Daniel at Work Peering through the many layers as if seeing into the process of creation itself, we get an understanding of the playfulness and inventiveness of American artist, Daniel Sewell, as he works. The quality of spray paint modulates between very opaque to nearly translucent, creating interlocking shapes that lead the viewer’s eye around the image eventually reaching the edges in a phosphorescent glow rescinding into the background.

Sewell’s inspiration is very much in tune with the natural world and the personal expression of it. Great movements of the 20th century, in particular Cubism, have also intrigued Sewell. “I'm deliberately continuing the tradition of Cubism, as well as other important disciplines during the modern period.” The attempt to portray three-dimensions within a flat space, absent of the illusion of perspective, remains a common aesthetic in Sewell’s work. His figures, made of flat planes, seem to be in a state of flux, reaching out or moving away from the viewer’s vantage point. His art is usually created with one color of spray paint on a softly tinted sheet of paper. The interplay between the green, red, blue, or yellow paper and the color of the spray paint create a variety of hues within the work. It is this simplification of the palette that allows Sewell’s audience to focus on the forms within the work, twisting and unfolding figures or portraits. He fashions interesting cutout shapes and places them over the paper to create a negative space as he sprays around them. The areas are allowed to present the color of the paper or are later covered over by subsequent applications of paint. From this process, a figure is born, often with outstretched limbs and highly emotive facial expressions. “So much of the work deals with formal play—improvisation with rotation, proportion and composition,” explains Sewell. “The formal elements of my work lead to larger questions which deal with how to represent nature, and to find solutions to what seem to be limits in the representation of nature.”

His work has been influenced by his love of experimentation; Sewell has collaborated with many other artists and also non-artists, including scientists. Extensive travel around Asia has influenced Sewell’s worldview and creative life. He presently resides in Shanghai.

www.Art-Mine.com/ArtistPage/Daniel_Sewell.aspx

PP Chop’d & Screwed (6) - Spraypaint 30'' x 20'' PP Chop’d & Screwed (8) - Spraypaint 30'' x 20'' PP Chop’d & Screwed (9) - Spraypaint 30'' x 20''