Chuck Close and Plastic Bottle Caps

I was introduced to the artist, Chuck Close, when I was doing my

student teaching at John Hay High School School of Architecture and Design.

My mentor showed me some of his art while we were studying photorealists.

I immediately fell in love with his work, especially his later work.

Here is an example of his earlier work.

Talk about photorealism - look at that detail. WOW!

Mark (1978–1979), acrylic on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.
Detail at right of eye. Mark, a painting that took fourteen months to complete.

Close encountered a catastrophic spinal artery collapse in 1988 which left him severely paralyzed. He found a way to continue painting - with a brush strapped onto his wrist.

No longer able to paint with intricate detail, Close managed to paint large portraits in "low-resolution grid squares that were created by an assistant. Viewed from afar, these squares appear as a single, unified image which attempt photo-reality, albeit in pixelated form." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Close

Self-portrait by Chuck Close, 2000.

Detail of Self-Portrait by Chuck Close, 2000.

I cannot remember what I was researching when I came across the artist,
Mary Ellen Croteau, who was inspired by Chuck Close. I was captivated by her work
because she chose as one of her media, plastic bottle caps!
Here is the excerpt from her web-site that inspired her work:

"Plastic bottle caps - like bags, a plastic product that can’t be/ isn’t recycled. 
I conceived of an “endless column” of these caps, after Constantin Brancussi’s iconic
modernist sculpture (see image below). One became two, and two became many. 
While making these columns, I noticed the smaller caps tended to nest
inside one another, and the color combinations reminded me of Chuck Close’s painted portraits.  So I got sidetracked and started on a large self-portrait made entirely of bottle caps.  The piece measures 8 feet by 7 feet.  No paint is used, except to delineate a few shadows where white board was showing through. 
In a few cases, the caps are trimmed in order to fit into a tight space.

http://www.maryellencroteau.net/mec_website/galleries/Pages/bottle_caps.html
  

 

Constantin Brancusi, "Endless Column" 1937-1938





"Endless Columns" by Mary Ellen Croteau

And below is the end result!

"CLOSE," a self-portrait of Mary Ellen Croteau made with plastic bottle caps

 WOW!!