I picked this off Instagram several months ago and I'm wondering how I can qualify my ardent affection for it? What can I say? As the jazz guys used in yesteryear:
"If you can't dig, I can't help ya"
But in the meantime I don't know who the artist is, alas.
(Addendum!, an astute reader, fellow artist, and also a friend too, emailed me the name of the heretofore unknown artist whom he found on the net through a process called reverse Google?? Anyway, the artist is Jochem Rotteveel, and somehow it makes perfect sense (and I have absolutely no idea why) that he be Dutch, and from The Hague! But I thank David Hickson for his input)
What do I like about it?? Always a good question! I like that it was designed in a colourful and wonky kind of paper/plastic seal but constructed as a bona fide Painting. It has a curious sort of unity that relates all the different elements together almost as if it were a sovereign flag representing a really cool but homeless community of graphic designers.
The colour harmony works well as do the shapes and sizes of each of these coloured pieces. It has all the elements I love in a picture but it also shocks in an amusing way. It is unified! That is to say that all the separate coloured elements come together to form something as one, indivisible. Great!
"What's not to like??" as my Uncle Boris from Odessa would say with a shrug?
Looking at it, I begin to wonder if its origin isn't from a simplified design blown up from an image on Photoshop or Illustrator then put through a filter rendering it, and spitting it out in chunky pieces of colour and zoomed in.
But hey!,,,, what do I know?,,,,, I'm just a guy from Odessa who likes irony.
Hi Boris! Jochem here. Thank you for this brilliant analysis of my work. I love it when my work ends up in surprising locations, like for instance your colorful blog. In terms of the inspiration: I always make sketches first, with foil on paper. The compositions are abstractions from fictional interiors or landscapes. As was the case with this one. I bring the sketches to the specific location and rework them into the final installation. It's funny you mention jazz, because music (hip hop, jazz, electronic dance) always plays a big part in the creation. Thank you for posting this really nice blog post. Good luck with your blog!
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