Several things have crossed my path this week that have to do with the power of exponential numbers. The first was a great movie called Soylent Green which takes place in a future on an over-populated Earth. Here is a video clip of the opening credits:

The second exponential example comes from the Colbert Report where Steven Colbert interviews Chris Jordan. Chris is a photographer whose work tries to show the amount of waste that everyone in America discards every day. Very interesting interview and artist. You can watch the interview here.

The final exponential observation has to do with an addicting little online game called Vector TD. Beating a level involves destroying vectoids that get a harder with each level. Don’t start playing unless you can afford the exponential time sucking side effects!

Here is a photo gallery from my art show…

1	2	3
4	5	6
7	8	9
10	11	12
13	14	15

1. Entrance Sign
2. Me
3. Large Jesus Print
4. Robbie Conal looking at my work
5. Robbie’s posters
6. Wall 1 of my work
7. Jesus rug
8-9. People looking at my work
10-11. Friends - Thanks for coming!
12-13. Punch
14-15. The other two walls of my work in black and white

If you missed it, be sure you read my artist statement so you can put my work in context. Thanks to Bennett for documenting the event. I am not quite done yet, I have one more post in the works to wrap up my thoughts on the show.

My show was yesterday and it went very well. I will talk about it more in the near future, but for now I want to post the artist statement that accompanied my work. Here is what I wrote…

Portraits of Christ
Recent Work by Adrian Hanft, III

What causes someone to create a picture of God? Is it not incredibly arrogant to presume that you can create something that resembles the holy? When does a good intentioned tool of faith transform into an empty symbol? At what point does an image become an idol? A crutch. An obstacle between us and God? How many times can an image be reproduced before it has more in common with the enemies of Christianity than the truth it supposedly represents?

These questions eventually escape the realm of portraits of Christ and expand into criticism of Christianity itself. How insulting it must be to God that we weekly visit a pretty building expecting Him to meet us there. Do we really think God wants anything to do with our dust covered symbols? And then there are the Christians themselves. Hypocrites. Sinners. Who do we think we are fooling? Our hears are as empty as the crosses that hang around our necks. There is nothing inside us of value and that void is reflected in our religious routine. We don’t deserve to enter God’s presence and I don’t know why he would let us anyway. God should laugh at our art, level our buildings and destroy anyone with the audacity to claim to know Him. So why doesn’t he?

That about summed up my thoughts last year when I was approached about having a show of my “Christian” artwork. It caught me at a point where I was trying to figure out what it meant to call myself a Christian. If you can relate to the questions I was asking as I evaluated my Christianity, then I hope you can share my fascination with the images of Christ in my show. I also hope that your journey doesn’t end with the cynicism I have presented up to this point. I have come to the conclusion that Christianity is more than our art and religious pomp. The paradox is that God loves us. He comes with compassion. Where we deserve death, he gives us life. He sacrificed himself to cleanse our filth. Likewise he humbles himself and joins us in our churches. He humbles himself by using our images of Him for good. He humbles Himself by entering our hearts. He is able to make something beautiful where there was once only sin and corruption. While it is easy to be cynical about religous art and Christianity in general, these things do have power and great potential. God can (and does) use wretched ornaments to serve his purposes. He can bless our futile attempts at divine representation and fill our lives with meaning. You could say that He is the master painter and He wants to paint our lives. My prayer is that God will touch His brush to our lives so that we can live again, and that the love that we’ve lost in the painting of life may come again. Thank you for visiting my show. Sincerely, Adrian Hanft

Back in March I told you about an art show I am having on January 7th in Hastings, Nebraska. I meant to write about it more regularly and document the process, but that didn’t work out. Maybe I can make up for it as I cram for the show which is rapidly approaching.

Partly because I am a designer, and partly because I need to start promoting the show in the next few weeks, today I worked on the posters and postcards. The theme of my show is: “Portraits of Christ: recent work by Adrian Hanft, III.” The posters are printed on old prints of Christian paintings. My friend Tony was kind enough to give me a stack of over 200 of these prints that were most likely used for Sunday school lessons. About 100 of them contained a picture of Jesus, and I have been appropriating some of these images in my work. It seemed natural to use these prints as the posters.

The size of the posters are going to be 8.5 x 15. I printed a white frame around the face of Jesus in the poster and printed the show info at the bottom. Each poster is individually numbered and signed. I am planning on having 50 posters and 50 postcards. The fun thing about the posters is that aside from some doubles, they are all going to be different. You can see the first four of them above, and you can click on them for a larger version. If I don’t know you and you are interested in receiving a postcard or a poster, contact me and I will see what I can do.

I love looking at drawings in sketchbooks. The rough gestures, the raw ideas, the immediate connection between thought and visual representation - all recorded without the tedious constraints of needing to stand on their own. They are hypnotizing. Mesmerizing. Fascinating. So today I was feeling bad because I haven’t kept a sketchbook since college. How can I be an artist and not have a sketchbook? In the past I have rationalized my neglect by pointing to the fact that I always have a camera with me. Why should I draw something when I can take a picture of it in a fraction of the time and record it more accurately? Today that excuse seemed especially flimsy. I need a sketchbook. I decided that I should buy a sketchpad or make one and carry it around with me everywhere I go. I will force myself to draw daily. I actually felt ashamed of myself for a little while. Then it hit me…

I carry a notepad with me almost everywhere I go and I write in it all the time. I am constantly filling it with thoughts, lists, and ideas. This is my sketchbook! I looked through the most recent pages of my notebook and although I rarely draw on the pages, I can clearly see the development from concept to a finished project. Isn’t that really the purpose of a sketchbook? You organize your thoughts. Outline ideas. Plan. Map. Explore. Build. Erase. Sketch.

So, yeah, I do have a sketchbook, sorta. Now that I think about it, it kinda makes sense in the context of my process as a designer. I usually have a pretty clear vision of the finished piece before I ever start constructing it. I don’t do many variations because I know generally what I need to convey and have already made a plan to execute it. The design is dictated by the message and the various components I am trying to organize. My designing happens by organizing the messages and deciding the best way to present the information. My sketchbook is where I make my battle plan. Is it any wonder that my sketchbook is filled with groups of words, arrows and lists instead of doodles, drawings and cartoons? We all have different methods and mentalities, and I wonder if that fingerprint can be seen in our sketchbooks. What does your sketchbook say about you?

I found out that I will be having an art show next January in Nebraska at Hastings College. I had a show there in 2004 with my friends Suzanne and Bennett Holzworth and I am looking forward to being in the gallery again. I get the back room, and the main space will display the controversial work of Robbie Conal. I was reluctant at first, but the more I think about it, the more excited I am about the show. I have wanted a reason to explore more deeply the Christian themes that have until now been little more than a footnote in my body of work. I will leave much unsaid for now, but you can expect more details in future posts.

We have a bunch of fabric sample boards in our office for some RV brochures we are doing, and someone commented that they look similar to the painting I have above my desk. Ha, ha very funny, but when I looked at it she was right. The image on the right is a painting I did in college. The bad thing is I hate the fabric. But the good news is my paintings would look great in one of those RVs.