20/20 Vision, Second Edition

The Art of Contemporary University Printmaking

Brandon Horton

My art is characterized by an abundance of static and non-static marks, precise compositions, and long concentrations that are all employed in a methodical manner, to create a slow and rhythmic pace. The titles evoke a pensive atmosphere of romance, grieving, love, life and death. Using both the negative and positive space, I create an image of ‘cutting’ in the literal and metaphorical sense. Psychology plays a deep role into creating my pieces, and also in understanding them. I use the drawn line to make up my pieces; each mark represents a unique concentration of thought that psychologically relates to the title of the work. Each piece, however, has a rhythm that stands alone.

I find that I have a compulsive need to draw and make marks with whatever materials or tools that I have at my disposal. I also feel that mark making is a natural human urge, and I take on this concept obsessively. I reject the functional model of mark making, and do not draw to illustrate, depict, or copy existing things. My goal is to redefine mark making and drawing in my work. These drawings are composed of varying graphite lines, that when put together, make up a plane of shading. I like how the lines are supplemented into form, and make volume out of the negative. The holes that are in my pieces are strictly just another way of making a mark.

Other issues that figure into my art-making are elements such as weight, color, and space. The ‘weight’ found in my pieces comes from both the size of the forms and lines, and the spatial tension that is created by the placement of the forms in my work. The idea of the ‘vessel’ as a shape or form is something that is important to me as well. The vessel serves as a vehicle for form that will carry the lines to a finished point. They complete the lines giving them a beginning and an end. Although I use color very sparingly in my work, each hue means something to me. Its use is completely cathartic, and chosen for the nature of its being. Space is also a factor in my work; it can be very vast and open, or very closed and claustrophobic.

Repetition- the patterns of actions and stimuli that make up daily living- dominate my life. It is in the image as well as in the kinetic action of drawing or making marks. Repetition is also something that I feel relates to printmaking, especially in my work and I feel that it accommodates my drawing style better than any other medium. There is just something that I enjoy more about a printed line than a painted one.

I feel that everything in life relates to drawing and that my work challenges people to rethink what is drawing as well as reconsider our presuppositions of what art is; to confront the ‘ can’t anyone do this?’ syndrome. I take all of these views into account by the simplistic nature of my work. My art is small and intimate and I am trying to draw the viewer into my work as well as make them reconsider their place in this world amongst the millions of other people in it. Time is also a factor of my work. I enjoy things that take a long time to accomplish and it does take a long time for the emotion of my pieces to set in.