Westbound Print

Image #1. “One Hundred Views of a Shopping Bag”, is an homage to Yukio-e style masters Hokusai‘s “One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji” and Hiroshige’s “One Hundred Favorite Views of Edo”. It is also an integrated collection of graphical ideas but with a strongly individualized and modular approach. The image of an every day shopping bag is transformed into a variety of stories. Each story is expressed through an ekphrastic form of narrative where the image largely serves as a response inspiring muse. This aspect helps to assure the individuality of each image. These stories are effected by various aspects of the bags presence in construction; its color; texture; corners; the fold; the shadow; the fragments of letters that begin to resemble teeth. The half-circle holds the key to balance, unity and rhythm either quietly or assertively. As a result, the bag transforms into a wide variety of scenes or tableaux in which groups of related images can be formed which can then in turn be merged with additional groups. The arrangement potential is sizable, leaving curatorial doors widely open. An underlying structure and rhythm help to connect all 100 images, no matter the breadth of selection, the sizes selected, or arrangements desired.