Themes in Art; Sequential Art

When I was a kid the artists I most wanted to be like were illustrators and comic book artists.  I would spend hours poring over and copying illustrated books of “Treasure Island,”by N.C. Wyeth “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe,” and of course “Spider Man,” “Batman,” “Strange Tales” and horror genre comic books.  I love both the stories and the drawings.  As a twelve year old I designed my own comic book characters (Catman) and borrowed from the library all the books they had on comic art.  These guys were so good and I was so unable to draw what I had in my mind that by high school I had convinced myself that I did not have enough talent to draw figures well enough to make a good comic book or even a passable illustrator.  I actually was an Art History major in college and in went for an MFA in so called “fine art” as one of my graduate degrees.  Now at the age of forty-five I’m a “fine artist” who is still trying to make my own comic book, my latest series of paintings called “Sequential Narratives.” are my own monumental comic book pages.  This time however, I need you, the audience’s help to tell my story.

The stories in paintings are left deliberately ambiguous or open ended enough that the viewer has to have a stake in interpreting the story and adding meaning to it.  Even though the paintings are painted realistically with a lot specific details, in a definite narrative sequence, I invite the viewer to interpret or negotiate their own story or meaning for the painting or series of paintings(s) as in “The Party.”  You may know exactly who those people are and what they are talking about, but, you may want to check with your friend to make sure you agree.  You may not though.  


More on sequential art later.
To see more of my sequential paintings please visit:
http://www.kenney-mencher.com/catalog/sequential.htm


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Similar blog posts about technique and the use and misuse of art history:

• Rembrandt, Self Portraits and Me 
• Rembrandt, Matisse and Me
• Henri Matisse and Me
  
• Marcel Duchamp, Rrose Selavy, Mona Lisa, and Me
• Giacomo Balla and Me
• John Singer Sargent, Caravaggio and Me 
• Velasquez and Cherise
• N.C. Wyeth, Chuck and Me
• Me and Hopper: A Certain Slant of Light
• My Use and Abuse of Photo Reference 
• Themes in Art; Sequential Art 

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N.C. Wyeth, Chuck and Me

“Chuck’s Frolic” oil on linen canvas 40”x30”

So the other day I my post dealt with some of the influences regarding Edward Hopper and Emily Dickinson, but, one of my all time favorite illustrators was N.C. Wyeth and so I thought it might be cool to show you my use and abuse of his work as well.  My students always ask me if this is plagiarism. I guess in twentieth century way it probably could be considered copyright infringement, but, in an art historical sense it’s standard practice.  For example look at Cimabue and Giotto, separated at birth?

So here’s a painting of Robin Hood by N.C. Wyeth.

Here is a  reference photo I took of my little guy, Chuck, playing with another Chihuahua names Angel.  This one is actually a Adobe Photoshop collage I did to work out some compositional bugs.

 Here’s my finished painting of “Chuck’s Frolic” oil on linen canvas 40”x30”

________________________________________________
Similar blog posts about technique and the use and misuse of art history:

• Rembrandt, Self Portraits and Me 
• Rembrandt, Matisse and Me
• Henri Matisse and Me
  
• Marcel Duchamp, Rrose Selavy, Mona Lisa, and Me
• Giacomo Balla and Me
• John Singer Sargent, Caravaggio and Me 
• Velasquez and Cherise
• N.C. Wyeth, Chuck and Me
• Me and Hopper: A Certain Slant of Light
• My Use and Abuse of Photo Reference 
• Themes in Art; Sequential Art 

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