Traveling is always a great excuse for me to get caught up on reading or the need to hyper focus in on a project. In fact, some of my best work comes with a laptop on my lap sitting in a car, train or airplane. My most recent trip was inspired, as I read Henry Adam’s book, “Tom and Jack—The intertwined lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock” and designed most of the new Kelsey Brookes book, “Bigger, Brighter, Bolder.”
“Bigger, Brighter, Bolder” commemorates Kelsey’s Quint Contemporary exhibition, (exhibit and book title), held earlier this year and celebrates a new voice in modern painting. The 7 ½” x 9 ¼” full-color catalog published by Murphy Design features work from Quint Contemporary, New Image Art Gallery and photography by Tim Mantoani, Josh White and Mark Murphy.
Kelsey’s work is an intuitive assemblage of mini paint strokes that reveal organic shapes, animals and poetic prose. Each painting invites the viewer to inspect the canvas closely and experience micro details that reveal whimsical creatures inhabiting finite spaces within the composition.
“Bigger, Brighter, Bolder” is an experimentation of micro-symbology, small painted details that work their way rhythmically throughout every sector of the canvas. Kelsey’s sprawling compositions might have been influenced by his prior career as a scientist, analyzing micro-organisms through his trusty microscope.
“Bigger, Brighter, Bolder” featuring Kelsey Brookes will be a high-quality publication reproduced with archival printing techniques and released this July in 2010. Mark Murphy is the kid designing and Murphy Fine Art Books/Murphy Design is the company publishing. More information soon.