V.H. asks: "Dear Gurney, I have a question to ask you. It is about your Coke can post from 2013. It is a funny post, but I was wondering if you made this drawing yourself. It looks so much like a drawing I made back in high school. I can see that a name is chopped of in the right corner. According to your blog, it also does not seem to be your style." —V.H.
Dear V.H. Yes, the drawing is by me. I drew it in a beer garden in Ireland in 2004. If you look closely, you'll see "JG 04" in the shaded section at the lower right.
I can't say whether the drawing is my style or not, as I don't think much about style.
But the important thing is that each of us encounters our own world for ourselves with our own eyes.
----
Previous post: Sketching a Coke Can
10 comments:
This reminds me of a Mash-Up of Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol! Or maybe one of Andy’s transitional works between his Soup cans and Car Crashes?
I think you might be on-to a whole new expressive series!! ;) -RQ
Even if it comes out a bit garbled, your lettering is fine as usual.
Ehi, that looks exactly like a can of Coke i had years ago. How did you find my can? :D
Bravo, James!!! Too many artists are so busy comparing their work with others that they forget that the real joy and outright fun is when we " encounter our own world for ourselves with our own eyes".
Oh, James, you are toooo, tooooooo kind. I will add that over the years, I have judged numerous high school competitions (local, regional, state-Congressional, etc.) and I can tell you that even when students are advised not to enter class assignments, the number of "crushed pop can" variations entries always tickles me. I suspect that they are so taken with their new-found skill that they just can't resist entering their crushed pop can art! Chuckle. So believe me when I tell you, V. H., there are thousands of artists, high school or otherwise, who have tried their hand at drawing the image of crushed pop cans. No one needs to "borrow" yours.
I think the answer might me that there are a finite number of ways to crush a coke can! There are bound to be a few that look the same.
There’s something oddly dispiriting about Coke cans in Ireland, in a beer garden, no less.
I know, I know — Coca Cola has been everywhere forever. Still. I suppose it’s when the “world we’re encountering with our own eyes” has blurred into bland homogeneity; the edges of every American town defined by the same franchises — the commercial approach to Anchorage interchangeable with Atlanta — and the pubs of Ireland serving Coca Cola.
So, the logical question; why do I not feel the same way about Guinness bottles in the States...
Everyone lives in their own little delusion, V.H. apparently has taken that to a whole new level
Ironically I just found a painting of a crushed (Diet) Coke can I made in jr high school, in the early 80s. It was a significant find for me, since I was kicked out of the house at 18 and all my student art was destroyed, so I have no record of what I did with art in school. More than 30 years later, cleaning the garage I found my yearbook from jr high and was amazed to find this watercolor study stuck in it.
https://i0.wp.com/cashwiley.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/8th_grade.jpg
Cashwiley, thanks for sharing that. What an amazing (and sad) memory. I've got a little portfolio of my student work going back to when I was 5, and it's really interesting to reconnect with that.
Post a Comment