Assorted recent projects by Jorge Colombo
My finger paintings on 2012 network TV, twice in a week: on a prop New Yorker on ABC’s Suburgatory, and on a 20x200.com print on the wall of Uma Thurman’s room, in NBC’s Smash. I never met Uma, but hang out one afternoon with Jane Levy (right before she got famous) so it’s nice to end up on the cover of her character’s bedside reading.
Portuguese newspaper Público has been publishing portfolios of Instagram pictures by various photographers, and Pedro Almeida invited me to show mine. (My whole output so far is here.) I used the opportunity to write down some thoughts I had on Instagram at the time. Here’s the translation, titled The Challenge of the Limitations:
“My best stuff is not done with Instagram, but with Hipstamatic. You should check out my photo journal at ny1x1.tumblr.com. Instagram, I don’t really like it. I only use it as a challenge, to overcome limitations that bug me. The tiny portfolios, for instance, feel hodge-podgy; thus I stick to series of 4 or 8 images, to get consistency across each “shelf” on the grid. The coercive sharing is exasperating; so I only shoot mini-essays that follow each other as a narrative. (For images that do matter, there’s always Hipstamatic.) Worse yet, the option to apply filters AFTER shooting feels like cheating; so I simply chose ONE filter each few few weeks, and that’s what I use. (As when we loaded cameras with a certain roll of film, remember?) I’m basically designing sets of rules, and embracing restrictions from the analog era, to this contemporary and uncontrollable way of propagating images. I’m trying to slow down the future just a bit. But of course I’m gonna lose the battle.”
Ted Keller and Florian Bachleda got me illustrating Fast Company’s cover story “The Lost Steve Jobs Tapes” with more pictures of Jobs than I ever imagined. At least I did everything on an iPad. See them all here. (Extra stuff available in tablet version.)
I spent the first week of March 2012 in Long Beach, California, covering TED2012: Full Spectrum in images finger painted on location, on an iPad. Full collection of images here. These were shown throughout the event on screens at Syfy’s Imaginarium, (designed by Sub Rosa) one of the social spaces that TED’s partners provide around the venue, for attendees who’d rather watch talks onscreen instead of remaining in the auditorium, or need to be working simultaneously. Like everyone else, I had previously explored online recaps of previous TED events. But attending in person was as inspiring as one might expect.
Most of the landscapes I paint are done on location, from life. To file under those of places I’ve never been to: this Tuscany image commissioned by Nicholas Blechman for The New York Times Book Review, illustrating a text by David Leavitt
Sarah Kennedy, Associate Educator at the Lab Programs, brought me to MoMA in February 2012 for a total of four Digital Finger Drawing Workshops. As their website puts it: “Organized in conjunction with the exhibition Print/Out, Print Studio is an interactive space that explores the evolution of artistic practices relating to the medium of print. The studio offers a series of drop-in workshops, lectures, and events that emphasize accessible and sustainable models for the production and dissemination of ideas.” I loved the results. There was a broad variety of attendees in age, artistic experience, even familiarity with touch screens. And the results were often surprising. (Photos by Paula Court.)
Kate Donnelly edits FromYourDesks.com, a site exploring the workspaces of creative people. My own space of choice had ran a while ago, but now she got me to interview someone else about their office. I thought of David Lang, whose space I know quite well (my second cover for The New Yorker was painted from the rooftop directly above his office). I still managed to learn a lot.
Nick Mrozowski and Tony Case, of Adweek magazine, sent me around town sketching mobile device users — on my own mobile device, of course. See the full collection of iPhone drawings I made for the project, outtakes included.
The March 2012 issue of Vanity Fair features six spots I drew to illustrate Henry Alford’s Typology of Moviegoers. From left to right, top to bottom, please meet: 1. The Cinephile; 2. A Person on a First Date; 3. The Incognito Celebrity; 4. The Potential Masturbator; 5. The Former Child Star, Now Supporting Herself by Selling Weight-Reduction Powders; and 6. The Crew Member Who Didn’t Get Invited to the Screening. Check out VF’s page 302 for full descriptions.
Sunlight on Twenty-third Street. I don’t paint trees too often, but the winter light on Madison Square Park is irresistible. Most of my other covers for The New Yorker tend to be nocturnes. Here are a few notes Françoise Mouly and Mina Kaneko posted on the magazine’s blog.
In 2009 I created on my iPhone the digital sets to my friends’ Angela and David’s ballet production, Nutcracker: Rated R. Better than me explaining it, just see the sampler video. (I also wrote a text about the experience.) In the 2011 show, this time at Le Poisson Rouge, in the West Village, the screens didn’t work as well as in the original production. But at least I created a new poster.
Took me a while to overcome my disdain towards Hipstamatic. Once I settled down on my favorite lens/film combo and stuck to it, things got better. Lately I’ve been shooting from weird angles the star faces I see in subway movie posters.
