I’ve been starting developing compositions for the next group of ENCODE pieces. Lake imagery and palettes are taking over from the popping pink and orange and greens from spring drawing.
sketching | ENCODE: BE summer series c Heather Hancock 2021
ENCODE palette planning
I’m developing new work in the ENCODE series. I have been exploring in completely divergent ways for the past year: taking an idea and seeing how many different compositions I can find. I’m ready to start thinking about multiple pieces and how pieces can interact in coherent hangings.
encode | GO/GROW WIP each 20”x20” glass + sanded texture c Heather Hancock 2021
This is letting me do two contradictory things: do less in each piece…and use additional forms of encoded information in individual panels. ENCODE evolved from another series SCAN where vertically streaming text elements offered a beautiful text based composition. For pieces in ENCODE series I’ve been using a single word or idea and exploring compositions with many fewer elements. I have been wanting to bring the vertical “SCAN” text elements into ENCODE as another way to create beauty from structure of encoded content.
Thinking about multi piece hangings creates space for different things to happen in each panel, all encoding go/grow/bloom in different ways.
The goal is to fully integrate across the groupings using several different techniques and elements including: hand cut glass inlays, textured background, etching, stringer fine lines, hardware insets and acrylic paint. I am holding off painting these new panels. I need to think about how color is working in these pieces.
So many directions to go with—or without—color. I do love this elemental raw textured silver. The strong matte / gloss contrast has always been so important in my work. More experimentation underway.
new formats
I am enjoying experimenting with new formats for my work this year. I’ve kinda had a mental barrier to translating my work into other formats. Part of the challenge is that I see the ‘objectness’ of my art as being central to its impact. I find it endlessly fascinating to see the cut glass elements and understand it as an object with dimension albeit only 3mm worth.
My first foray into fine art prints working with Fine Art printer Paul Lane yielded lovely high resolution prints on Hahnemuhle bright white archival cotton rag paper. The textures and shine translated incredibly beautifully onto cotton paper and started my art print subscription offering.
Another approach I am now also considering is working straight from digital files. I start with rough sketching but then transition to digital format to get the precision line and form that interests me.
I have been reluctant to share these digital drawings. I guess because they’re not in object form. But as I’m experimenting with different formats I realize that there are other important aspects of my work that can be highlighted with digital prints.
Printing on vellum is something I have always loved. And I think it’s because they create this luminescent quality. Literally glow with backlighting. So a whole new way to play with light.
series sketching printing on vellum c Heather Hancock 2021
This creates such a lovely light glowing print.
encode test print on vellum c Heather Hancock 2021
Another completely different format approach is printing on raw aluminum. Letting raw aluminum reflect light and shimmer as substitute for glass. With a matte finish I think there is good potential for this to be an option for a more permanent format. I would love to see screen printed or hand painted elements added to create additional texture. And, this is another interesting new way to interact with light.
test print on aluminum c Heather Hancock 2021
test print on aluminum c Heather Hancock 2021
Nature in City; City in Nature
in Fine Art, Nature Art
I am loving a new creative input—and outlet—these days with artist Annie Asebrook. EvanstonMade had an outdoor art initiative during the month of February at the Canal Shores Golf Club. Annie proposed figuring out an installation using only natural materials with one hour installation time.
And so began a new collaboration exploring nature and city. We share an interest in finding new ways to present and highlight the incredible variety and resilience of the natural world thriving around the built world.
psCO13 common reed Annie Asebrook + Heather Hancock 4/21
My understanding of our biological attunement to the natural world as both restorative and energizing is rooted in the idea that nature provides the perfect balance of pattern/repetition and information/complexity. City environments are often imbalanced, with an overload of implicit and explicit information alongside extreme repetition or chaotic visual noise. Approaching the natural world as information sets helps me understand why staying connected to the natural world is so important to living well in urban environments.
“My eyes have a habit of finding patterns in multitudes. The repeated patterns of nature — found in leaves, pine cones, ferns, burrs — hold my fascination. So do the massive redundancies of modern industrial life, conjuring images of large piles of batteries, or light bulbs, or tires. There’s a strange paradox to these mounds; on the one hand each unit’s individuality is rendered anonymous, and yet, if you look closely enough, one soon realizes that each unit is, however slightly, unique. At the same time, each individual piece does give up its singularity to the collective aesthetic that derives its power from numbers.
