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Motivation&Drive
Identity as an Artist
Motivation
•N; the driving force by which humans achieve their goals
• N; desire to do; interest or drive
Drive
•N; a strong wish for something
• N; active strength of body or mind
SABER/Infamy Artists
• Graffiti and Fine Arts
• 1976-
• “Every single graffiti writer is a manic depressive, insecure person, because that’s the only thing that makes you want to go out and write on somebody’s shit.” - SABER
Claw• Claw
* 1968: Born in Flushing, Queens.
* Late 1980s: Enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Technology and began writing graffiti.
o Had a two-toned, three-nailed “claw” icon to represent her name in her graffiti.
o Wrote all over New York City.
* Mid-1990s: Moved to Los Angeles and began styling music videos for various artists, including Hole, Kom, and D’Angelo.
* Two years later: returned to New York to work in television and print ad styling, working for companies such as Nike, Sector Watches, Guiness, and Footlocker.
* She is a vintage couture aficionado.
* Created a clothing line called Claw Money.
* Collaborates with West FC and Sunglasses on eyewear as well as jewelry.
* Also collaborates on various projects with Calvin Klein, Ecko Red International, and Home Street Home.
* She is a Fashion Director for the magazine Swindle.
Earsnot• Earsnot
* Part of the IRAK crew.
o A distinguished group of downtown New York enfant terribles.
o A crew of graffiti artists that also includes photographers, painters, writers, musicians, filmmakers, professional thieves, chemical dependents.
o IRAK stands for “I rack” which means “I steal”.
o Their motto is “Every night is New Year’s Eve”.
o They offer services as fashion and lifestyle consultants.
o They have a clothing line called IRAK NY.
* A classic graffiti writer, meaning he
o Produces a lot of work.
o Beats down his opponents.
o And is a master at stealing the supplies he needs.
* Openly homosexual.
* Has an arm tattoo of Saddam Hussein with a bulge in his pants.
Enem• Enem
* Over thirty years old.
* He is currently married.
* Was influenced by his teenage years spent in Oakland with his father.
o Once saw a flash of color down an alley way while in the car with his father and made him stop to check it out. It ended up being a huge yard where painters could work undisturbed.
o Met with the most well-known figures in the Oakland graffiti scene and took this knowledge back to Philadelphia with him where he become a leader of a similar scene and ultimately had hundreds, possibly even thousands, of followers.
* The founding art director of Philadephia’s 4,000 square ft., center city Union 237 Gallery.
o Works to bring urban art into galleries.
* Also a rapper in a hip-hop group called B&G Original Authentics.
* Additionally, he is a documentary filmmaker.
o Made the video Street Soldiers, a film about the underground hip-hop and graffiti artists in Philadelphia.
* Once painted the City Hall annex building.
Jase• Jase
* Thirty-five years old.
* Has over twenty year of graffiti under his belt.
* 1991: Moved to San Francisco where he founded the BA crew.
o BA stands for “Burning America”.
o 35 members nationwide.
* Worked on a Japanese fishing vessel for four months in the Bering Sea.
* President of distribution of the spray paint brand Montana Colors.
* Has written his name on nearly forty thousand freight train cars in the United States of America.
Toomer• Toomer
* Mexican-American Chicano man.
* Over thirty years old.
* 1988: Started graffiti as a middle schooler in South Los Angeles.
* Moved to Tijuana after police raided his home.
o At the request of local property owners, he began to paint more elaborate murals with more color.
* Returned to Los Angeles where he painted large legal murals.
* Had to resort to only doing legal murals due to all his convictions.
o Has two strikes and two felonies.
* Korean liquor storeowners give him their walls to paint.
* Painted one building owned by a guy from the Black Panthers.
* Created artwork,such as logos and murals, for various hip-hop artists.
* 1995-2000: Traveled around the United States with various hip-hop artists, creating music videos.
o Artists included Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, MC Eiht, Mack 10, Ice Cube, Maya, Run DMC, Salt n Peps, etcetera.
o Worked for Priority Records Joker Clothing, and Rap Pages Magazine.
* Has been one of the most visible artists in LA for over fifteen years.
Saber
• Saber in L.A., California
Saber• Saber
* 1976: Born in Glendale.
* 1997: Created the largest graffiti painting ever created,
o Measured 250’ x 55’.
o The size of an NFL football field.
o Located on the banks of the Los Angeles River bed.
o Took 97 gallons of paint and a year of carefully planned nights.
o All the supplies had to be carried over barbed wire and through gangland.
o He blew out his knee while working on the project, but still managed to finish it.
