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June 18, 2010 7:22 PM   Subscribe

JJ Cromer is a self-taught painter, whose dense, liney work reminds me of Howard Finster and Basil Wolverton.
posted by klangklangston (12 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
 
The majority of the images look like high school note book doodles. I guess there's a market for all kinds of imagery, but this stuff leaves me highly unimpressed.
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:54 PM on June 18, 2010


Basil Wolverton, maybe. A little. But nothing like Howard Finster. Pretty disappointing, in my opinion.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 8:07 PM on June 18, 2010


I think some of these a quite good. I just wish they were larger and I could zoom in.
posted by tula at 8:34 PM on June 18, 2010


are quite good.
posted by tula at 8:35 PM on June 18, 2010


Basil Wolverton in the fluid lines appropriating Modern illustration motifs, and if you can't see the obvious debt to Finster in composition, I don't know what to tell you.
posted by klangklangston at 8:50 PM on June 18, 2010


I'm not really seeing Wolverton; Cromer is so much more abstract. Reminds me more of Mark Beyer.
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:16 PM on June 18, 2010


An assiduous doodler. We've probably all filled notebook pages like these during dull meeting.
posted by Faze at 4:26 AM on June 19, 2010


These actually remind me quite a bit of Zen Doodles, but at a level of awesome. I can doodle a little but I wish I had had the ability to "fill notebook pages like these during a dull meeting." There's a lot of skill and creativity in the composition and execution of the drawings for a self-taught artist. I like!

Tula: IE8 has a zoom funtion under the "view" menu that will allow you to get pretty close (200% on my monitor) before the image starts to deteriorate appreciably.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:19 AM on June 19, 2010


Doodle-ish yes. But that doesn't disqualify it as interesting for me. Ultimately, all art is a form of doodling. The kind of over the top doodling he's doing here is great and I love love love the absence of negative space. I think these are fabulous. I would be *very* happy if I owned any of these, especially Freud on Vacation. Thanks for sharing.
posted by madred at 7:34 AM on June 19, 2010


I get a Huichol vibe from these, which I mean in the most complimentary sense—yeah, thanks!
posted by dpcoffin at 10:20 AM on June 19, 2010


This is probably the best stuff I've seen through MetaFilter. Finster for sure, and I see the Wolverton, but I think it's a stretch to call influence on that one. But who cares.

Yeah, it's doodly, but I highly doubt he just starts to make marks aimlessly a la high school notebook. He takes too many cues from comic book layouts, typography and poster art for everything to just lay where it falls.

I really love it when an artist makes things work that shouldn't. It's a strange comparison, but this is sort of like Superjail in that way. Same sort of aesthetic source, but with very different results. Words in a painting? Very hard to pull off at all. Such busy composition? Also difficult. Maintaining the "low art" doodly aspect but keeping ideas about space, representation, pattern and composition in mind? Very rare. I'll be watching this guy.
posted by cmoj at 11:25 AM on June 19, 2010


Love it.
posted by Lezzles at 3:11 PM on June 19, 2010 [1 favorite]


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