I immediately think of Paul Cézanne, the master Post-Impressionist, when I see the work of Martin Golland; his directional hatching / brush strokes create depth and volume. This is something which Cézanne explored, some may even say pioneered.
What strikes me as beautiful in the works is Gollands choice of pallet. I enjoy the natural feeling of the colours, they seem to fit together in the paintings to create a feeling of natural blending, rather than abstract or surreal contrasts that don’t mimic what we actually see in the real world. So, in this respect again, Golland follows the leads given by the Impressionists by painting what he sees of his romantic surroundings in his own eyes, rather than exactly replicating the way it looks like a photograph.
You get pieces of art that are pretty close replications of real life, evoke a sense of 3D, and really give a feeling of something that you can see happening. Well, Jaybo Monk touches briefly, in little corners of his paintings on these elements, fits together pieces that really make sense on their own, but what I find are his strongest suits are that he pushes the freak into what one would feel is quite natural and ordinary; freakishly and radically awesome.
It really is works of art like this that inspire me. Where does it come from? Where has it spilled forth from? What was on your mind? How did you get those strokes? How did you blend there? Did you create this from space? Those are just the first few that come from looking at the above photograph. Lord only knows how many more would come if I could actually behold one of them in front of me.
From what I’ve read, Jaybo is from a strong graffiti background, he grew up in France, but ran away from home to settle in Germany, Berlin to be exact. His biography on Circle Culture will take you into more detail, but its very interesting to hear how he has shaped the scene of that area from the ground, grass roots up.
A friend just told me, because I was lamenting about how far away my art is from this, that to get to the point where my art speaks like this, it takes many many hours, days, years of work. I optimistically put the fear of never getting to this point out of my mind and push on. Another friend once told me that if I spend to much time looking at all the other works out there, I’ll become overwhelmed with how much there is and start getting dizzy. I think that’s how I’m feeling right now. This is just such an amazing body of work Jaybo has.
Just wow. You know? wow. Shading, contortion, vivid body parts mixed with spaces of plain white. Ease and confusion. Words just keep flowing. Comprehension doesn’t follow suit. I found a great interview done by Remi Rough at Graffuturism, where I got the final picture of Jaybo from. But the interview does reach some interestingly quirky points, but mainly showcases some of Jaybo’s brilliant works. Maybe you’ve seen some of them before? Maybe it’s just in your dreams…
Also, the mixture of materials that he uses. To me, it looks like theres oils, water colors, pens, and spray paint? It is just confusing to me. Amazingly confusing. So much does it speak that its confusing.
I hope this opens up new doors for you as it has me, finding or learning of such style, such works just inspires me to the point of utter madness, a circling spiraling into madness that I can’t stop smiling about until I’m upside down and…
What do you think about Jaybo?
Here are a few videos to watch Jaybo’s process from Urban Art Core
