Wednesday, August 22, 2007

ASHLEY WOOD'S TELEPHONE LINES

These pictures by illustrator Ashley Wood are a cross between drawing and knife fighting.








Wood is one of those artists whose drawings benefit from controlled accidents. His slashing lines and spattered ink are part skill, part chance and part hydrological experiment. When you work that way, you can't be too picky about your materials. The reverse side of the above drawing shows how some of Wood's more fortunate accidents take place on stray scraps of paper:



I like Wood's work. I like that he seems to draw on every available surface, from the backs of envelopes to waste paper, sometimes taping pages together when his experiment runs out of room.

I find his emphasis on telephone lines in these drawings worth noting for two reasons.






First, they show the importance of individual perception in composing an image. In most photographs, phone wires are so thin and insubstantial they don't even show up. In the following painting Edward Hopper ignores the phone wires:


They are almost never an important compositional element such as Wood has made them. It takes a human brain to fix upon a physically insignificant object and amplify and distort it into a major part of the drawing.

Second, Wood's awareness of the telephone lines reveals the sensitivity necessary to make a "spontaneous" style effective. Despite the vigorous, almost violent appearance of these drawings, it required a subtle eye to notice a detail like telephone lines and a thoughtful mind to play them up this way.

38 comments:

Benjamin Hall said...

These are amazing.

Scraps of paper are the best to draw on... nothing goes to waste.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful, amazing!!!

I Love this works in black and white, so expressive!!!

Very good

Byyeee o/

looks2ce said...

wow - if you have ever seen the Anime Lain - you will recognize those power lines. No - I got that backwards, it is interesting to see the historical antecedant to some of the visual styles in that anime.

's all

Kenn said...

I love this blog David. I think Ashley Wood is amazing, he's matured a lot from his earlier work which IMO was a little too McKean-y

Anonymous said...

Ashley wears all his influences on his sleeve, Kent Williams and Phil Hale are definitely among them.

Lorena's Blogbilingüe said...

Those telephone wires remind me of Chinese characters...interesting how shapes are repeated in the Universe.

Nature Nut /JJ Loch said...

What beautiful artwork and an amazing blog!!!

JJ

Mao:. said...

very beautiful blog...

Anonymous said...

Lovely post and an amazing blog. your narration is also engrossing-like a story. I have added you in my links; hope you dont mind.

Lucky_Star said...

I luv works in black and white!! Your blog's very good! Congratulations!

Silent White Lion said...

The art is very nice! ;3 I like it!

Caos Alfa said...

Jo, que guapos están. Muy buen blog, me gusta mucho.

Saludos.

Dj Pajaczuś i Dj Psitka >>>LOL said...

świetny blog zapraszam do mnie

Pandafante said...

I agree with everyone, very nice blog and an excellent post. I had not seen Wood's work, I think it's very beautiful the way that he manages to express himself among very simple elements.

Anonymous said...

Nice

Simon said...

Cool sketches! They are absolutely amazing.

Oberon said...

......at last, someone who appreciates the line......come see my photographs.

Nate's Wife said...

What a fantastic blog. WHo are you and why are you doing this? Maybe I should read your profile and stuff, but my feet are really cold right now and I better go jam them between my hubby's warm legs. When he wakes up, I will say, There's this cooooool blog you HAVE to see!

Thanks for sharing neat stuff with the world. Good on ya!

Anonymous said...

I love those lines. Yes, many artists sketch on scraps and when they get to be famous, these scraps turn into gold...

Rosaria said...

Ciao! Italiana..bello il tuo blog,d'arte. Anche il mio parla d'arte.
Ti aspetto! Se a te fa piacere.

Renegade said...

Awesome illustrations!!!

Check out Renegade's BS

CrazyCow said...

It's amazing what one can do with just black and white.

Thanks for this.

David Apatoff said...

Kenn and anonymous, I agree with you-- Wood has some strong influences but he seems to have picked good ones. I think the quality of Wood's work has been erratic, but you can see him grow and mature which is the important thing.

David Apatoff said...

To Lorena, nature nut, paola, mao, aj,conceptualmotherfuck, silent, caos, anka and all the other new arrivals: welcome! I am overwhelmed by the new participants who found this humble little blog in the last two days. I am pleased that you found me (especially new friends from overseas) and flattered that you have seen fit to comment. I will be checking out your blogs and web sites. I hope you will return.

David Apatoff said...

Nate's Wife, I think you made the right choice on the best use of your time. Tell poor Nate that he has my sympathies.

Anonymous said...

Am I ever glad to have stumbled in here. I love Wood's drawings and your posts are very interesting.

David Apatoff said...

Crazycow, you have put your finger on one of the recurring themes of this blog. I wake up each morning with my excitement for black and white drawings miraculously renewed.

David Apatoff said...

Welcome, Laurie, and thanks for the kind comments.

Nyfax said...

Thanks, very well done.

I'm reminded of the detail in R. Crumb's drawings.

Anonymous said...

Yes David, I highly agree that Ashley Wood picks good guys to be influenced by. Can't really go wrong with Phil Hale, Kent Williams (frustrating artist for me though), Dave McKean, pretty sure he likes Mike Mignola. I also think he's into the concept artist for the Metal Gear Solid video game series. There's nothing wrong with wearing your influences at all.

leefamous said...

Wonderful blog.

Shore-Leave OIC said...

This art is absolutely amazing. So raw, so true,we often don't appreciate great artist until long after their dead.

Free Online Dating said...

Very innovative and very expressive. Nice work.

dsfdsf said...

Very interesting stuff.

Jenney Ainsworth said...

Thats some great art.

Mark said...

I know I'm a bit late on comenting on this. I count Ashely Wood as being influential to my work. Though his early work is more line art work. The things he's doing now are awesome. Yes 'Anonymous' he is into the artist that did the concept work for Metal Gear because he in fact is that artist. Lastly as far as influences go, don't forget Egon Schiele.

Anonymous said...

nice pics. you took me 15 years back..

Anonymous said...

but, isn't telephone lines, are electrical lines. I see transformators.

Pero, no son lineas de telefono sino de electricidad, en algunos se ven os transformadores y los conectores de alta tensión.