Today, I continue with my abstract designs. I saw a video bit about a series of Miró prints that inspired me. He used some of his plates repeatedly on the same paper. In between prints, he would rotate the plate by 180 degrees. He got some very interesting results, especially when using another color for the second print.

This reminded me of a deck of playing cards, where the Jacks, Queens and Kings are printed upside down so no matter how you hold the card you will see what you have. I tried the same thing with today’s abstract: I used the icons I developed for my brother Mike and me, and up-ended them on opposite sides of the paper.

Two Jacks and Three Mikes
12″x9″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Block

My icon is upright on the right-hand side of the paper. The zig-zag lines represent my mustache (an added improvement to the original icon). The same image is upside down on the left side. Mike’s icon is on the top and bottom of the paper. You can follow the line from the unpainted loop, which represent his nostril, to his exaggerated bottom lip at one end to the other side that ends in a flourish, that represents his eye.

In between my two icons, and overlapping Mike’s icons, is a tilted oval, showing a slit-like eye looking at an elongated figure that spans the face, down to the chin. Mike is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal and often used to slap himself on the the head or hold his hand to his face and hit his elbow to his chest. The figure next to, and overlapping the oval of Mike’s face represents his hand, in a stereotypical posture that Mike used to assume.

I like all the imagery in this study, but I’m not sure how much it translates to the viewer.