”
We are approaching weekly installations as inductive explorations in re-framing or re-presenting natural elements in public urban spaces. Each installation is a new opportunity to collect and name natural elements, edit segments for arbitrary discontinuity from nature’s continuity, identify possible new contexts and discover compositions in new geometries and interactions.
We make new discoveries with each installation and hope others who encounter the work will also enjoy a moment of surprise and delight, beauty and humor.
In using natural materials and public spaces, these installations are ephemeral experiences that disappear with natural forces and elements making an entirely sustainable art making system.
ENCODE series development
I love the creative freedom I am finding with the ENCODE series. Texture and etching and glass inlay and paint are all techniques I can use to create the imagery I can envision. And thinking as larger groupings means I don’t have to ‘say it all’ in each piece. Different elements and motifs can be developed in individual panels to help tell the bigger story.
I love paint on concrete. I always notice paint in parking garages and street markings. Color catches my eye and gives me a jolt of happy. But I also love the elemental, rawness of unpainted sanded texture. I’m thinking I’ll have more individual panels left unpainted to mix in with painted pieces.
ENCODE GO series | glass inlay + sanded texture | each 20”x20" c Heather Hancock 2021
ENCODE GO series | glass inlay + sanded texture + acrylic pant | each 20”x20" c Heather Hancock 2021
SpringGO edition prints
SpringGO art print subscription
Spring Go Edition art print subscription
SpringGO! art prints are ready to head out into the world.
I love having this new easy format for my work. Glass and concrete translates beautifully into paper and ink in these satisfying square prints.
SpringGO! edition art print 8”x8” c Heather Hancock 2021
Nature art collab
Ongoing collab with Annie Asebrook is taking us to fun new materials and ideas. Here’s what we did with Common Reed stems.
BUILD: February art print arriving
I love getting images of art prints settled into new homes. February art print, BUILD, features an intertwining vine full of possibility. Architectural building becomes a stand-in for the optimistic and deeply inspiring idea that we are all builders. This essentially creative act finds expression with myriad materials and tools and product.
Nature art: Icicle city
A couple weeks ago, Annie Asebrook proposed a 1 hour challenge: figure out a temporary concept ideally with only natural materials and 1 hour installation time as part of EvanstonMade’s Winter Wonderland at Canal Shores Golf club.
Since I ordinarily work with glass+concrete, it’s very freeing and playful to think about what materials and process can work as an entirely ephemeral experience. When Annie texted a picture of icicles I was immediately interested. Glass is a manmade material that mimics reflective materials in the natural world, especially water+ice. My interest in glass as an art medium comes from its unique capacity to catch and reflect light, creating a dynamic shifting visual experience that is a (very pale) imitation of the constant change and transformation we thrive on in the natural world.
Testing icicles 2/20/21
Testing icicles 2/20/21
Annie carefully extracted icicles from around her home+yard. I took to the alleys, finding unnoticed icicles in reach on the back of garages. This natural form, ubiquitous in early spring melts transformed into a building material.
We initially thought we would see an icicle forest take shape.
Detail Icicle city 2/21/21
Annie Asebrook 2/21/21
Heather Hancock 2/21/21
As we placed icicles a city skyline was clearly emerging. A lovely city-in-nature and nature-in-city connection.
Icicle city (detail) Annie Asebrook + Heather Hancock 2/21/21
Icicle city (detail) Annie Asebrook + Heather Hancock 2/21/21
We took images knowing that with the temperature at 35 through the rest of the day and night the work was shrinking and would disappear by morning. Such a satisfying thing to create an ephemeral experience that returns to nature without a trace.
New ideas for spring GO series
I’m busy sketching ideas for spring GO series. Given my precision cutting approach to glass, I do refine ideas digitally. This helps translate ideas into material form. Things evolve while I’m cutting from this base composition. This spring is GO time! Heading back outdoors in search of color and signs of life and just maybe some social interaction. The words I’m encoding for this series include go, grow and bloom. And exploring lots of juicy ideas about nature-in-city and city-in-nature.
Happy Valentine's Day
February print arrived in time for Valentine’s—US shipments at least. : )
Crisp coherent line
in Fine Art
Something about a crisp coherent line that I find deeply satisfying: the horizon over Lake Michigan, precise rhythms of an architectural facade, street markings on asphalt.
