Worlds Thru Ink, The Art Of Ron Jones

©2008. Worlds Thru Ink, Ron Jones
Date Completed: 2004
Original Size: 30x40"
Frame: 38x46"
Price of Original: Available upon request
Contact the artist regarding the original as well as custom print types, sizes and prices

ARTIST'S DESCRIPTION OF PIECE
2004

Visions: That which is or has been seen; A mental representation of or as of external objects or scenes; Dream; Fantasy; Specifically, an inspired revelation; Some product of the imagination; The ability to anticipate and make provision for future events; Forsight; Insight;

Enigmatist: A maker or pro-pounder of riddles.
Windows: An opening in the wall of a building; To admit light; A window like aperture; The eyes are the windows of the soul.
Masterpiece: A work or piece of art or literature done with consummate skill or showing the hand of a master; a supreme accomplishment; chef-d’oeuvre.

I consider "Visions of the Enigmatist, Windows" the most intense mind-boggling investment of my art career. It’s the only piece I produced in 2004. This original was completed after about 500 hours of drawing and with research it took 9 months. It’s a collaboration of certain detailed drawings and ideas taken from all my previous ink originals prior to this work, as well as sketches from a family member. As you can see in the above pictures I completed the detailed border first. I started with the border so I could sketch some ideas and show myself how I was going to draw the final Castle or Heavenly Kingdom image. Over half of the total time invested into this drawing was inked on it’s border.

During the creation of the border I was pondering the ideas of this Castle. Below is a picture of the main image in the border that placed this work on an architectural pathway.

This line work provided the key part of "Visions" that fed my many ideas for the schematics of a multi room Castle. The Windows within this work defines multi room. Some windows are lighted. This image is also connected at all four corners of the border. This gave me the insight to use the 2 x 2 formations during construction of the Castle.

Then when it came to the image of the Castle I was a little lost in the world of trying to organize something tangible, I couldn’t quite comprehend how to put it on paper. So I chose to invest into the engineering mind of Tony Vader, my wife’s brother. He always had an interest in my work and I felt that his life’s background with architecture and Auto Cad programming would help inspire my enigmatic thoughts into perspective.

Below are some of Tony’s sketched ideas as a part of the basic structure of the Castle ideas shared between us.

Here are Tony’s notations with the links I used in Italics: “This is by no means a complete idea. What we have is a castlerising from a glass dome. (Broken, of course.) You may want a book on lighting and shadow to make this come out. Also, I’ve drawn more or less, an elevation. You may want to use perspective.”

“To be accurate as a fort/castle, they all have walls surrounding the whole thing. This could however, be really short compared to the rest of the castle. You may also want to consider domes on the turret towers to give it that ‘ancient vs. future’ look.”

The corresponding images below show the relationship between Tony’s sketches and my final design as well as some inspiration from overseas.

Below is a European Castle that my Grandparents visited years ago.

So I took all these thoughts on this Castle image and worked with them to create the center image of this piece.

In the first two images at the top of this description you will notice that the only part of the border that isn’t completed are the larger spheres. They were the last image I finished on this original. This piece wasn’t named until after the Castle image was completed. The title of this piece is within the center of each sphere below.

Visions


of	the

Enigmatist…

Windows

	The upper sphere titled "Visions" has a more detailed border surrounding it. This word provided so much insight into the reality of this Castle and it started with the border. The next three spheres have the same white ring surrounding and then Windows has the white ring as well as a black. This led into thoughts of having the windows with lights on and off as seen below.
The more I worked with all these images the more I realized the significance that Escher was having on this work. I have used his genius in previous works but this time he was all over the place. Below are some of examples of the relationship our images share. Escher is a master of his craft and he’s taught me so much.	windows with and without lights

These Escher sketches above I found after I had completed Visions. Notice the direct similarities with the windows and bricks. During the creation of the extensive border to this original I was subconsciously constructing the ideas and details I would use to build my final Castle image.

Escher’s work titled Three Spheres I	Blow up detail of Three Spheres I
The images below are the results of studying Three Spheres I.

Below the Castle	On each side of the Castle


Image of how I used this line pattern in Visions	The above image is taken from Escher’s work titled Balcony. Victor Vasarely also used this line pattern in some of his magnificent graphical paintings.

	The entrance on the far left is taken from the very top portion of Tower of Babel. I especially like the crisscross patterns that Escher used to create the dark and light shading at the opening. The image on the right is my interpretation. As you can see I didn’t use a lot of perspective with my entrance. There are a couple of examples below that show when I used more perspective. The image on the right is from this piece and the other is from a clock that was designed a year later.

Perspective is the key to Escher’s work. This imagery related to the focal point of the eye could greatly influence future works of mine. Escher’s books give so many details and mathematical answers to how his work was created step by step. He studied mathematics for years, which gave him the ability to create so many options of perspective. “From Escher’s free work one can see that from first to last he is engaged in a voyage of discovery and every print is a report on his findings. In order to gain an insight into his work one must not only take a careful analysis of each separate print but also take all 70 prints and read them as a logbook of Escher’s voyage of discovery.”
	Sisters Dream	Visions

The voyages of Escher’s work all detail his use of Mean. Although I haven’t seen any references to the Fibonacci system written in any of Escher’s books it’s obvious that the Golden Mean is utilized. (NEXT PAGE)