Woodworth Art

Reproduction, 19 x 28"

This composition is one of my most evolved pieces I have worked on. In this piece I wanted to weave together an entire story. One story, is how Art is created. The other story is how Koi are created using a “reproduction” machine. I achieved this by using over 200 hundred reference photos and employing a stop action animation technique. Stop action was widely used in cartoons and then in old science fiction movies like Clash Of The Titans. You move an object just a little bit at a time from the exact same reference point using a very still camera. When you advance each picture quickly it looks as though the objects are moving.

I started to think of how to tell a story using my Koi fish. I did a rough sketch and then another and another. I came up with this composition. The very old mechanical copying machine is called a Mimeograph and was used to reproduce copies for office use. It has a counter on it so you would know how many copies you were making as you turned the handle.

I cleared out an entire room and used a blind in the window to control my lighting exactly the way I wanted it. I staged everything until I knew it was right. This was quite a long process.

I used a Koi to run the Mimeograph and another in the background to feed colored pencils into the back of it. This is how the Koi get their color. The Koi that is coming out at the bottom is coming off the paper from the Mimeograph and coming to life. Like a birth if you will. All the markings on the Koi are from former grand champions at the all Japan Show held every year in Japan. These are the best of the best as far as markings go. The markings on the Koi running the Mimeograph are from the very first American Koi that won the all Japan Show in 2009. This was the first time that a Koi from the States won that show. It was a huge win from the U.S..

The Koi that is sort of swimming down in front is more of a supervisory position to oversee what is going on. In the background you will see some pencils that are stacked on top of each other to form “WA” that stands for Woodworth Art. I used my Dark Blue for the background and shadows to give the illusion that the Koi are underwater. Are they under water? The lighting suggests otherwise….Would the pencils float away?

By the way, if you’ve read this far, you might be interested to know that this piece can be seen from now until May 5, 2010, at the Grand Theater Center for the Arts, at 715 Central Avenue, Tracy, California.