The 4×4 gallery artwork challenge

I Don’t Do Squares

This might be the first time scrolling Instagram actually led me to making something.

I came across an open call for a Nevada Fine Arts store gallery show in Reno, Nevada. One simple rule: every artwork had to be 4×4 inches.

If you know my work, you know I don’t do squares.
I avoid them. Even in photography that I love to do, the Instagram sqaure feels so stupid. Nothing fits, composition is not working, squares are only good for online store catalogs, thats it. I don’t like how they behave. They feel restrictive.
So naturally, I’m all in on this open call, haha.

Working Smaller Than I Like

I started the same way I usually do — sketching on paper.
Old-school – pen, paper and some imagination. I use doted sketch books for my geometrical creations – the Mustache Men. Easier to transfer to my plywood canvases when you see the grid underneath.

Transferring the drawing onto plywood is still the most time-consuming part for me. It’s also the least romantic part of the process. But it’s necessary if I want things to land where I intend them to. Especially when I make multiple items from one sketch. That is the best practice, because every artwork turns out completly different. The more artworks I create the more stickers I will have for fun-and-action in the streets later.

Painting, Outlining, Deciding

Painting is where the resistance fades a bit.
Acrylics, mixed with a little chalk paint for a matte surface.
Layer by layer at least 3 times for perfect coverage. Waiting for the paint to dry. Use acrylic mnarkers for faster results. Brushes are here more for craft perfection and meditation. It doesn’t impact the final result. You won’t be able to tell how were they made in the first place – so who cares how you paint them 🙂

Outlining comes last. First we make the thick juicy border lines and establish the noundaries. This is where the character starts to show some identity. That gives us general wibe how grim, how graphical we are planning to be.

Small details, face tattoos, scars and wrinkles – That’s the part I enjoy most — letting my hands decide what happens next. Complete freestyle of mind and body – the long awaited desert, prize for all the work that came beforehand. It’s never fully planned. It depends on the day, the mood, the amount of coffee I had.

Two Versions

I ended up making two versions of the same Mustache Man.

One clean.
One rougher, with dotted shadows and more depth.

The dotted one went to the gallery.
The clean one stayed with me.

I like them both for different reasons.
Side by side, they explain more than I could in words.

Why Do This at All?

This piece wasn’t about selling.
It wasn’t about trends or formats or algorithms.

It was about limits.
About doing something slightly uncomfortable on purpose.
About seeing what happens when I work against my preferences instead of around them.

Sometimes that’s where things start to feel interesting again.