Merrill Kazanjian- Art Work 2008- Tradigital, Traditional and Everything in Between

Prior to 2008, I had never ventured outside of the medium of oil paint. Life got HECTIC and I was forced to reconsider my approach. Here (below) is the story. For the past eight years, I have taught art in schools in Harlem and the South Bronx and my technique was created out of a need that arose in my classroom. Forty five minute periods is not enough time to teach painting. So I switched my painting supplies from traditional supplies, to paint markers to eliminate the set up and clean up. After witnessing the success that my students were having, I decided to push the technique even further, while working in my studio. I learned that mixing color pencils with a "blender" (on top of the opaque layers of the paint markers) marker allows an artist to mimic the effects of glazed oil paint. I incorporated media "cut outs" and printed images in my work. And I found that paint markers were ideal to tie everything together. Finally I learned that scanning my images on to a computer will allow me to edit my "characters" and add crazy effects such as juxtaposing images on top of my creations. The computer also enables me to use the medium that I am most familiar with; oil paint. I usually print my compositions on canvas ( I order an non varnished giclee print) and lay down the finishing touches in oil paint.

Artists and Black Glasses

Why do artists wear thick framed glasses? Just wondering?.....Thick glasses are to stereotypical 21st century artists as French Beret's were to stereotypical 20th century artists.

Art and Technology

Creating imagery is a human instinct. History has proven that pictorial imagery (Cave Art- 32,000 years ago) had developed long before the emergence of written text (Vinca Signs 9000 years ago). Pictures are somewhat, "universally fluent", to all human beings. When a child first learns to read, his/her books are dominated by pictures, to aid the young reader to a better understanding of the text. If a pencil is given to a young child, the child will eventually start to make representational marks on to a surface (as my very young son did this weekend- which left us a lot of cleaning to do!). This instinct is often suppressed as a child gets older and becomes aware of his/her own perceived abilities and the judgments of other people. But, somewhere, between the logic of Charles Darwin (survival of the fittest) and the concept of predestination (believing that something is supposed to happen), artists emerge and leave their marks on the world. Over the centuries, artists have used the "technology" (artists’ materials) available to them, over the course of their lifetime, to make images that they deemed important. Cave artists used charcoal, fat and natural pigments to make remarkable images of animals. The Romans and Greeks were famous for their lifelike stone sculptures. Other innovations followed: such as, oil paint, a printing press, a still camera, a video camera, a television and a computer (I am leaving out quite a bit). Today, there are countless image making possibilities for artists. The computer has added another dimension to my own work (I am a tradigital artist) and creates many possibilities for artists to communicate to their viewers. Between, traditional media, photography, computer media, dancing, acting, animation and (to a certain extent) music, humans have a wider range of proficiencies that enable a person to be creative and speak visually.

Flashing Thomas The Tank Engine

I had so much fun making my, "Telletubbies Unmasked" artwork, I decided to confront my greatest childhood fear: Thomas the Tank Engine (I confronted him with a naked person). Truth is, I really don't know a lot about Thomas, because I always changed the channel when I stumbled upon his f'd up show!!! I remember that his face was surreal and spooky and his expressions made me think that he had "Loco Motives" (Sorry couldn't resist the pun :). Ironically, I loved "The Transformers" which featured talking cars and trucks but, for whatever reason, Thomas creeped me out!

Despite my irrational fear, I concede that a show about a talking train, was FAR from the strangest thing on children's television.

Exhibit A: The Smurfs- HMMM....The Smurfs were tiny little asexual blue communists, controlled and manipulated by (Red) Papa Smurf (Who is part scientist, part father figure, but clearly rules the Smurfs with an iron fist). They live in mushrooms in the middle of a forest and had a male to female ratio similar to the Armed Forces.....Where is Mama Smurf? I guess having 20 boys and 1 girl would make any woman suicidal (Thats a lot of Smurftosterone)! Gargamel and the Cat....Let's not go there.

Exhibit B: Super Mario Brothers- Two chubby "Faux-talian" plumbers travel through an Alice-In-Wonderland type world to save a princess being held captive by a dinosaur-esque thingey named Bowser. Oh, im not done- When Mario or Luigi touch a muchroom (HMMM, SHROOMS HERE TOO), they quadruple in size. They also travel through pipes to travel between the underworld and the overworld. Nice!....Could Happen!

Exhibit C: Scooby Doo- Talking dog.....munchies all the time.......seeing ghosts.........mystery mobile........Scooby Snacks....made in the 60's and 70's before advanced drug testing......HMMM......

When I wikipedia'd Thomas the Train, I learned that it was created by a British Priest. The plot seems RELATIVELY normal. I am over my fears now. Thanks for reading my rant!
Merrill Kazanjian

Plane Crash

This one is pretty random. Randomness is OK with me. Honestly, I made the caracters face first, then I tried to make a body that fit the facial expression. After I finished with the figure, I looked for a picture where I thought that my character would fit. He kind of looks thankful (Either that or the guy about to be shot from the Goya Painting. Thanks for checking it out!- Merrill Kazanjian

