Art.

This section is home for the various self-initiated Art works that I’ve taken the time to create. I am proud of these musings as I feel it’s a little piece of me left in the world. Some pieces have huge significance for me, genuine labours of love, of hardships, but all markers of time and some with hidden meanings. I hope these concepts and pieces connect with people in ways and taken-in when people need them most in life.

I hope to get to see these pieces as I intended them, one day, at a larger scale in places of interest, where they can be enjoyed by all. Not blocked by cliques, ignorance, nor disregarded because they haven’t been created in a traditional way. It doesn’t have to smell like oil or be collected by corporates to have value. That’s maybe an ideal too far, even for this mind.

Art for me is an extension of my ways to communicate. It’s an outlet and another expression of creative. design. thinking. If you’d like to talk regarding my Art works please Contact me.

2014

ReAlign

My obsession with lines took a twist. Working on stark mono highly contrasted images and patterns can take it's toll on the eyes and the brain (believe me), but that's a different story. Hence, I needed to find a departure for a while.

ReAlign is one of the first colour works during my obsession with lined forms. Hopefully it will be the start of a larger abstract set which I'd like to progress. This work is all about angles, colours and lines merging, contrasting and becoming something different than they are singularly in uniformity. It’s about the overlap and variation and sometimes the happy combinations that happen when directions change and perspectives altered.

I'm excited about this current departure. There seems a world of possibilities and combinations inside me just waiting to present themselves on screen or paper. They are always evolving and usually start out very different from their ending. I'll certainly be working on more of these pieces in the next few years.

2022

Gone

This is a self-initiated piece about having to let something you care a great deal about, go. Sometimes, regardless of efforts, hopes and dreams the structures and frameworks we have to adopt keep us where we are, like bars. Invisible but still in place with all our decissions. Birds and hearts should never live in cages. Set them free and what will be will be.

2017

Pop

This piece is a very simple optical illusion using black and white lines, which I love dearly (although my occasional Migraines don’t).

Optical illusions and over thinking... It all comes down to focus.

Narrow vision and see one thing. Or relax, to see something else, another perspective.

I can’t profess to having mastered this way of thinking either, but slowly we try to improve and in time we eat the beast.

Pop was inspired by the works of the amazingly talented Bridget Riley. Please find out about her work. Way ahead of the curve and the times.

2019

Highs & Lows

After moving for a short while to the countryside in December 2018, I adopted a similar walk daily. Seeing nature in this place and time really inspired me in different ways. It’s constantly adapting and changing to flourish and to survive – she is truly impressive. On walks with my dog Lola, I found therapy of sorts. They helped me ponder about content, both good & bad, work, life, feelings and the all in-between. I got to thinking about the natural landscape around me, the lines, curves, space all took a grip. I got home, scribbled an idea and then left it to brew.

I wanted to create something that reflected the ups and downs of the landscape as well as represent the highs and lows of life. Seems life is a constant adjustment to the changes we face so showing the landscape in varying ways seemed a nice way to do this. The coloured lines in this piece represent the various ways I’ve seen the hills change during the seasons, and the curves, my own mood and reflections whilst walking them. I’ve seen brown and seemingly lifeless winter ferns to crisp ice and snow covered peaks. In spring and summer where nature injected them with beauty and activity, to (sadly) even raging and destructive fires where the land lay black, baron and scorched looking beyond repair... Finally, to patches of summer where the light just made everything...Better. Nature always finds a way, as do we.

Someone commented this piece reminded them a little of the Joy Division Unknown Pleasures cover, which I was very humbled by. Interestingly, the cap on the left of the top row is in the shape of Pule Hill – a local and much loved landmark for the people of Marsden. A secondary title could be: Known Puleasures, due to the enjoyment my dog Lola and I have had as well as the walkers, cyclists and climbers have interacting with these spaces.

2020

Lockdown

We will never forget those days of being kept from the outside world and mixing with other human beings. Maybe we will be better for having had the experience. That rare time of being under house arrest and nothing to do but look at each other and wonder how best to escape from ourselves.

