$7,500.00

Media: mixed; steel with paper

32″H,  84″W,  14″D

In 1985, when I was fifteen, I found a large spool of white cotton string in the parking lot of the apartment complex where my mother and I lived. I promised myself at that time that I would save it and create a piece of art with it at some point. Twenty-two years later, at age thirty-seven, I followed through on that promise.

Based on a dream about projecting something off of a canvas I embarked on putting together my first string art piece.

Sewing the string I had been saving to the canvas, and proceeding through a series of steps with paint, glue and gravity, I created my first string art piece which can be best described as wall sculpture.

The sewing of the string and the large size of the canvas stem from two different influences.

Sewing is what I was exposed to as a kid. My mother was always knitting, sewing or making me clothes so naturally I saw this as an excellent way to adhere the string to the canvas.

The canvas is stretched on  2 x 6’s which comes from my idea that I wanted the canvas to be an intensely noticeable statement in addition to what was presented on its surface. I did not want the piece to be framed. I built it so it would not be framable from a practical point of view. At this time I coined the pieces “In Your Face” as they project straight off the wall and in your face.

Symbolically, the colors of the pieces are also significant and personal. I have restored two vintage American muscle cars, a 1970 Dodge Challenger and a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner, which was definitely a labour of love as well as indicative of the era during which I grew up. The factory colors that these cars came with were amazing and totally influence my color choices.

This body of work encompasses my desire to use personally significant materials to express the complex emotional attachment I have to these facets of my past, which helps me to explore how those events shaped who I am as an artist and a human being.

Dose has exhibited at “Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona”, “Bentley Projects, Phoenix, Arizona” and the “Rosylnne Hotel, Los Angeles, California”. He has also been awarded “The Graffiti Alley Community Engagement Project” presented by ASU President Michael Crow and has been commissioned by several local businesses.  DOSE explains, ” I go against the grain and make my own rules through my own process. There are no preconceived ideas. I see, feel and I react. That’s what my art is. TRUE EXPRESSION!!”

John Tuomisto-Bell is involved in an ongoing investigation on the difference between individuals and collective society. Figures with little detail, emphasizing the portrait and the commonalities we share–featureless masses that follow rather than lead. Examining and exploring these issues have been the center of my work for a number of years.

In 1985, when I was fifteen, I found a large spool of white cotton string in the parking lot of the apartment complex where my mother and I lived. I promised myself at that time that I would save it and create a piece of art with it at some point. Twenty-two years later, at age thirty-seven, I followed through on that promise.

Based on a dream about projecting something off of a canvas I embarked on putting together my first string art piece.

Sewing the string I had been saving to the canvas, and proceeding through a series of steps with paint, glue and gravity, I created my first string art piece which can be best described as wall sculpture.

The sewing of the string and the large size of the canvas stem from two different influences.

Sewing is what I was exposed to as a kid. My mother was always knitting, sewing or making me clothes so naturally I saw this as an excellent way to adhere the string to the canvas.

The canvas is stretched on  2 x 6’s which comes from my idea that I wanted the canvas to be an intensely noticeable statement in addition to what was presented on its surface. I did not want the piece to be framed. I built it so it would not be framable from a practical point of view. At this time I coined the pieces “In Your Face” as they project straight off the wall and in your face.

Symbolically, the colors of the pieces are also significant and personal. I have restored two vintage American muscle cars, a 1970 Dodge Challenger and a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner, which was definitely a labour of love as well as indicative of the era during which I grew up. The factory colors that these cars came with were amazing and totally influence my color choices.

This body of work encompasses my desire to use personally significant materials to express the complex emotional attachment I have to these facets of my past, which helps me to explore how those events shaped who I am as an artist and a human being.

Many types of artists run in Eddie’s family, so it wasn’t surprising that his interest started very early. Scrounging, as his father put it, filled many an hour for him as a child. Constantly looking for interesting bits and pieces of life that may have been left or lost, Eddie collected. He collected shells, rocks, insects, rusted pieces of metal, coins stamps, and just about anything he deemed interesting enough to save.

Eddie quickly noticed these objects were very special in that no one piece was ever exactly like another. This variety led to a new way of looking at everything for him. Seeing the form and not just the object, he found joy in making them unidentifiable from their original form or function, bringing out new beauty.

Exposing this beauty and the relationship between mechanics and biological organisms is the main theme of the Numanity Collection. The collection explores the connection between mechanical structures and our own human structures, exploring how similarities are not always coincidental but deliberate, borrowed from Nature herself.

Eddie continues to ‘scrounge’ to this day as he increases his varied interests in art. Often times the most basic of pieces will send him to create the most intricate work. Not relegated to one medium, he stretches his creative talents over a vast array of art forms.

In 1985, when I was fifteen, I found a large spool of white cotton string in the parking lot of the apartment complex where my mother and I lived. I promised myself at that time that I would save it and create a piece of art with it at some point. Twenty-two years later, at age thirty-seven, I followed through on that promise.

Based on a dream about projecting something off of a canvas I embarked on putting together my first string art piece.

Sewing the string I had been saving to the canvas, and proceeding through a series of steps with paint, glue and gravity, I created my first string art piece which can be best described as wall sculpture.

The sewing of the string and the large size of the canvas stem from two different influences.

Sewing is what I was exposed to as a kid. My mother was always knitting, sewing or making me clothes so naturally I saw this as an excellent way to adhere the string to the canvas.

The canvas is stretched on  2 x 6’s which comes from my idea that I wanted the canvas to be an intensely noticeable statement in addition to what was presented on its surface. I did not want the piece to be framed. I built it so it would not be framable from a practical point of view. At this time I coined the pieces “In Your Face” as they project straight off the wall and in your face.

Symbolically, the colors of the pieces are also significant and personal. I have restored two vintage American muscle cars, a 1970 Dodge Challenger and a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner, which was definitely a labour of love as well as indicative of the era during which I grew up. The factory colors that these cars came with were amazing and totally influence my color choices.

This body of work encompasses my desire to use personally significant materials to express the complex emotional attachment I have to these facets of my past, which helps me to explore how those events shaped who I am as an artist and a human being.

Alisa Wechsler

Dose has exhibited at “Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona”, “Bentley Projects, Phoenix, Arizona” and the “Rosylnne Hotel, Los Angeles, California”. He has also been awarded “The Graffiti Alley Community Engagement Project” presented by ASU President Michael Crow and has been commissioned by several local businesses.  DOSE explains, ” I go against the grain and make my own rules through my own process. There are no preconceived ideas. I see, feel and I react. That’s what my art is. TRUE EXPRESSION!!”