VECTOR ARTIST POST: Dan Mumford

ARTIST POST~ DAN MUMFORD

When I typed in the search bar for "vector artists", Dan Mumford's art work immediately caught my  eye. His use of vibrant and highly saturated vectors against bold, pitch black lines really bring his pieces to life. He is a freelance illustrator based in London, England and has made a line of clothing called Mumford clothing as well as prints that are available through his website (linked below). 

Many of his works are seemingly deeply rooted in narrative, containing a sort of esoteric quality to them. For example, the print titled Blood Sample was influenced by the novel "Blood Sample" as well as a live musical performance. The negative space of the black areas creates an ethereal and soft focus on both faces in the composition. Their faces feel as if there were a fire lighting them from within and the yellow hues outlining their faces. Many of his other works use these sort of complex, detailed vectors to create light and shadow as well as depth of space. Looking at these works, I hope to emulate the sort of ebb and flow kind of vector art that Mumford is going after by using negative space to emphasize specific vectors more than others. Also, the highly texturized and emotional depth I feel when viewing these works is also something that I want to capture in this upcoming Project.

Blood Sample

Ghostbusters 2

Radiant Dusk

Radiant Dusk (detail)

Reference Links

1. Dan Mumford's website where all images and biographical information come from: http://www.dan-mumford.com

2. Interview about Mumford Clothing: http://iamthetrend.com/2010/05/19/we-interview-illustrator-and-owner-of-mumford-clothing-dan-mumford/

Musical Line Drawing

Portrait Images

Artist Blog Post: HAROLD COHEN

His work being exhibited in many major museums, Harold Cohen is a well-renowed computer science artist. Cohen developed an impressive machine called AARON that can compose it's own paintings. He started producing art in the late sixties, around the time that computer programming was under the radar. He taught this robot how to create every thing from black and white abstractions to complex human anatomy and animals. This is whats called "procedural knowledge", where Cohen tells the robot what it knows, and then AARON decides what to do with that knowledge. Others claim that AARON is very creative but Cohen argues that just because something has a brain doesn't mean it is creative. 

Computers are not living beings who experience life and emit emotions of all kinds. This machine that he created really struck me as an amazing reminder that even though we have such close and intimate relationships with technology, they will never be human, just a puppet of one's ingenuity. Maybe in that sense, if Cohen wanted to, he could try to make AARON human-like, but I don't think that is what he was going for. 

It was almost as if the program said, ‘Stop telling me how to do things. Tell me what you want done and I’ll do it my way.’— artist Harold Cohen on AARON

Secret

1964

Oil and acrylic on canvas

King

1964

Oil on canvas

Mother and Daughter

2002

Painting created by AARON

Standing Figure with Decorated Background

1993

Oil on Canvas

Meeting on Gauguin's Beach 

1988

Painting by AARON

References---->  1. http://www.studio360.org/story/220056-robopainter/; Backstory on the AARON

2. http://www.artnet.com/artists/harold-cohen/; Works of Harold Cohen

3. http://viewingspace.com/genetics_culture/pages_genetics_culture/gc_w05/cohen_h.htm; Explanations of how the AARON works

Signature on Illustrator

Project #1: Growth and Deterioration

E x p e r i m e n t a l S c a n z

               I had fun making these experimental scans! 2 of these images are very clear and crisp, which makes them outliers but that is ok with me. I wanted to work with interesting compositions and see how abstract I could make an object by distorting it as much as I can! I found quite a few ads for anti-wrinkle creams in one of my magazines and I loved how distorted the word "WRINKLE" became next to the woman's face. Overall, I love all of these images for different reasons and hope to complete more experimentzzzz in the future!