In Honor Of - Nov. 2016
Project Three
“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” - Aristotle
Beautiful Mind
Ink on Paper
Beautiful Mind
Ink on Paper
Top Left: Bloodshot
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Bottom: Fangs
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Top Right: Hallucinations
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Random Reflection
This piece is in honor of Harry Yeff, widely known by his artist name Reeps One, who is known for his award winning beat-boxing skills. In addition to being considered one of, if not the best beat-boxer in the entire world, he is also a brilliant freestyle abstract artist. I first discovered Yeff through his beat-boxing videos online when I was learning to beatbox. When I was in eighth grade, I was a member of my schools all-female (mainly because no guys wanted to join) a cappella group. Originally, I sang the part of the bass because of my deep vocal range. One day, my teacher approached me and asked if I could beatbox for the group. At first I didn't want to, mainly because I didn't really feel like investing any of my time in learning a new skill, but eventually I gave in and told him that I would at least try. So what did I do? I learned how to beatbox. One of my main inspirations for beatboxing was Reeps One. The first time I heard him, I was amazed. How could anyone do that with their voice? And that's how I discovered the gem that is Reeps One.
P.S. I'm actually a decent beatboxer now. I pretty much do it all the time, sometimes without even realizing what I'm doing. Plus, it's a pretty good party trick.
The main reason why I wanted to do a piece in honor of Reeps One is not because of his beatboxing skills or his amazing artwork (although those two aspects of his identity did come into play when creating my piece), but because of the message that he tries to portray through his artwork: the idea embracing one's differences and ignoring the stigma that may surround differences that you have. When he was a child, Yeff was diagnosed with Dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder. Because of this, he spent years feeling different, especially in school, where he was labeled by teachers as “disorderly”. Similarly, I was diagnosed with ADHD and OCD and I have felt isolated in the same way that Yeff felt during his years in the education system. Because of the people around me, including teachers as well as peers, I have felt different, unwanted, dumb, and not as worthy as other students. Reeps One did an entire exhibition surrounding his ADD called ADO: Attention Deficit Order. In this exhibit his main message was to embrace the way your mind functions. This message hit home with me. People have spent so much time telling me why I'm dysfunctional and why it is bad, but, if I wasn't so dysfunctional, my brain wouldn't function the way it does. I wouldn't be me, and you know, I kind of want to be me. I mean if I wasn't me, my art wouldn't look as it does, now would it? For me, this project acts as a representation of my own mind, since it was so natural and on the spot. It showcases how my mind works at times. It's all over the place.
“ADO is a play on ADD. Changing ‘Dis-Order’ to ‘Order’ is simply a fact of life for me in adulthood. The qualities in school I was told to be incorrect have led to the very work here at the ADO exhibition, and successes throughout my adult life.”
“My message is simply: do what you need in education, but in adult life you should embrace and work with how your mind naturally functions. Dyspraxia, autism, ADHD and ADD are only labels and people are more than these terms imply. My development as an artist is proof of that.”
Because I wanted to embrace how my mind naturally functions, the main purpose of this project was to free draw; to just let my hand go and my mind run wild. Therefore, what I did was very technical and it very much wasn't perfect. But there was one technique I used to obtain the results I wanted. When drawing the lines, shapes and circles, I used a heavy amount of pressure when applying the ink. This is because I have an extremely shaky hand, so if I try to draw really fluidly, the lines appear unruly and "unkempt". Since I was starting with the final and not a rough draft (and I was drawing with a pen so whatever I drew was essentially permanent), I had to make sure that everything I drew was as close to perfect as I could fathom. This is why I used a heavy amount of pressure. Other than that, the only technique involved was the technique of having no specific technique. I was free.
Reeps One, the person who I was honoring in the creation of these pieces, was the artist I used for inspiration. First, I used his style and process as inspiration. His process for drawing is very similar to his process for composing musical routines - very fluid and organic. He will start out with a main idea that will evolve and sometimes completely change throughout the creation of each sketch. He calls it an “amalgamation” of many ideas in one drawing. When describing his style, he likes to use the metaphor of a sketchbook. When someone is drawing and turns the page in a sketchbook, it signals the start of a new idea; a new drawing. For Yeff, instead of turning the page, he starts other drawings within his current drawing, making the progression of his pieces very natural. So this is what I did. I let my mind go. Every time I had a new idea that might have been separate from what I started with, I would add it anyway. It resulted in three chaotic yet, at the same time, cohesive pieces.
Because everything I drew was off the top of my head, the evolution of my piece was very organic. It was very liberating to be able to create and not have to think about what you're doing. I literally didn't do any hardcore thinking whatsoever. It was all in the moment. No reference pictures. No outlines. Just me, a pen, and a piece of paper. However, before I truly delved into abstraction, I based each piece off a single feature. Fangs was centered around mouth and Bloodshot and Hallucinations were centered around eyeballs (each of the items that the pieces are centered around involve an aspect of Yeff's identity. The eyes are a representation of his visual art, since eyes can "visualize" and the mouth is a representation of his music (beatboxing) since he composes music just with his voice). From then on, I just drew, adding in weird designs and patterns as I pleased. Any time I messed up, I would just cover it with something else (hence the abundance of black squares and spaces in all the pieces).
If I could do something over, I would have used better ink. For this project, I used what I had at my disposal which was a Pilot G2, and even though they are great pens for taking notes, I had trouble with mine when I was trying to draw. Sometimes the ink would apply in unruly patches and other times it wouldn't come out at all. Also, because of the nature of gel pens, the ink smeared in many different places that I had to attempt t conceal. Maybe, if I had the money, I could have bought artist pens. Also, in the future, I hope to continue building on this piece, creating a collection of abstract works that really reflect the inner workings of my brain.