* Has created pieces all across the United States, and some in Europe.
* Was asked to create a piece in the diorama exhibit on the Los Angeles River made by Los Angeles Museum of Natural History.
* Started working in art and design, working for companies such as Harley-Davidson, Levis, Maisto, as well as movie sets and music videos for varies artists.
* Customized cars for Hyundai and Scion.
* Did voice-overs in a nation-wide radio commercial for Scion.
* Was flown to Tokyo by MTV to be filmed painting live.
Work• Saber describes graffiti as “The largest
art movement in the history of time”.
• Some problems with graffiti: transient (can be painted over), nameless (few records), considered illegal in most areas
• Is graffiti a destruction of property or a visual improvement?
• LA River piece
• Size: length of a football field
• 97 gallons of paint and 35 nights to complete
On the LA Riverbed...• “Saber was a living legend of Los Angeles graffiti, but when in 1997 he executed
the largest graffiti painting ever created, it made his legend status global at the age of 21. His painting along the sloping cement banks of the Los Angeles River bed measured 250’ x 55’ – nearly the size of an NFL football field – and took 97 gallons of paint and a year of carefully planned nights to complete. Every supply for the LA Riverbed painting had to be hauled over barbed wire and through gangland, then applied without attracting the attention of either the Amtrak or Los Angeles police departments, both of whom patrol the area from the ground and the air. After a year of work, Saber had blown out his knee working on the slanted surface, but completed the painting. His father crept into the desolate area across the River from the giant artwork, and after several chases from gangsters eager to relieve him of his camera, took photos of his son, striding across the surface of his own artwork. Saber is not a small guy, but he doesn’t even fill one of the small holes in the B at the center of his name. The LA Riverbed painting is the centerpiece of Saber’s graffiti career to date, but is one of dozens of pieces that he has executed across the United States (and even a few in Europe) that have become the stuff of graffiti legend, the kind of street fame impossible to build artificially. When the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History made a giant diorama exhibit on the Los Angeles River, it was only fitting to call on Saber to create a monumental piece in it: he was a part of the real thing.”
• Destruction of the LA Riverbed: was painted over (“buffed”) two years ago by decree of city officials
• Undefined- an edit of Shepard Ferry’s work
• Political statements present in both graffiti and fine art works
• “Gold, silver, moon gold leaf, wood”
• SABER’s graffiti is artistically strong, showing a good control of artistic elements and design principles
• Has completed works on canvas and some in three dimensions
Fine Art
• Name still visible on advertisement!
• “Last Stop”, Oil on Canvas
“Tagging is not the same as graffiti art, and...any defacing of property is a felony.”
• Separating “graffiti” from “tagging” allows for new interpretations of street art and a growth in the body of public artwork
• Although most of SABER’s work involves his name, he considers this to be artwork rather than a “tag”; this may be because he works with a “crew” rather than associating himself with a gang and his name is not instantly recognizable due to design
• Images such as American flags, scenes of murders and gang activity, fires, abductions, and “taboo” topics
• SABER’s graffiti is artistically strong, showing a good control of artistic elements and design principles. Does his credibility as a well-known graffiti artist lend his work more meaning?
Process: graffiti• Team effort; carrying supplies, watching
for law enforcement, gang members, etc.
• “Grids” work in mind before applying paint to surface
• Takes longer amount of time due to legal and physical obstacles (LA River piece) as well as size of works
Chuck Close• Photorealism/Superrealism
• July 5, 1940-
• “The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case.”
Biography
• Chuck Close with Self Portrait in progress
Timeline• Chuck Close
* July 5, 1940: Born in Monroe, Wisconsin.
* Took art lessons as a young child.
* Knew he wanted to be an artist at four years old.
* 1951: His father died, his mother became ill with breast cancer, his grandmother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and he himself became ill with nephritis, a kidney infection.
* 1954: Attended an exhibition of Pollack’s work.
o Found inspiration to become a painter from the exhibition.
* 1962: Received his B.A. from the University of Washington School or Art in Seattle.
* 1962-1964: Attended graduate school at Yale University School of Art and Architecture.
o Worked as an assistant for Gabor Peterdi.
o Received his M.F.A.
o Won a Fulbright scholarship to study in Vienna.
* 1965-1967: Taught at the University of Massachusetts.
* 1973: Has his first solo exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
o The exhibition was titled Project 11: Chuck Close/Liliana Porter.
o It included one of his paintings titled Keith/Mezzotint.
* 1975: Created his first lithography (Keither/Four Times) with the help of Jack Lemon and David Keister at Landfall Press.
