DEPARTMENTS
David Gyscek's Artwork (and a "Secret" Formula)
When HCM went looking for some non-economic insights on how to handle the current financial crisis, we chatted with David Gyscek '96, visual arts studio coordinator & lecturer. We thought he might have some advice we could share with readers on colors that soothe and reassure during stressful times. Instead, we gained an artist's view of how to kick our minds into high gear so we can overcome troubled times. Primary hues, Gyscek explains, stimulate our eyes and garner attention, adding "If there's anything we need right now, it is to be snapped out of our complacency and complicity-to become present to the state of our world."
Gyscek shared his latest personal work, titled "Six hundred, fifty-nine dollars and fifty-three cents." An oil on panel piece, it incorporates wide swaths of color and numbering of a monetary figure, $659.53. The amount came from the artist's observation of how paintings were priced at various shows. "I developed a formula after doing many paintings whose price and subject was $500," he explains, "which seemed like a fair price for the size of those paintings and amount of colors used-those paintings were 11x17 and had three colors each."
The exact figure came from a simple formula, which is $.90 per square inch per color," he continues. "As it turns out, I got this one wrong by 30 cents for some reason. The formula is 8.625 inches x 17 inches = 146.625 square inches x $.90 = 131.9625 x 5 colors = $659.81."
Gyscek started the current body of work after the last faculty show in the Cantor Gallery. "I gave an artist talk, which allowed me the opportunity to review work and ideas I had explored in the past," he says. "The space between art and commerce was an area I had dabbled in while in grad school and that subject matter suddenly seemed rather timely to me and quite compelling. I therefore decided to start exploring it further. I'm still exploring and this body of work is still developing...and the economy is still at the forefront of everyone's minds."