SoAL Film Fest will present Josh Story’s ‘Dark as the Sky’ for February’s LoDa Artwalk.

Friday Feb 11, 6pm – 9pm

Dark as the Sky – Josh Story

In this body of work I created an alternate universe that was similar to our own but with obvious stylistic differences. The process is a blend of relief block printing with oil painting to create multi-layered environments that play with the viewer’s ability to perceive space in the finished image. I was able to travel to Spain in 2008, this a place where it possible to see various types of architecture built over thousands of years in a very short amount of time. Spain is a place that blurs the lines between ancient, old, recent and new, and in some cases futuristic. It almost feels like traveling to another planet. While there I filled my sketchbook with extravagant styles of architecture set against outer space.

The work depicts various notable styles of architecture throughout human record. I set these structures in fantastic landscapes or floating through space. The architectural forms are done in woodcut, which gives the images a hand drawn feel. I paint my prints to play off the loose organic quality of my painting style against the graphic look of the prints. By taking the structures out of their normal setting I can play with scale and proportion by making the scenery smaller or larger. The contrast of the black and white print negates what the eye perceives as depth while the colors used in the painting work to add to the illusion of depth, which causes tension in the finished pieces. I create the compositions in order to present a perspective unaccustomed to the viewer. Blending the print into the background or leaving it on top of the painting also can add to or completely deny a sense of depth and space. I printed many of the objects then paint in the scenery and/or various other objects to either take away or add emphasis to particular objects in the composition.