My Creative Process - Hawaiian Shirts Revisited

This article is about remixing archived images from online open collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and the State Library of New South Wales to create quick first draft print designs for contemporary Hawaiian shirts. 

In my opinion the editing of a single image from an outside source is often ineffective in making a new personal, design or artistic statement, unless it is edited so much that the original is unrecognizable. 

There are exceptions of course. Marcel Duchamp's 'LHOOQ' was an effective parody at the time and within the context that it was produced. Duchamp's addition of a moustache and beard to a rough copy of the Mona Lisa was interpreted as an attack on traditional art and of the bourgeoisie that worshipped it. In effect, an art attack!

When creating any artwork, I prefer to adapt as much of the original works as possible in an attempt to make the new image truly mine. Perhaps there is also a lingering concern at the back of my mind of copyright infringement, even though the open online resources I'm using for this project are free of copyright. Old habits die hard.

With this concern in mind I searched for separate images that might work together from the online open archives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) and The State Library of New South Wales. My goal was to produce a first draft for a print design loosely defined as a 'Hawaiian shirt' or contemporary Aloha shirt design. 

This design theme was the driving force behind my search. I'd done a reasonable amount of prior research and was surprised at how versatile contemporary Hawaiian shirt imagery is. Waves, surfers and coconut trees are not the only images found in these iconic designs. So I decided I could be quite flexible in my own image choices too, as long as the general feel was one of the outdoors, nature, water etc.

I first found a potential backdrop to overlay other images on, from the MET collection:

With the Japanese influence that has helped shaped Hawaii this felt like a reasonable start. I experimented with some basic repeats so that the overall feel of the adapted backdrop was one that could be printed on lengths of fabric. 

I also found a series of bird drawings at the online open collection of the State Library of NSW. One of the drawings matched well colour-wise: I isolated and cut the bird from its background and placed it so that the  branch it was perching on looked as though it was sticking out of the backdrop water. 

With a bit of rough editing I made a simple, first draft that I may develop further, or not:

#MADEWITHSLNSW

MET CCO Works for Remix and Reuse

In 2017, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art released 375,000 digital works for remix and re-use online via CC0. The statement issued by Creative Commons regarding this states, "CC0 allows anyone to use, re-use, and remix a work without restriction. This announcement will shape the future of public domain images online and underscores the Met’s leadership role as one of the most important open museum collections in the world."

I personally welcome the move as an opportunity to re-energize some beautiful, hidden gems from by-gone eras. I will be writing about my creative process in future posts as I explore ways to breathe new life into some of the newly available MET images. 

Here are three samples of my recent adaptations in progress, to get an idea of what I'm talking about.

In each of these samples I have taken MET tapestry panels, cropped and placed them in mirror repeat. This repeat format is the easiest to manage as the edges naturally join perfectly with their opposing selves. Other repeat formats, such as square and half-drop repeats require a lot more manipulation to get seamless joints with the original panel edges.

Although mirror repeat is the easiest format to use it's not always the most suitable. In the middle sample I have shown, you can see a 'push me pull you' horse, with two heads. Although I quite like this quirk the market I'm aiming for may not. Despite its faults the mirror format does give an immediate idea for creating continuously repeating designs, such as those used for printing lengths of fabric, paper etc.   

I've also played around with the original colors, giving them a bit more vibrancy and definition.

So, from identifying the MET tapestry panels from their CCO image collection, I've started to develop ideas which could lead, eventually, to some repeating, printed textile designs. Stay tuned for updates.