Tag: rooster

NEW “Rooster – Art Deity” WOODCUT FOR 2023/2024 – INCEPTION TO DRAWING EXPLAINED

1. How It Started:

  • My art colleague Calvin at M Street were having a simple conversation and chose to take one of the top selling images in the world, the rooster, and do a work incorporating that image into it.

2. How I Determined the Narrative Focus:

  • I knew that I wanted to express the public’s obsession with the rooster as the “deification of the rooster.”
  • I referred back to biblical iconography of the past and my experiences in churches around all of Europe that I have been too. At that point, I knew I had a concept. To put the rooster into some sort of Christian biblical iconography.
  • So, the questions that came to mind were:
    • Which imagery to use?
    • How do I express the idea and not be derivative in my work?

 3. How it Became a Drawing:

  • ROOSTER = First, I had to determine which rooster I wanted to use in the work. For me, I like to educate the public whenever possible so I chose the Barbu D’Uccle rooster – a Belgian breed of bearded bantam chicken.
  • Then, I had to figure out what surrounding imagery to incorporate. I knew I wanted to try a mylar balloon since artists in Asia have been doing works with them for a few years and I loved the look and the challenge of doing something new and not common in American works.
  • Once I had the rooster floating as an image on a mylar balloon I knew it had to be flying in the heavens to really bring about that biblical feel. This would put the rooster, a false god and impermanent image at that, in the same position we see Christ as the public deifies the rooster.
  • The clouds, the background was to be the challenge. I strive to not do imagery that other printmakers do. So, the clouds had to be my own design and something new to printmaking. I found numerous references to dramatic skies and decided to use those to render my own design that pushes the rooster balloon forward and feels biblically dramatic. I draw on the block loosely so it is drawn in just like a rough sketch, AND THE CHALLENGE is to cut that and render it with strong tonal values and drama with dark and light.
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