Falling Bubbles
We doing a critical analysis rn (not rly)
This is an age of information. The most informed usually who can best use systems in play.
Theres a sense of accessibility to everything, but within this flood of supply, people are kinda lost to find out what exists. We only go to what we know, because there is so much unknown within the vastness of accessibility. Im not saying its a bad thing at all; a large range of options in anything is very helpful to match the needs of a diverse range of people. In this, we are granted comfortability. In this, we are averse to what we don’t know.
We stay within bubbles of people with common interests and understandings, and close ourselves off to the opportunities around us. I find this a lot with my art mediums. In closing myself off to a select few, I focus on my medium, and start to see my styles change to match more of my online twitter bubble - figurative art with a single central figure, some surreal twists, a texture for a background, and a focus on identity. Maybe a reference to another piece of art, or anime (its not shade at all but there are commonalities between artworks shared in an online bubble). Theres things you can say, and things you cant.
I’ve seen my style change to match the description above, and have been trying to break from it. To escape the information given to me. Escape isn’t the best word, but its more of a desire to grow past it. I’ve found experimenting with different media to add to my works to get out of this. From cloth to stamps, and most recently, silver clay.
Silver Clay is a type of clay that is a mix of fine grains of silver and a flammable binder, that has the consistency and feel of clay, but can be heated with a blowtorch (im playing with fire again its fun as hell) and it turns into silver! Its been cool as hell, but I only got to find out about it at one of my recent art fairs! When I was giving it its first go, I realized how much expanding my bubble has done. Every new media I tried was from seeing art outside of my phone. I found cloth when I was at the Walker Art Museum. I found gold leaf and chains as I studied other contemporary illustrators. I incorporated jewelry into my pieces after studying Mickalene Thomas’s work. And the support for this was through conversations with artists around me.
Pop the bubble you are in and see your art expand. There are opportunities all around, and parsing through all the info thats out there is tough. But by interacting with others, you can learn about what we can do with what we have access to.
Love,
Faraz
ps. this has been a rough week politically. I stand with all liberation movements - my art is for breaking down social structures and calling out overarching beliefs and powers. I used to make very political art, and stopped. Partly as I was in an environment that was not great for my own mental health, and partly because my work was constantly censored online. I want to make political works again, but I am afraid. I will still make them, but damn ima b stress sweating fr
piss. job apps are going well and im still hopeful. Ill be talking abt what the first week in the city was like soon dw :)
https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/unluckiest-people/list?title_no=634651
^ heres some prior political work - i had a webtoon running weekly for like a year+. I learned a lot, but what I wanted to do was not in my skillset, and it became too draining on me. tis wat it is, i doubt ill ever get back to it but it helped me learn about politics, political art, and consistency.
website here babes xoxo