Upon returning from my internet hiatus, I noticed that there had been an increasing shift in focus on many blogs/sites. There seems to be an obsession with the perfection of the imperfect. The perfectly imperfect table setting, the coordinated night out, the "best" time in the perfect light, the seemingly organic yet well thought out. I certainly fall prey to this way of thinking and portraying from time to time. However, after several hours of catching up on posts, the theme becomes a little overwhelming. This is why I was so relieved when I stumbled upon the work of Leanne Shapton. Her illustrations read like a sense of urgency, a need to capture a thought, event, or dream before it slips away. The authenticity is a welcome relief. There were so many bodies of her work that I could have chosen from but the series above really stood out for me. Shapton is a former art director for the Times Op-Ed page and did this series for the Times in 2011. “A Month of...” is a series about life’s minor notes and quotidian details. The illustrations above are from "A Month of Thursday Nights Out". Each painting was delivered with a short two sentence description of the night's events. It leaves so much unknown and ,by default (or on purpose), prohibits the viewer from judgement of how perfect/imperfect the evening might have been. Creativity and documentation without the added pressure.
I was reminded of Leanne's work today here.
Leanne is also co-founder of the smartly curated J&L Books
Other great works by Leanne Shapton
the imperfect trend sounds interesting, i will need to watch out for this. i love the idea of these paintings..
Posted by: krystal/village | July 08, 2012 at 11:52 AM