2018

Unknown (Remix)

I came back to this piece (original idea around 2015) as I wanted to experiment with some texture and levels, plus add some additional background noise etc.

This mono piece was a total experiment with overlapping shapes and the forms and patterns that are then created. I wanted a piece that then broke the underlying uniformity and structure we naturally create so a space for something else could be allowed within a space. This is where the the triangular element wanted to be placed and felt natural to position.

There will be more within this set in the near future as well as experimenting with alternative shades and tones as well as colour.

2018

Forward/Progress?

Cities and people aren’t that different from each other. As both grow and develop for the future they invariably change a great deal. Over time the landscape and views alter as do hearts and minds. The old is continually replaced by the new. One order’s established way, thinking or style is replaced by another’s vision – in flesh, on paper, in pixel as well as concrete, metal, wood and sand.

But forever entwined in our city and in our lives are our memories. Those special places, times, stories and landmarks ordered to recollect, for us and those that have gone before. This is our history. Forward…Ever forward, but please tread carefully with grace. So much more important things than commercialism or progress depend on us.

Forward/Progress was featured as part of the first Birmingham Design Festival after being chosen as a selected work.

2023

Surrounded

A small glimpse into a shared perfect moment, a time with someone special, warmth of the sun and warmth in hearts and minds. In love with more than the location, allowing another in, surrounded by the beauty of nature and her species, in another place. The pathways and bridges, the undulation of the land and shades of green, the sound of the streams, the watching of ducks and fish as they rest and feed in the warmth of the late summer afternoon sunshine, and the breeze blowing gently through the trees. A better view, rather than those of cities and the hustle and bustle on tarmac, feet on pavement, all rushing to their next event. Here in this moment, this time and place – this is life, simplified and better.

2021

Protection

88 keys. But what will they unlock? A story about black & white thinking, love, and the stories told by the mono majesty.

2013

Running Dog

This image was created from a memorable sunny day on the beach in another life. Exchanging concrete for sand, noise for silence, food for thought. A day where landlocked city dwellers escaped to the smell and the pull of the ocean. A place where the sun drew large shadows as dogs and people smiled happily without a care and without prejudice, if only for a day. This was where our senses came alive, where our heart's felt lighter and our minds were free. And a place where children and passersby laughed warmly as a happy Staffordshire Bull-terrier we loved very much ate ice-cream from a cone, grinning from ear to ear. It is a memory that will live with me for all of my days. Days of simple pleasures, sharing the good times with the things closest too me.

As for the styling of this piece, I’ve always been fascinated with free running ink on paper and keen to incorporate this into a piece of work. The shapes set free can be so expressive. Shadows too have the same quality of striking and engaging the imagination. I find combining both with a graphical or photo-graphical form can add so much to a composition, changing context, focus and morphing the subject into something completely different. The yellow in this piece depicts the sun, the sand and the memory – all were truly golden from that day. Now gone – but never forgotten.

I didn't want to show the facial detail of the subject as I wanted to keep that for myself. Some memories should be personal after all.

2018

UpStart

Everything new has to start somewhere. Following the same patterns and ways can only get you to the same places and gain you the same results. When you do something in a different way, change course, alter method, route or process you give yourself an opportunity to break the uniformity and the usual way of thinking or behaving. The doing is challenged. UpStart is about the moment you make the change. Question everything, accept tried and tested but also embrace change. This can establish a new way, maybe a better way, giving a different perspective. Is now the time?

2013

Broderick

Without music I am nothing. It’s a main stay of my life like oxygen, sleep, tea or pixels. One musician who's abilities and genuine craft I particularly admire and who is regularly audible in my headphones is Peter Broderick. I have been massively inspired and moved by his compositions and songs for some time. They have aided my own work and thinking so I wanted to offer something back in my own medium. Hopefully capturing the essence of the musician and his music.

