Canvas vs Gutskin

Catching up on posting some new work and finishing up other work in the last two weeks. I bought enough raw canvas recently to outfit the sails of a clipper ship and sail to Boston, so I've been making some of the 'exploded tattoo' paintings on the canvas.  Although I stretch and prime the canvas, I keep it lightly primed as I wanted the raw canvas to absorb some of the acrylic paint, and ink, which it does in different ways. It can somewhat mimic the way I use liquid acrylic in my spit-shaded pieces on paper.

As mentioned in earlier posts, I want to investigate these images from tattoo flash that have become synonymous and indicative of that subculture, now much more mainstream. 

When applying the stencil to a tattoo, (the non-permanent outline used by tattooers as a guide) it is important to have a clean outline. If there is error in application, a double outline can occur, or a 'feathered effect' will be left on the skin. This is not optimal.

In this painted work, I am purposely destroying a tattoo flash image by creating an new image from the effect of layering the same outline, then experimenting with how much of the original outline to maintain, while creating new outlines from the 'feathered' image.   

The overall effect creates loose visual comparisons to early Cubism, in regards to analyzing and reorganization of an object, except this work is analyzing a two-dimensional image that's original purpose is to work as symbolic two-dimensional image that is strictly codified to tattoo subculture. In breaking down and re-contextualizing the image, the intended symbolism, and its function, is questioned. 

The cartoonish elements involved, such as eagle heads and high heels, directly relate to tattoo imagery of which adheres to stylistic parameters indicative of this tattoo genre. 

Work in progress:

The following piece was done on gutskin. The difference in surface texture is obvious.