Recently, alongside working towards my final project, I’ve been interested in traditional style tattoo flash art- such as work by the famous tattoo artists Bert Grimm and Norman Keith Collins (Sailor Jerry). I am particularly drawn to the seemingly simple design, using block colour palettes, but containing intricate details to convey subtle messages (as most tattoo artwork does).
Ive started experimenting more with this style, in my spare time playing with new designs that contain strong symbolism… such as:
So… thinking about artists that are influential in my current work, I decided to play with a merging of Frida Kahlo, who’s paintings contain a lot of plant and wildlife imagery- and who as an artist spent a lot of time in isolation through her medical injuries; and traditional flash tattoo style artwork.
I used the self portrait “Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird” 1940 for the leafy background- combining this with traditional swallows and a scroll saying “isolation”, commenting both on the artists isolation and the current isolation we all find ourselves in this the Covid 19 pandemic.
These works were all produced using water colour paints and black fine-liner, limiting my colour palette to mostly bold colours.
Caitlin Noble 