Inspired by Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha seemed to love random objects and words; although his though processes are professed to be quite deep.  Words that accompany his own work are often ones like 'deadpan' or 'banal,'(Ruscha 2009) and he stretched himself through multiple mediums such as print making, painting, photography and more.

What I love about Ruscha is he did what he did, then he didn't backdown.  Many had a lot to say about his work, especially at the beginning, but there was a proven audience for it, so it lived and grew and eventually became accepted, then admired, imitated and even honored.

Ruscha and I are kin in the fact that he loves "things on the bright side," and while he appreciates the dark side of the universe it has never 'appealed' to him to investigate it.  (cited in Nayeri 2016).

Inspired by Ruscha's book art- I created this mini series combining something that represents 'banal human existence' and combined it with words that may or may not change how the image is then viewed.  And I had a bit of fun as well.  Modernizing the images with color and a digital book format you can view the final product above. 

• WULLSCHLAGER, J. 2008, "Ed Ruscha", FT.com, , pp. 1.
• NAYERI, F. 2016, Ed Ruscha Continues His Wordplay, New York Times Company, New York.
• RUSCHA, Ed (1937– ) 2009, , 2nd edn, Oxford University Press.