Kathal posted:i love him coz of his demonbaby stories and rants, brilliant! and alot of his sketchblog art
Seriously. I do love the work he's done with nin, I think they have a good creative partnership, but holy fuck he has got some serious fine art chops. Ok, I know that sounds pretentious and absurd, but that's what happens when you've been to as many fine art schools as I have. LOL.
His commercial art is great, but look at this from sketchblog:
go here to click for larger: [
www.rob-sheridan.com]
That image captures something that words really cannot. It evokes a visceral reaction, a feeling of truth... like visual poetry speaking the unspeakable. In my opinion, THAT is the difference between fine art and commercial art - what does it communicate. It's not about whether you used the 5 oz hand-stretched canvas painted with bunny guts and oils. It's about what the viewer feels. And the first time I saw that I cried because it captured something that cannot be adequately described, yet there it was, right in front of me.
I just hope that Rob appreciates that most artists don't have the gift to jump back and forth like that - though we all know Trent has been stradling that line of art vs. commerce for a long time - and I hope he takes some time to continue developing this aspect of his work. Because I look at what he does outside the nin world and I see such potential in the fine art side of his work, I hope that he doesn't let the commercial art side - which pays far better - keep him from developing the other.
Does anyone else find his other work interesting?