Would you like to see my creative process?
My use of 7HE SMI7H name to create my art not only refers to my telling of different creation stories, but also refers to my own creation process as an artmaker. Each of my yearly themes revolves around series of seven. I find that even some socially conscious artwork that addresses social class ends up making art about poor people, but rarely for poor people, thereby ironically adding to the exploitive gaze of the upper classes. In order to make my artwork accessible to viewers to diverse economic strata, I borrow the production methods and verbiage of the most widely used aesthetic art: fashion. Approaching the visual arts of painting and printmaking as “wall clothes” allows me to provide quality handmade art that is more financially attainable to a larger audience. So Over the course of a year, 7HE SMI7H puts out a line that is use as a visual storytelling device.
1 line
each year.
Each yearly line consists of seven collections that are each seven weeks in length. To make each collection I create multiple versions of each image. For example, the line about the artist Andy Warhol’s photographs of other artists (from The Creator and the Creatives) will be executed over a year. One of the seven collections will consist of different images based on Warhol’s photographs of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
7 collections
each line.
Each line that is comprised of seven collections, is further composed of seven pieces per collection. One art piece is released every week (seven days). The weekly units are variations on the collection’s subject (in the case of Andy Warhol’s photographs of other artists, the Basquiat collection is made of seven weekly takes on Jean-Michel Basquiat. All the pictures use the image at the lowest price point as the template for the higher price points. With this model the last is considered first and the first is considered last, in that the most economical price point receives the greatest consideration and design, while the highest price point is deemed as such due to the units of labor used to complete. The pricing of my labor per unit starts at $100, so my most economical pieces start at $100.
7 pieces
each collection.