Joshua Mitchell
(Born in Chicago IL, August 24, 2002)
(Born in Chicago IL, August 24, 2002)
An artist currently attending the Art Institute of Chicago. Focusing in Fine Arts, including Printmaking, Painting, Illustration, and Digital art.
Statement :
To Pause, To Confuse, To Combine, To Emphasize - These are the intentions that define my drawings and prints. My practice continues to evolve and was initially focused on creating realistic portraits. The subject for these would be using existing images and people for reference and building from there. While it still mainly consists of this, it has now become almost randomized into these collages that consist of one large drawing. I myself can’t fully explain how some of these images and data correlate to one another, but there’s an unconscious and conscious balance of choosing them in the moment they’re made. I respond to how I’m feeling in that exact moment, as well as branch off of conversations. I choose all my references at that moment, no matter how random it may seem. They’re chosen for some reason I barely know. Each include strong color saturation and accurate detailing central to this pursuit, stemming from my former focus in paint. How do I know when it’s done you might ask. Well, I stop when the empty space tells me :
“there’s a focus now”. - Empty Space, 2024
If there was a way to describe the new subject of it, I’d call it “Boy Art.”. I say this because it’s a lot of what the typical boy likes (before “man” makes it all bland.). It’s video games, action movies, horror movies, low brow humor, pro wrestling, unnecessary violence, and much more with some degeneracy spliced in. My personal intention behind the works were to Fill the void of openly making references, while dissecting entertainment in all. However, it’s made a new portion of it’s own, becoming A snapshot of my age bracket, when I was born, what I consumed, etc. Similar to how pop art references previous years. It is now The data loading of someone born in the ‘90s and ‘00s.
Taking inspiration from the many artists and printmakers who played a part in culture, personal favorite being John Holmstrom, I’ve slowly limited more materials and have gone a more D.I.Y route. My current material list is One green mechanical pencil, Three pens (two ink, one ballpoint), and many machines and tech to reproduce afterwards. The accessibility is not only from the inspirations, but also stems from the ideas of Community and Anti-Hierarchy. As a young artist still, I prioritize selling for cheap, as the people who relate & consume probably are questioning future finances just like me. Explaining the art shortly though, I’d probably ask “What do you think when you see pro wrestling?” For some, it causes confusion, some nostalgia, uproars about realness (from people who don’t like fun), you might even get a “why?”.
Taking inspiration from the many artists and printmakers who played a part in culture, personal favorite being John Holmstrom, I’ve slowly limited more materials and have gone a more D.I.Y route. My current material list is One green mechanical pencil, Three pens (two ink, one ballpoint), and many machines and tech to reproduce afterwards. The accessibility is not only from the inspirations, but also stems from the ideas of Community and Anti-Hierarchy. As a young artist still, I prioritize selling for cheap, as the people who relate & consume probably are questioning future finances just like me. Explaining the art shortly though, I’d probably ask “What do you think when you see pro wrestling?” For some, it causes confusion, some nostalgia, uproars about realness (from people who don’t like fun), you might even get a “why?”.