Defacing a Jackson Pollock

Hypothetically....Would anyone notice if I added one more drop of paint to the surface of a Jackson Pollock painting? I don't think so (Not that I would ever do this). I was pondering this question today and I decided to make this work. There are a lot of people that I respect, that love the work of Jackson Pollock. Quite honestly, I am not one of them. I have stared at the Pollacks in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for hours on end and forced myself to like him (for many years). But now that sillyness is over! Aesthetically, Pollock is, "not in the same ballpark" as a Rembrandt or a Caravaggio, regardless of difference of style. There is a strange and beautiful aura to great paintings. Perhaps I don't tune in to that with a Pollock because I can't get over the fact that it looks like I fed a pigeon an Alka Seltzer! BOOM! POLLACK!
This is how I see it (Feel free to blast me if you disagree. and I DO expect some hatemail for this one): The cliche, "Timing is everything" is appropriate with Pollock because he DID think of a new way to paint in an era simultaneous with a boom (of growth) in Mass Media (Printing advances and to a lesser extent, television). Art critics (who were more prominent in Pollock's Era) were searching for an unique American style of painting and Pollock, due to his unconventional and controversial approach, became iconic. Many hated Pollock's work, but media coverage is not about love or hate, but controversy (Marcel DuChamps "Fountain" would have just been a URINAL if it wasn't brought to the worlds attention by the press).
I am a cynic.... and I TRULY believe that Pollock was sincere about the way that he created art. I think that his process was derived out of honesty and not self promotion. One of Pollock's most famous quotes was, "Every good painter paints what he is." Pollock did do that- it is undeniable. But his method and his mentality became a sensation and a controversy, which made him material for debate. I can appreciate his sincerity and the spiritual and psychological concepts of his work, but I do not dig the aesthetics. Just being honest!

The Inauguration of Barack Obama

January, 2009 is a historic month! Barack Obama will become out first African American President and George W. Bush will become out first President in Outer Space (At least if the American people had their way). Other cameos by Alan Greenspan (pouring out his 40 for his dead Wall Street homies), Hillary Clinton (still campaigning to the right of Obama), John McCain (far left), Tim Gunn (right of Obama), Vicente Fox, Henry Kissinger, Al Gore mixed in with several other `characters` by Merrill Kazanjian. Art is always a reflection of the era in which it was created and a means to understand the world. Ironically, I have learned a lot about myself and my views on contemporary life, while creating, `The Inauguration of Barack Obama`. Most of the realizations that I made were regarding the processes that I chose to employ (and why I used them), while creating my artwork. This image took me “a year” and “an hour” to make! But, I do not mean three-hundred–sixty-five days and sixty minutes. Essentially, my best illustrations that I made in 2008 are digitally juxtaposed in to this image (Which is what I meant by a year) and it took me about an hour to digitally juxtapose them to a photograph of the Capitol Building (an hour). This is a very different method compared to media that I had used in the past. But, I felt a need to “trim the fat” (cut the time and price) from my artistic processes and I abandoned the time consuming formulas of traditional oil painting for a process that perfectly fits my image making needs. To put things in to perspective, I am a full time teacher and a new father in addition to being an artist, so, my time is scarce, but innovations are always created from needs! I created a method of image making that I call the “tradigital process” that merges the best traits of traditional art (surface beauty through man made manipulation of materials) and digital art (speed). In early 2008, I tried to look at myself and my situation objectively and I had an epiphany as an artist. I shifted my mentality, my materials and my approach. Videos, which descriptively detail the tradigital process can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unnHsHps0qY
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwVMy1AyKHQ I deliberately chose “The Inauguration of Barack Obama” to be the culmination of my first year working tradigitally. He is hope for the future, a change, a different path. In my opinion, the quality of lifestyle in America has plummeted over the last decade. The middle class has vanished, with the exception of jobs in education, medical services and other civic jobs such as law enforcement and firefighting. Any job that can be replaced by machines has been. Other “irreplaceable” jobs have been sent overseas where labor unions are less relevant or currencies are cheaper than our plummeting dollar. The monetary tightening of American business is rhetorically justified as creating efficiencies for the shareholders of companies. While average workers are, “nickled and dimed”, greed and hypocrisy are still alive and well at the financial summit of America, as evidenced by the weekend long spa trip (costing $440,000!), taken by “stressed” AIG executives after getting bailed out of bankruptcy by the Government (aka the tax payers). “Trickle Down” or “supply side” economics has proven, once again that nothing trickles once the “weather gets cold” as evidenced by all of the “frozen” assets such as homes that have “fallen off a cliff” in price. Money is being made but it is not distributed, it is being horded. People who do have jobs are now justifying their salaries by producing now what was once the responsibility of three people. And there is a ridiculous amount of competition for the few, well paying jobs that are out there. A school on Long Island received over 10,000 resumes for one vacant art position! The Father of Economic Theory, Adam Smith theorized that competition is great in the marketplace because it lowers prices, but the level of competition in America right now is unhealthy for the amount of jobs that are available. In the thirty years that I have lived, I cannot remember a time that was more depressed, tired but hopeful than right now. There is a growing social camaraderie that transcends race that is developing in America now. If I did my job as an artist, much of the wording of the last two paragraphs will be translated in to imagery in my work.

The Telletubbies

Ahh, the telletubbies! Tinky Winky (The purple one) Dipsy, (The green one), Laa Laa (the yellow one whom I just learned was female...oops) and Po (The red one) epitomize whats wrong with the 21st Century! Time watching "The Telletubbies" for children is like consuming a McDonalds Cheeseburger (full of empty calories). Wasted, atrophic, mind numbing, waste of time!

At least the hippies that wrote Sesame Street, meant well and intended to educate while creating a lucrative (commercials) substitute for babysitting! Even adults CANNOT STEER THEIR EYES AWAY from the TRAINWRECK that is the TELLETUBBIES. Parents: Spend time with your children! Talk to them! It will help their brain develop! The Telletubbies are a GATEWAY DRUG to SPONGEBOB which is a gateway drug to anything on FOX (other than Family Guy, The Simpsons and Football) which is a Gateway Drug to living at home with your parents until you are fifty years old! ...Thanks for reading my rant! Merrill Kazanjian