devildogart53

Artist Statement:

I, Reed A. Fletcher, have been an expressionistic visual and figurative artist for over 45 years after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.S. degree in Art. I create art from what I perceive and feel from my surroundings and then let my inner spirit take over. Using emotionally charged and expressive powers in a physical directness that I find exciting and distinct, I create artistic themes that vary depending upon my thoughts, moods, and emotions.

My work with two-dimensional material uses bright colors, lines, human figures, and symbolism to achieve my desired effects. The three techniques I use are oil paints on canvas, illustrations using graphite and rapid-o-graph pens and ink on paper, and experimenting with collage and mixed media, to a lesser degree.

I believe that to be a true artist, I must be like a sponge, soaking up all of my life experiences, the positive and negative, the personal and non-personal, the environment that surrounds us, the hurt and the laughter, the joy and the love, so that I can draw upon all of these for my creativitity. I use a lot of detail, because I want the viewer to see and feel something new and different whenever they look upon my art. Depending upon their moods and emotions, on another viewing the onlooker might perceive things that they might have missed previously. I believe that this keeps the art fresh, new, and interesting. I love to challenge myself with developing new techniques using my brushes and pen points to approach different and sometimes difficult-themed artwork never done before by me. This experimentation helps me grow into a better artist.

By putting a lot of my own emotions, feelings, and personality into my art, involving myself completely, I firmly believe that my art will have a genuine quality of truth in it that the viewer will feel. And because of this, I hope that the viewer will interact and communicate with my art and that it will hopefully draw out a response from them. In certain art themes that warrant it, I want to challenging the observer to think and contemplate outside the box of their own comfort zones.

The bottom line for me concerning my art is thatI have to to do it, because it’s a large part of me that needs to be expressed and to feel complete as a person. I want my audience, through their eyes and perceptions, to let their inner dreams, fantasies, desires, and sometimes anger and confusion to surface, causing the viewer to contemplate my art and hopefully enjoy and lose themselves momentarily into it. I love painting the ideal form as I see it. In my paintings I try to find “BEAUTY in DARKNESS and DARKNESS in BEAUTY!”

I have many influences that excite my creative juices. The three visual artists that have a profound influence on my art for their color, imagery, and brush techniques would be Vincent Van Gogh, Thomas Hart Benton, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The other strong influences that pique and drive my imagination are the Hindu gods, goddesses, and their myths and spirituality, as well as Viking and Icelandic folklore. Comic books, fantasy books, and certain vivid poetry (like Percy Shelley) also spark my interest, as do foreign travel, current political news, and certain biographical books on historical and contemporary people and places.

I love the smells of oils and paint thinner infusing the air in my studio as I apply the medium to the canvases with brushes and my fingers, as well as when I clean the brushes and my hands with mineral spirts. It’s fun and exciting for me to feel the oils and graphite with my fingertips for the shading and blending, as well as holding my “tools of the trade” in my hands and sometimes mouth too.

To view my artwork, my personal website is http://www.devildogart.com. (This website is housed on deviantArt.com under the user name devildogart53.)

I am also on Instagram under my moniker, ReedArtDog, and to a lesser degree on Facebook.

To those that might be interested in how I approach my artwork, these are the major steps in my creative processes in each of the mediums that I use.

Creating Paintings:

1. I start with an idea/theme.

2. Using an iPad, I search for photos to assist me in the development of concepts and the creation of the work, as well as to inspire me with additional ideas to work with.

3. With graphite pencil, I sketch out my ideas on canvas. (I leave a half-inch border around the canvas for possible framing in the future.)

4. Once the theme/subject matter is drawn out, I photograph it to refer to it later to add certain details that might be lost, because they are covered by paint as the work progresses.

5. As the work progresses, new details will come to mind to be added to enhance the art, and some of the original ideas will be discarded.

6. I use bright colors, lines, and human figures to express my theme/subject in each of my creative endeavors, sometimes using symbolism.

7. After the paint drys, I use a fixative to seal it.

Using Pen and Ink on Paper:

1. I start with an idea/theme.

2. Using an IPad, I search for photos to assist me in the development of concepts and the creation of the work, as well as to inspire me with more ideas to work with.

3. With graphite pencil and eraser, I sketch out my ideas on high-quality drawing paper. I use #2 or #4 graphite pencils, which are soft and very applicable for shading and using my fingers. (I leave a half-inch border for possible framing in the future.)

4. Once I have completed the initial sketch, I proceed using two very fine rapid-o-graph pens points (00 and 0) to retrace the sketched lines in ink and to add smaller details to the drawings to enhance the work. (The finer the pen points, the finer the details.)

5. After the ink is applied, I will either erase some of the graphite to show the ink lines more, or I will add more graphite for more shading and contrast. I use my fingers for this application.

6. After the art is completed to my satisfaction, I will use a fixative on it to seal and protect it.

Creating Collage and Mixed Media:

1. For collage works, I use canvas board, and for mixed media, I prefer canvas. (Both can work, but there are pros and cons in using each.)

2. For collage art, I use images from newsprint, magazines, or digital images that I download and print. I do the same for mixed media.

3. I arrange the images on the canvas board and take a photo of it to refer to as I progress.

4. For both processes, I then assemble the cutouts on canvas board or canvas to fit the subject/theme. In this process of selection, I will discard some of the images and select newer ones, like working on a jigsaw puzzle.

5. Once I get all of the photos I need for the collage, I use a brush or sponge to apply the fixative and then using a roller, apply the cutout images to the canvas board. I start by working on the background first and moving the subject matter forward, applying images on top of images.

6. After the work is completed, I use a spray fixative to seal it.

7. Concerning Mixed Media: I prefer using canvas over canvas board. I create the artwork by applying any combination of news print, magazine print, pen and ink, and oil paint. After the art is finished and any oil paint has dried, I use a fixative to seal it.