Real time gives way to a fast-paced capture of art in motion, beginning with a bubblegum-pink background. An animal-human hybrid creature emerges from the center of the frame, black smoke curling from its puckered mouth to the edge of the screen. The creature becomes a huge, gnarled tree, and heavy black speakers hang suspended in mid-air. A thin, olive-green mist ribbons out from the speakers, transforming itself into a mass of thick leaves.
What looks like a street-art-influenced television cartoon is actually “Truck,” a motion painting rendered onto the side of a delivery truck by New York City based artist David Ellis. On the evening of October 6, 2010, Ellis visited Macaulay Honors College on Manhattan’s Upper West Side for a “Meet the Artist” event with a group of students. Ellis spoke about his transformation from graffiti to fine artist, the many influences that have shaped his artwork, and individual pieces that embody his truly unique artistic style.
Looking at Ellis’ artwork, it was easy to distinguish the significant role music played in the development of his artistic style. Movement, change, and rhythm seemed to manifest themselves one way or another in each piece—from his stop-motion videos, to his kinetic sculptures, to his live painting performances. To me, Ellis’s most striking and unique pieces were his “motion paintings.” Ellis created his motion paintings by recording painting sessions with a time-lapse camera that would take a picture every few seconds. He then used the digital images to create a stop-motion video, with the individual frames accelerated to create the illusion of a rapidly evolving painting. To complete the motion paintings, Ellis added sound to the visuals, whether it was hip-hop beats or noises recorded while he was painting.
What amazed me most about these works were that they were completely improvised. Watching the motion paintings, I could see Ellis kneeling on an empty studio floor or perched on a stepladder by the blank side of a truck, continuously layering painting upon painting onto his chosen canvas, each successive image covering the last. Of all the motion paintings Ellis showed, my favorite by far was “Animal,” which he painted on a studio floor. I felt that this was one of the most vibrant of his works, featuring a variety of strange creatures and animals, and a kaleidoscope of bright yellows, reds, and oranges. Ellis’s artwork looked to be very much influenced by street and graffiti art, which I thought brought a raw, urban quality to the piece. Throughout the motion painting, Ellis would sometimes throw splashes of paint across his work, letting it splatter and drip everywhere it landed. At first, I thought it was strange to throw paint on his work, because in a way it was ruined the image he had created. But as I continued to watch “Animal,” I realized that the paint splashes served to connect one image to the next, providing transition and a “clean slate” for him to work on.
What also fascinated me were Ellis’s innovative kinetic sculptures that combined painting, sculpture, and sound into one artwork. In his “drum paintings,” Ellis would stretch a piece of canvas over a frame and add automated drum actuators to the structure, creating an artwork that literally played itself. It was amazing to not only watch, but also listen to the rhythms and beats produced by these sculptures when played all at once. For one of his projects, entitled “Conversation,” Ellis attached drum actuators to empty oil drums lined up to form a pyramid against the wall of a gallery space. The oil drums themselves were painted a vibrant green, with a rainbow-colored smoke extending across all four walls of the room. When turned on, the actuators produced a beat that seemed as through it was straight from a hip-hop song. It was incredible to think that such a complex rhythm could come from something as simple as an empty oil drum.
Before seeing Ellis’s works, I never truly realized the depth and dimension movement and sound could give to a work of art. To me, paintings and sculptures were things that were usually looked at and rarely ever truly experienced. However, through Ellis’s art, I was able to both see and listen to sculptures and paintings, something I would have never thought possible. In his motion paintings, I could hear and see the continuous transformation of one image to the next, and in his sculptures I could look at the artwork and listen to the music it produced. My experience in meeting David Ellis and being introduced to his artwork taught me that art doesn’t always have to be still life—it can be dynamic and have a sound all its own.
Nice review