Final hanging | Art for home
I’m thrilled with this new hanging of ENCODE pieces. I love the grays+warm oranges in the white room. They are shimmering and catching light as I expected : )
ENCODE: BUILD BLOOM FOCUS 20”x20” hand cut glass + paint c Heather Hancock
ENCODE: BUILD BLOOM FOCUS 20”x20” hand cut glass + paint c Heather Hancock
ENCODE: BUILD BLOOM FOCUS 20”x20” hand cut glass + paint c Heather Hancock
Repeating themes | Art in conversation
I am continuing to understand how my work is weaving together. Previous pieces and small technical sketches turn into new vocabulary elements. I am thinking again about how SCAN could be integrated into ENCODE as a compositional approach. I love the vertical flow of information conveyed in SCAN compositions. ENCODE emerged as a deconstructed simplified version of the text element. I could see SCAN composition now being informed by ENCODE with more negative space/silver textured canvas.
top L Encode: BLOOM 20”x20” | top R SCAN 26”x36” | bottom R Encode: BLOOM 20"x20” | bottom L urban vine 14”x14”
ENCODE | weaving together ideas + interests
I recently started grouping art across series and have noticed 3 things.
ENCODE: BUILD | REFLECT 22x22 | REFLECT Truss Study 24x24 | stringer sketch | power tower study
Concepts and motifs are starting to weave together and interconnect. I can see how small explorations have been incorporated in my visual vocabulary to be used in different ways in other work.
There is a common underlying theme of “seeing the city’"…or maybe more accurately “reading the city.”
Approaching the city as information, I have explored the vocabulary of architecture in REFLECT. Add in the human body+mind and regular architectural line and form is distorted by visual perception.
In ENCODE I am again exploring information. There’s implicit information in surfaces and textures and transitions (ie thinking city infrastructure: roadways, sidewalks, buildings). And there’s explicit information in signage and markings that guide, direct and limit behavior. ENCODE re-purposes this material and typographic vocabulary. Approaching language as a generative force, compositions use both form and content to offer new information. Inspiring ideas are presented as a partially abstracted sculptural form and embedded in enduring concrete.
The other piece to ENCODE is that reference to nature in the graphic leaf element. I often talk about the points of intersection between city+nature. But I’ve been thinking of a false dichotomy between city and nature, or an artificial boundary that simply doesn’t exist. Every city is plunked on top of nature…and nature rebounds and grows and does its best around our engineering. It is the ultimate model of resilience. Transforming and thriving in hard environment. There’s more to explore here for sure but for now, nature is fully integrated into this vocabulary. I struggle with whether this reduced/graphic approach is the right idea. Lots to think about here.
Adding in the circle seems to be all about joy for me. I’ve often incorporated circles into my work. I love how simple this painted circle is. It makes me happy.
I can start to see how work from different series is in interesting dialog.
Art for home
Art for Residential Spaces
I’m working on an art hanging for our living room. I’ve banged nails into this wall for art hangings for years and it was high time for patching and a paint refresh. I used Benjamin Moore Decorator White. Looks great.
Benjamin Moore Decorator White refresh
I originally thought I wanted a set of two or three ENCODE pieces with pale steel blue accents. As I started looking at pieces in the space, turns out I’m more drawn to the warm oranges. And totally loving all the different shades of orange that I’ve explored this year. So thinking a set of ENCODES with orange and possibly balanced with one gray one.
warm oranges | ENCODE series 20”x20” c Heather Hancock 2020
For now, my plan is to be able to hang sets of 2 and 3s on this wall. And swap out work over time. I love living with work and seeing the differences with daily and seasonal cycles. I’ll start with this grouping. And I am toying with softening the gray in the right panel. TBD.
Encode BLOOM BUILD FOCUS glass + paint 20”x20”
Inauguration day
Feels like a whole new start today. Staying focused on THRIVE. How do we make space for everyone to thrive? Looking forward to big ideas and renewed energy in 2021.
Green for white+gray January
I come back to green + gray again and again in my work. Nature finding a way to thrive around the hard cold urban textures of concrete and asphalt and brick serves as a model of resilience.
Winter Survival Edition | art prints (January THRIVE)
Winter Survival Edition | art prints (January THRIVE)