an installation, where I’ve done my best to reduce light coming into the gallery.
Here are a few nice little moments that you might find within my drawings:
These images are all blown up at least four times larger than life.
It is in fact very difficult to photograph images in the dark… In this most recent exhibit I’ve created an installation where the work is all illuminated from behind, within a dark installation. The show just opened last Saturday night. Please let me know if you have any questions about the show.
Thumbnail from “The Dreamer’s Tree”, pen & ink with light by Matthew Kiehl.
Opening day went very well–over 300 people turned out for the event, making it somewhat crowded at times, despite some rain we had. It was actually the best day for visitors this year. People had a very positive response to my work.
The wall issue did get resolved. It got put up Thursday/Friday. I was able to work through the night to finish installing the show to open on Saturday. I was still kinda fumbling with the curtains as people were coming in.
The show will remain up through August 5th, so if the weather prevented you from coming out there is still a few more weeks left. I will also post some images soon to share with you all.
For more info about the gallery, visit http://www.nvcc.edu/schlesingercenter/
