TOM LOWE: One of a Kind

"I've never owned a computer.

I've never purchased anything from Amazon.

I've never bought a CD.

These statements don't make me any better or any worse than anyone it's just me. Of course there are times when they are a hindrance, but I feel like these actions have allowed me to look at the images I've worked on in this series in a certain way. I would, of course, so much prefer to talk face to face with you and explain my work, I think I'm much better at this than I am writing about it."

All of the drawings have different degrees of applied pressures with the pencils, to explore a range of reflections.
The time elapsed from my first point of contact with the images explore a time based reflection."

"By creating two similar drawings I hoped to create a scenario where one would be intrigued to land and think about what one was looking at. To ask questions. Optically I think the eye and then the brain will automatically trigger responses based on very subtle differences between two similar things. Like a child’s game of spot the difference. Maybe by creating two images it actually solidifies as one and particularly with colour, the more one looks at it the more the colours become apparent. A two point perspective becomes a single point perspective."

"All of the drawings are derived from photos. Often my work has been cited as photo realism or even Pop. These terms I feel are outdated and I feel that too often work is placed in pre-existing boxes that are easy. However a lot has changed in 60 years, changes that have placed images in a different arena. I think what was then ‘Pop Art’ has become ‘Social Art’, with the way images are shared, dispersed and the way that we and big companies use our images."

"The use of the colour white as a reflector was very important in the production. So much so that I used three times as many white pencils to coloured pencils.
Changing how I approached layering the pigments also allowed for some reflections to appear at different depths, so that in some drawings the reflection is very much on the surface whilst others appear very much at the back of the image. This for me encapsulated the idea of memory."

"By taking these images off line and presenting them drawn they should be considered different because otherwise that would insinuate that everything online is what it is and can only be seen in one way.
Our presentation hopefully will lead the viewer into looking a little longer at what we are looking at."

 

Text by Tom Lowe, 2021