The Portfolio of Justin Simoni
Currently Working On
Featured Work
Words (Kerouac)
The Portfolio of Justin Simoni
Words (Kerouac)
I've continued to work with my experimental typography of deeply stroked text and word games and have coupled this with my very much historically-rooted cross hatching style.
These screenprints are graphically dense and deliciously colorful. The process from turning the drawings into screen prints is long and time consuming - much like a lot of my work, but the final result is some of the most unique work I've done. Each screen print is a compilation of at least five separate drawings. Many of the pieces deal with realities we attempt to deny, by either covering them up with half truths or spinning the situations to suite our tastes. We all do it, and perhaps we shouldn't. Maybe the first step to understanding why we do it is to admit that we are flawed individuals.
Promise, Screen Print ~ 8' x 10" Series #1: 10 prints on Bristol Board
Promise is the crossed fingers of your left hand, behind your back, as your shaking your right hand in a fair deal. The drawing was actually drawn from my right hand and I flipped it using an image editing program. To be true to myself, I also flipped the text. I didn't want to lie to you, now.
CMPLCTD, Screen Print ~ 8' x 10" , Series #1 100 prints on Bristol Board
CMPLCT is a study of a three dimensional figure called a bitruncated cubic honeycomb, that I studied drawing using an ocularium (a type of drawing aid), which sounds impressive enough. It seems complicated but the geometry and math behind it is elegant and simple, once understood. Like many things, the simplicity of complicated things are obscured by our own ignorance.
Testify, Screen Print ~ 8' x 10" , Series #1a: 100 prints on Bristol Board, Series #1b: 100 prints on flesh-colored card stock
The text in, Testify hold two meanings. The first meaning are two statements related to the drawing, Dissed. and, Used. Perhaps one has to read between the lines, as it were to find the real meaning, "Disuse". "Testify" is of course a reference to the near-legend of Roman men holding their testicals as they "testified" in court settings. Since women had no testicals to hold, it was said that they were unable to tell the truth. Much of the double-meaning of this piece is about hiding behind so-called male superiority to cover up what may be more correctly assumed as the truth.
Qualianxiety.?!, Pen and Ink on 200lb Hot Press Watercolor Paper - 30" x 24"
Qualianxiety.?! - is a Portmanteau word, a word made up of two different words, to produce a third. In this case, Qualia - the term used to describe sensory experiences that we must all share and experience as the same and Anxiety. The drawing - and it is a drawing (as the others here are screen prints), attempts to describe my own sensations and experiences while wrapped within Anxiety - which is sadly, a very common state of being. My own anxious experiences are wholly unique to me - as someone else being asked to draw, "Anxiety" isn't just going to land upon the above and thus, cannot be a Qualia. The drawing denounces the title - and the title then reflects that, having a period (ending a statement), a question mark (querying the statement) and lastly, an exclamation mark (to show astonishment of the peculiarity of the original statement).
The drawing itself is drawn with semi-transparent, semi-process colors with incredible overlap, all done with a crow quill (dip) pen.
The text itself is not a part of the drawing, but is created from the lack of drawing - and of paper itself. It's created by cutting out the paper and the drawing that was on the paper. The black is simply a black matte backing.
The lines that make up the drawing follow the contour of the figure itself - albeit in a very ghostly manner. Since the lines are applied in an all-over pattern, the drawing is basically flat, but filled with incredibly vibrant color and various hues of great intensity. The drawing itself looks exceptionally different up close, when compared to far away (even in the above photograph), where the colors start blending into a chromatic gray.
