I’ve recently become interested in QR codes. They’re amazingly versatile things. They’re able to hold a great deal of information including any web address, text, contact info, almost anything you can think of. And all you need is a smartphone to read them.
They’re also visually very interesting. In a way, they’re great art objects, they have interesting and endless compositions, they can be made in a variety of colors, and they utilize one of my favorite aspects of good art, contrast.
So I’ve started to paint some:
My first piece was for South Bay Customs Nikola Tesla-themed show in May 2011:
Topsy- 24″ x 24″ Wood stain and paint on Birch panel
This painting points to a Google Video of Thomas Edison’s famous electrocution of a circus elephant, done in order to discredit Tesla’s competing form of electricity delivery method. If you’re interested in seeing it, go ahead and use your phone to read the picture above.
Something appeals to me about making an art object that points your electrically-dependent phone to a spot on the internet where you can watch a 100-year old recording of an event in the war that brought you this technological possibility. Here are some details:
And this is the second one:
Always and Never are the enemies of love – 24″ x 24″ acrylics, metallics and collage on panel
This time, I’ve made a QR code painting that points to an audio file that I created to go along with it. Here’s some of the process:
I first printed-out and collaged the code to my panel with acrylic medium.
I then painted in the code with Bronze and Baroque metallic paints.
I then put a patina on the whole piece.
I taped-off the code, and painted a new image over the top.
And here is my son Seth, peeling the tape off, revealing the code. It then got sanded-down and aged, revealing some of the metallic underpainting.
Here are some details
Check back soon for more QR paintings, and contact us with any questions!
