April 2024: Energy

April's artwork is called "Energy", 6'x6' unprimed canvas with Premier interior wall paint.

This past February I was able to visit the MoMA and view Jackson Pollock's One: Number 31, 1950. I have visited the MoMA a few times but have not been struck with Pollock's One: Number 31 like I was this past visit.

Since starting the candle company, I have pushed myself to change mediums and techniques every month. I have a preference for art that is orderly, straightfoward, and not traditionally as abstract is this particular piece. This piece was a challenge because Pollock's techniques are not super well known, I was not able to find much literature or research on how he painted, so I was left to my own antics.

I bought this canvas a while back, on discount at my local art store. I knew that I would eventually like to do a larger piece, but wasn't sure of what.

I was inspired by @dwr's picture of mole.

At first I wanted to use the colour green, to make a Jackson Pollock inspired mole. I thought that was too literal, so I ended picking red. It fit with how I feel about people coming together with energy for FarCon 2024.

I ended up going to the home hardware store and picking up a four pints of paint: red, grey, white, and black, along with four mixing sticks.

I Patrick Bateman'd my apartment and went to work.

Then, I had to find a spot to photograph the huge canvas. I hung it off my balcony and took pictures with a DSLR, since I don't have any empty wall in my house.

After taking a few photos, I brought it back into photoshop and made the picture look like the painting in real life. It's now on Zora and will be available to mint for the next few days. This NFT was also airdropped to everyone who bought FarCandles, or a Humankind Candle this month.

See you next month! Sam.

See the full blog post here: https://humankind.place/blogs/news/april-2024-energy