I needed a conduit. For this I visualised Broderick as water, which I found referenced in lots of his work. This really was apt as Broderick’s music evokes deep feeling on so many levels. Colours and tones helped me portray the waves and depths of the musicians craft and the feeling he encodes within. I didn’t want a horizontal form as how one composition is interpreted in one moment by a listener can be very different at another time, or to another, hence colour being scattered and un-ordered. Which also reflects the mood of the listener in their own time and space.

Once completed this piece was sent to the musician in Portland, USA. I wanted it to be the only version of the final piece. A true one of a kind just like the musician himself. I was lucky enough to meet Peter at a gig in the U.K, I asked if he had the piece up and he told me he did. While on tour a few days later Peter kindly sent me a picture he'd taken just after Christmas of a friend recording in his studio. There on the wall in the background was the final piece. I was honored. The piece he had was simply a print as over A3+ on paper but I always imagined it at the scale shown so thought I’d d the piece justice visualising to how I would have liked to have done.

Thanks for the constant inspiration and perfection Peter, I have no doubt in saying you are a genius and a craftsman :) If you haven't heard this guys work yet please visit his site on the link below.

www.peterbroderick.net

www.erasedtapes.com

2014

Spin

Spin is a mono piece of work that felt like it was always waiting to find a way out. This piece embodies the struggle with doubt and uncertainty – It's about the battle with the darker times we can feel as people, I know I have had my far share and maybe more than I would like to admit at times. Spin is where regardless of effort and application we just can't seem to move forward or get out of where we feel trapped. It's a place that swallows and consumes pride and enjoys indecision. It's the place where ignorance thrives and peace of mind is eaten by a multitude of encircling distractions.

All you need to break out of the spiral is something good. Just a little certainty. Maybe one kind act or positive action, or a single beautiful truth that one can really believe in, to break through and set you free. Outside the vortex is where hope lives. Hope is vast and all around, you just need to see it and more importantly feel it to break the cycle.

As with other pieces, I can find certain musicians and music that just level me with their compositions and beauty. This piece was enabled in part by the album Moments Eluding by Greg Haines.

2015

Compulsion

My ever loving desire to bring lines to life is as strong as ever. Compulsion was created to prolong this obsession as I tried to capture various lines overlapping, angled, coloured to foreground and back – but all interacting in a simplistic way. With these particular pieces people have many interpretations of what they see which I love to hear.

This concept started from the idea of snow and rain fall as I looked out of my window. I was lost for a while with some music on thinking of how wind pushes the ultra light flakes or droplets around. As a child and adult, I've had many times I'd look forward to watching the rain, or snow fall. Something very magical about the world just doing its thing around you. Gravity always brings them down to earth but there short beautiful life as droplets or flakes is over so quickly until they start out back through the cycle. Some flakes or drops you notice more than others, these are symbolised by the bold coloured lines in the piece as they seem to drop horizontally right in front of you, yet others blend in to the distance not catching the eye.

This piece has the ability of being varied in it's colour ways so I will be experimenting and changing this in time.

2014

Different

I wanted to graphically illustrate my feelings on how society is obsessed with people being part of the group. Stripping away elements and colours gave an instant visual that felt right for the piece. Line-up and keep order. Everything in its position. It's a constant statement of ‘your place is here’. Or is it?

Truth is, I rarely feel I fit in many places, especially where the group culture exists. Maybe I see the patterns most ignore or just accept. Saying that, nor do I want to at times. Especially if blindly nodding your head to be accepted is normality. Still, the group mentality thrives everywhere we go. Culture, class, sex, colour, family, religion, creed, politics, money etc – the list goes on and if there's a way to categorise you – the group is the best way to do it. I guess it’s just about control.

There are always exceptions to the rule. You can be unique. You can be free thinking. I believe we should question everything. We all know right from wrong, some just choose to ignore what they know is wrong. Walk your own path if you are hurting no one. You as an individual can make things happen. You’re not odd, you are not a freak, strange or someone to be mistrusted. You are just different.

Justin Robert Price
creative. design. thinking.