Speaking about his Prism series, Hickok says, “As you go through life, you’re making a groove, literally, in your brain. That’s where we locate habit, pattern, expertise, or simply memory. It’s this groove we call life. That’s what I’m accessing in the this series.”
Hickok’s grandfather was a carpenter and he’s channeling that energy here, drawing on his inner craftsman. “I’m working with wood and so the gesso
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Speaking about his Prism series, Hickok says, “As you go through life, you’re making a groove, literally, in your brain. That’s where we locate habit, pattern, expertise, or simply memory. It’s this groove we call life. That’s what I’m accessing in the this series.”
Hickok’s grandfather was a carpenter and he’s channeling that energy here, drawing on his inner craftsman. “I’m working with wood and so the gesso goes down first, then a layer of black shoe polish. I let it all dry for twelve hours or so, and then I’ll be scarring the wood, scraping down through the painted surface with the beveled edge of an X-Acto knife. That’s where I get those clean, scarred lines and the Klee-like texture I’m going for.”
The works can be read, he says, as maps of his life. “Some people read palms; I read my paintings. I like to look down at this series, from a distance, almost from an aerial view, a God’s-eye view, and it’s like God watching my life, watching my groove-making.” Responding to the long lines that turn abruptly at sharp angles to form a triangle or a square, Hickok says, “That’s me going in the same direction for a while but then, a sudden, dramatic change. That’s me. I change a lot. That’s who I am as a person and an artist.”
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