Have you met…Chris Ashley?

“365,” 2008, 365 inkjet prints, David Cunningham Projects, 2008

An introduction can be a wonderful thing. You can meet interesting people, and make new friends. You can be introduced to your new favorite foods, books, music, or artist.

I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorite artists. Some of whom I’ve been familiar with for years, and others I’ve only recently been introduced to.

The person I’d like to introduce is the artist Chris Ashley.

2013-01-20130107 (Pleasing), 20130107, HTML, 610 x 550 pixels

“I have been making HTML drawings since 2000. The first blog where I did this (March 2000 – October 2003) may be dead; Look, See is the second incarnation (October 2003- December 2007); now it’s here.

The HTML drawings exist within a specific context- anyone who has followed the work for awhile will have a sense that

1. The drawings have or respond to a subject, and are somewhat representational, but not always of tangible things;
2. This is really about making images, not about software.
3. The drawings also derive their meaning from the fact that they exist within a weblog with a daily deadline: one drawing (typically) is exhibited each day, and the weblog serves as a gallery and an archive, all public;
4. Meaning is also inherent in the fact that the drawings (almost always) are in series, so that each drawings is part of a body of work;
5. Making these requires working up against the edge of the extreme and simple limitations of HTML tables, so that even though the images are necessarily structured in a grid, great effort is made so that the images are more than just a set of blocks; and
6. Color is painterly- conventions like mix, tint, shade are emulated and used for structure, space, and composition.

It’s all quite a bit more involved- intuitive, hand made, felt- than it might initially sound, which will be borne out by looking and seeing.”

B+G4NIAD-02, 2013, acrylic and Ace aluminum paint on canvas, 6 x 6 in

Chris Ashley lives and works in Lives and works in Oakland, CA.

EDUCATION

BA in Fine Arts from California State University, Hayward
Multiple Subject Teaching Credential, CSU Hayward
Masters in Education (coursework complete), Dominican University, San Rafael

Daruma (Thinking of Hakuin Ekaku) 14 of 22, 2013, ink & watercolor on paper, 14 x 11 inches

Other material relating to Chris Ashley.

Artist website: chrisashley.net

Look, See: Chris Ashley

Some Walls: Chris Ashley

Wikipeadia: Chris Ashley

Thinking About Art: Chris Ashley

If you liked this introduction please check out the previous and next.