chris crites

Chris Crites is a bag painter, which is basically what it sounds like (he paints on paper bags), only much more interesting. In a longstanding series, he paints mugshots of criminals from the 1890s to 1950s on brown paper bags with brightly colored acrylics. His paintings resemble screen prints with their blocked colors and clean lines. The titles of most paintings indicate the crime the person committed, which adds just enough information to suck you in but not enough information to give it all away.

As Crites explains in his artist statement: “Each one of these images has a story. Often times I have no idea what the real story is, but it’s hard not to make one up. One of the reasons I paint them is to bring out another possible story, for people to look at and think about.” These bag paintings are immediately striking in their modern graphic aesthetic, while the content piques even more interest in the viewer after the initial visual appeal.

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Source for all images: http://www.bagpainter.com.

Polygamy. 2008. 5″x7″.

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Selling Obscene Material to Minors. 2007. 9″x11″.

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Beat Husband. Threw Body in River. 2004. 9″x11.75′.

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Theft from Coin Operated Device. 2006. 5″x7″.

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Rape. 2010. 9″x12″.

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Murder – Hammer. 2005. 8″x11″.

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“You got the wrong guy.” 2011. 13″x15″.

“You got the wrong guy.” 2011. Detail shot.

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As straightforward as the titles of these pieces are, they are totally appropriate to the work and provide just enough information to give the viewer an in to the piece, while simultaneously retain just enough ambiguity to generate continued interest. Just as Crites states in his artist statement, you can’t help but come up with possible scenarios about the crime and personally, my imagination and curiosity were sparked once I knew just one fact about the person in the mugshot. There are generalizations about the type of people that commit each type of crime and Crites takes advantage of this by using just a face and a crime as the two main elements of his paintings.

The fact that the paintings are based on actual crimes and mugshots also makes them that much more interesting. There is a contrast between subject matter and media: while these were real people’s mugshots, the method of painting is modern and very poster-esque – done in a style that even President Obama was depicted through in his 2008 election posters. The posterized look retains the signature portrait style of a mugshot, but re-represents it through a new perspective. Adding on the brown paper bag substrate prevents the screenprint aesthetic from becoming wholly clean and precise, and hints at the history of the likely forgotten mugshots. The paper bag, with its wrinkles and innate discarded nature, helps forge a link between the content and media.

In some of his recent works, such as “You got the wrong guy” above, Crites switches up his painting a bit. The titles become quotes rather than crimes, and the detail and shading of the person are created through written text rather than blocks of color. This adds another layer of complexity to the paintings, as it gives the viewer a slightly more intense look into the person’s story, yet maintains a certain distance that still leaves you wondering what happened.

This new style of combining painting and writing additionally adds in the element of secrecy, an inherent part of crime and punishment. Upon first glance, the writing may just look like normal shading but a closer look reveals the words hidden among the face, just as a true criminal’s story and methods are often slowly unveiled as a case is inspected over time. Even up close, many words are still illegible and will remain forever unknown to the viewer, just as there are elements of criminals’ stories that are never made public. The truth doesn’t always come out in crime, and Crites incorporates this idea in his more recent mugshot paintings.

Overall, I believe that the simplicity and seriality of Chris Crites’s mugshot works are two of their greatest qualities. No one painting is too overdone or overworked, and the volume of paintings Crites has created over several years mirrors the police system of archiving and documentation over time. Crites utilizes a similar style for several other works, but his mugshots series is still my favorite.

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All images copyright Chris Crites, 2000 – 2012.

Artist’s website: http://www.bagpainter.com

frank h. netter, MD

Dr. Frank H. Netter is a medical illustrator whose drawings have served as the authority for anatomy diagrams for decades. Though today there are so many digital/3d/animated/hi-tech diagrams that are used as tools for medical students, there is something so appealing about Netter’s good old-fashioned hand-drawn pictures that nothing in this era of digital art can replicate. Even though they may not be as intricate as digitally generated pictures or 3-dimensional models, they are beautiful in their own right and works of art that are impressive in both form and function.

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I’m obsessed with labeling, organizing, sorting, categorizing, and anything to do with these activities, and since I’m also starting medical school in August 2012, it only seems logical that I love Netter and was bound to mention his name sooner or later.

His drawings are very graphic and realistic, but not at the same time. This doesn’t make a lot of sense, but here’s what I mean: real human organs are obviously not as clean cut and perfectly proportioned as they are in Netter’s illustrations (my autopsy observation proved this to me three years ago) but the drawings themselves do look real by virtue of their level of detail and precision. Netter makes these drawings to serve as guides for the real thing. They are almost too real for their own good – perfect organs – leaving every vein & vessel, muscle & tissue accounted for and completely documented. This is what I like most about them and why I see them not only as educational tools but also as pieces of art.

 

period table of typefaces

This is amazing.

Source: http://api.ning.com/files/86jl2e4BiALT20KdPffJEKEX3OkVEuMewCyxD*pAV5JgvQrjMDetQD-K395jV92lT7IsrPI-l1CPkg8Ouywy*WQnOhaoJAbX/Periodic_Table_of_Typefaces_large.jpg

things we forget.

I’m really digging this blog: http://thingsweforget.blogspot.com/

“Post-it notes left to their fate in public places.”