As I rolled out of bed this morning, I couldn’t help but think that this was going to be another day where I would spend most of my day trying to think of ways not to make the most out of the time that I have. That’s pretty much how most of my days start. Needless to say, I don’t consider myself much of a morning person. I think I need to take up serious coffee drinking. Come to think of it, I think this is a pattern problem of mine. I can’t do anything half-assed so I end up not doing anything at all. Well, it’s easier to avoid looking at nothing than it is to avoid looking at a product that is subpar.
So, to make this day turn around in the right direction I’m going to start off by talking about someone who is a bit of an inspiration. The Great Jeff Soto!
I was first introduced to Jeff’s work a few years ago and have followed his career with great gusto ever since. There are a couple of things that make his work really stand out in my mind. First, I really like the quality of his ever changing style. I feel something familiar in that, possibly because I see my own inability to really stick to a style or theme. I don’t really even know if that’s a trait that I aspire to have. Of course it’s nice to have your work instantly recognizable, like Shepard Fairey…
Jeff Soto’s medium of choice is acrylic. Backgrounds are created by splashes of thinned paint on a neutral background often reminiscent of watercolors. Most of the foreground is placed in a central location on the plane, with many elements radiating out of a dark mass tied together with a tangle of fuzzy hair, telephone pole lines, and rainbow ribbons. It is easy to see how this style evolved from more traditional graffiti art because even though the background adds something to the mood of the piece, it could be taken away and replaced with just about any surface. While the backgrounds employ the natural flowing nature of paint and its interaction with the ground, the foregrounds seem to float above; opaque paint overlaying the transparent and covering it like a sticker.
I love the alien-urban landscape that Jeff creates. His half dust-bunny half homicidal robot creatures seem hardly menacing when placed in an environment that includes nautical stars and flowing rainbows, still is work is commonly placed in with other dark artists. I guess part of me is bias because I’ve seen how dark “dark-art” can be and Soto only flirts with the tip of that iceberg. I wonder often times when looking at Jeff’s work if the items are being pulled out of some sort of Pandora’s box of delights or forced together at their bases by some strange gravitational pull.
On a more personal note, Jeff is just a normal guy. He’s married and has two daughters that are just as cute as can be. I hold out hope for myself that one day I’ll be dragging my kid around to art shows and conferences that I was actually invited to. So a big thanks to Jeff Soto for sharing his storm cloud of genius with us all. Everyone watch out, because the flood waters are rising.