* 1977: Began creating the plate for Self-Portrait.
* 1978: Began the process of fingerprint drawings.
o Inked his finger and made impressions on a gridded surface.
* 1981: Starts working with Joe Wilfer, a printer and papermaker, at the Dieu Donne Papermill in New York.
* 1983: Begins fingerprinting in color.
o Creates his first colored fingerprint: John/Color Fingerprint.
• * 1973: Has his first solo exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
o The exhibition was titled Project 11: Chuck Close/Liliana Porter.
o It included one of his paintings titled Keith/Mezzotint.
* 1975: Created his first lithography (Keither/Four Times) with the help of Jack Lemon and David Keister at Landfall Press.
* 1977: Began creating the plate for Self-Portrait.
* 1978: Began the process of fingerprint drawings.
o Inked his finger and made impressions on a gridded surface.
* 1981: Starts working with Joe Wilfer, a printer and papermaker, at the Dieu Donne Papermill in New York.
* 1983: Begins fingerprinting in color.
o Creates his first colored fingerprint: John/Color Fingerprint.
* 1985: Creates eleven fingerprints with Deli Sacilotto in Tampa, Florida.
* 1986: Creates his first Japanese-style woodblock print in Kyoto with the help of a printer, Tadashi Toda, and a carver, Shunzo Matsuda.
* 1988: Works on Self-Portrait with Aldo Crommelynck, a well-renowned master printer.
* 1998: A spinal blood clot left him a quadriplegic, confining him to a wheelchair.
o However, he was able to keep painting by strapping a brush his arm and creating portraits in low-resolution grid squares, which appeared as one large image when viewed from far away.
* 1991: Received the Academy-Institute Award in Art from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York.
* 1992: Elected a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York.
* 1993: Works on a linoleum cut print at Tandem Press in Wisconsin with
* 1998: A spinal blood clot left him a quadriplegic, confining him to a wheelchair.
o However, he was able to keep painting by strapping a brush his arm and creating portraits in low-resolution grid squares, which appeared as one large image when viewed from far away.
* 1991: Received the Academy-Institute Award in Art from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York.
* 1992: Elected a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York.
* 1993: Works on a linoleum cut print at Tandem Press in Wisconsin with Wilfer.
* 1994: Received Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Colby College.
* 1995: Received Honorary Doctor of Fine Art from University of Massachusetts.
* 1996: Received Honorary Doctor of Fine Art from Yale University.
* 1997: Received Honorary Doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Alumnus Summa Launda Dignatus from the University of Washington.
* 1998: The Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted an exhibition of his portraits.
* 1999: Produces Self-Portrait I and Self-Portrait II.
* 2000: Created two soft-ground etchings (Lyle and Self-Portrait/Scribble/Etching Portfolio).
* 2000: awarded the National Medal of Arts.
* 2002: Completed Japanese woodblock print (Emma) after two years of work.
* August 12, 2010: Appeared on The Colbert Report.
* Currently lives, and continues to paint, in Bridgehampton, New York.
• * 2000: Created two soft-ground etchings (Lyle and Self-Portrait/Scribble/Etching Portfolio).
* 2000: awarded the National Medal of Arts.
* 2002: Completed Japanese woodblock print (Emma) after two years of work.
* August 12, 2010: Appeared on The Colbert Report.
* Currently lives, and continues to paint, in Bridgehampton, New York.
Work
• Early self portrait:
• Paintings, prints, and photography
• Began with black and white studies of faces
The Incident
• After suffering injury to his spinal cord on December 7, 1988, Close began to do work in a different way, using grids and a higher amount of color
• Work now relies on the viewer to see the object rather than creating something that is necessarily “photorealistic”
Process• Uses grid to map out placement of
features in portraits with help of assistants
• Preliminary media used to create basic shapes and then later filled with paint (oil and acrylic)
• Because of disability, uses a brush attached to his wrist brace and his other hand to keep it steady
• Choice of color: uses various colors based on preference rather than observation
• From a distance, colors perceived as one hue
• Up close, colors composed of dots and shapes of many hues
• Each painting can take up to four months to complete due to labor intensive process
• Due to loss in range of motion of his hand, Close works slowly in order to ensure precision
• “I am going for a level of perfection that is only mine...most of the pleasure is in getting the last little piece perfect” -Chuck Close
Identity• Both SABER (and the other graffiti
artists) and Close include aspects of their own identity in their work and achieve a photorealistic quality
• SABER: uses name in murals and paints aspects of his residence (Los Angeles)
• Close: self portraits and portraits of family and friends
