Earlier this year I completed four new ink transfer drawings for the series Junior High School.
Junior High School Series: New Drawings
I've just completed four new ink transfer portrait drawings for the series Junior High School. I continue to go through my old junior high school yearbook to find unusual or incomparable-looking classmates to base drawings on.
Go to: www.williamdeanreynolds.com/Series/Junior High
Photo Book: Sitting on My Bed 1979
In August 2017 there was an eclipse of the sun. In preparing for its viewing at our house in the Hudson Valley two hours north of New York City, I got out of a storage closet binders that contained hundreds of black-and-white and color negatives with accompanying contact sheets dating from around 1978 to 1992.
When I was a child we used multiple layers of negatives to view sun eclipses so I figured I could find several dark negatives to use. Come to find out on further investigation of safe eclipse viewing that you should never use film negatives to view eclipses as it could damage your eyes. Ha! That might explain my two cataract surgeries. So, I used the pinhole technique to view the eclipse instead.
Since I had the binders out I thought it might be a good idea to digitize my favorite photographs, so I painstakingly went through all of the images and selected the ones I wanted to scan and preserve in our modern digital realm. Then it dawned on me that I could organize some of the images into three photo books. I gathered up the negatives and miscellaneous color slides and sent them off to be scanned.
After uploading hundreds of scanned images, I adjusted and resized each one in Photoshop. I then designed the layout of the first book SITTING ON MY BED 1979, selecting and organizing the images in a sequence, wrote an introduction, designed a cover, and sent it off to be printed. Then I waited patiently for the books to arrive in the mail and was seriously excited when the package arrived.
During the summer of 1979 I moved into a sublet and shared a house on Ann Street in Ann Arbor, MI with five women, most of whom I knew from the residential co-op that I lived in the previous two years. Between the co-op and my copying job, I had made a lot of friends. At some point during the summer I decided to photograph some of the people that I’d gotten to know. The only place I could think of to take their photographs was my small bedroom at the end of a long hall on the second floor of the rental house. The room had a single window facing west with a single bed along a wall adjacent to the window. I convinced the five young women living with me to participate in my project. I then asked co-workers from the copy shop and friends from the co-op.
This was a series of portrait photographs that became a jumping off point to a serious life in art. It was also the beginning of my interest in portraiture. The portrait photographs I took on my bed in the summer of 1979 were eventually used for portrait drawings that I began working on in 1983. Friends and companions have become convenient subjects for the large portrait drawings I’ve done since then.
Altered Subway Posters
I continue to come across altered subway posters as I travel from place to place in New York City. These posters are ripped, shredded and basically messed with which expose the previous pasted advertisements underneath. These panels then become abstract works of collage on subway platforms.
Two Drawing in an Art Book
I just received the art book that I have two drawings in called Strokes of Genius 9, an annual survey of drawings. The two drawings are: The Lovely Jungian Analyst, an orange scribble portrait of my wife Laurel; and Mysterious Italian with Matches, a portrait of a young man drawn on black museum board.
David and Johnny
I initially wanted to do a scribble portrait of David Byrne (Talking Heads). After seeing a documentary of the punk guitarist Johnny Thunders (New York Dolls, The Heartbreakers), I re-imagined the piece using portraits of these two important musician/songwriters of the late 70s early 80s New York music scene. Two distinct personalities. Two musical genres (American punk and new wave). I like the color combination as well.
David and Johnny
Colored pencil, watercolor and ink on board, 20" x 32", 2015
Junior High School Series: New Drawings
I've just completed four new ink transfer portrait drawings for the series Junior High School. I continue to go through my old junior high school yearbook to find unusual or incomparable-looking classmates to base drawings on.
Go to: www.williamdeanreynolds.com/Series/Junior High
American Photobooth Photographs
A few highlights of my collection of photobooth photos...
German Photobooth Photographs
Since I've always been fascinated by portraiture of all styles and mediums, I found myself collecting photobooth photographs from the 1940s through the 1960s. I discovered a guy in Berlin who sells interesting photobooth photos online. Below are a few of my favorite photobooth portraits from Germany.
Southbury Trees No. 9 Painting
Late last spring I was given an opportunity to do a large painting when a friend of mine in Ann Arbor commissioned me to do another painting in the Southbury Trees series of art works that depict trees along a horizontal expanse. As I planned the painting, I decided to take still photos of the painting as I worked to build up the composition using my iPhone and a time-lapse video app.
As I worked through the summer and into the fall, I continued to document the process of doing the painting. Hand-holding the camera created additional movement as did the repositioning of the equipment and supplies on and adjacent to the easel.
I completed the painting just prior to my deadline. I packed the piece and Laurel and I drove the painting to Michigan and hung the painting on Thanksgiving morning before heading to my sister's house for Thanksgiving dinner with family.