Ray Hall's Mixed Media Drawings

April 30, 2010

Ray Hall Working Through

Artists that deal with heroes or religion, such as Leonardo Da Vinci or Drew Struzan, have always influenced me. Their work takes me to a world where I know what to expect; a world where morality is clear-cut. Picasso is different. I didn't respect his work until I matured and grew a deeper understanding of art. Now he is one of my most prominent influences.

In Picasso's work I am interested in his process of abstracting subject matter and his use of different media. He painted many images of a bull's figure and a bull's skull, but Picasso also made a bull's head out of a bicycle seat and handlebars. He worked with what he saw and made it his own by focusing on his inner reality, painting many different perspectives in a flat image. This echoes with me because I always drew from my own observations, whether from a television show or from a pot of flowers in my grandmother's kitchen, but I didn't know why. Picasso showed me that I needed to work from my own reality. Part of the search for my own reality has had me looking at pictures of my many family members that have served in the military. The figures in the pictures have made their way into my drawings, usually as silhouettes of their army portraits.

This current group of drawings came from a still life that I built in the studio. To make the still life, I used old objects I found in my room or on campus that were no longer of use to anyone else. As an anchor for these, I built a cardboard bull's head with horns of cast iron table legs. I arranged the still life in a semi-abstract way, hoping the drawings I made from it would allow a viewer to come up with his or her own story.

I start the drawings with a light charcoal rendering. I then add color, using paint, ink, and pastels without restricting myself to stay inside the charcoal lines. I work in layers, leaving some areas obscure and rendering others with more clarity to have different effects on the viewer. Layering on paper is a faster and more casual process than painting on canvas. It allows for easy changes and encourages me to learn from those changes. Instead of painting like Da Vinci, I feel I am using my own voice in inventive ways. By treating each area in a distinct way, I try to engage a viewer's eye to stay fixed on the painting but not on any one area inside the painting.

I am combining religious imagery, the bull still life and my own family history to reflect on my search for religious belief and for true heroes. I am asking my viewers to examine their own idols and what they hold to be true.

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