ABSTRACTION
These "abstract" works stem from Blake's long use of marks and mark-making as the imagery
itself. While in art school Blake began making a series of drawings and paintings reducing his
artwork to its simplest element, the individual mark. He decided a simple hatch mark would be
the basic and most natural essential element to drawing and painting. The hatch can be
elongated making a line. The hatch can be used twice and make a cross-hatch. The hatch
can be used repetitively to render an object or create a form. Thus, this idea of the repeated
hatch or "mark" became a whole branch of Sandberg's work. These have never been seen by
anyone outside his studio.
Later the mark-making images became more elaborate and added swirling bands of color -
lines. These lines are like waveforms. You may notice a similarity between them and static on
television sets. This is no mistake. Blake's process involves recording, editing, photographing
and watching footage of garbled television "noise" or static. He even refers to these paintings
as "static" paintings at times.
He believes these are the sort of anti-images to the imagery or his "Image and Text" works.
In a strange way all his work relate back to the dominant theme of television and mass media,
communication and meaning.
These paintings allow for an element of "pure" painting for SANDBERG, by letting him be less
concerned with creating an objector rendering issues but more completely focused on painting
itself. The "mark making" paintings then become a outlet for creative brushwork and
non-formal approaches.
Exemplifying this the artist even constructs his own brushes to make these paintings in a more
consistant, making more uniform marks.
itself. While in art school Blake began making a series of drawings and paintings reducing his
artwork to its simplest element, the individual mark. He decided a simple hatch mark would be
the basic and most natural essential element to drawing and painting. The hatch can be
elongated making a line. The hatch can be used twice and make a cross-hatch. The hatch
can be used repetitively to render an object or create a form. Thus, this idea of the repeated
hatch or "mark" became a whole branch of Sandberg's work. These have never been seen by
anyone outside his studio.
Later the mark-making images became more elaborate and added swirling bands of color -
lines. These lines are like waveforms. You may notice a similarity between them and static on
television sets. This is no mistake. Blake's process involves recording, editing, photographing
and watching footage of garbled television "noise" or static. He even refers to these paintings
as "static" paintings at times.
He believes these are the sort of anti-images to the imagery or his "Image and Text" works.
In a strange way all his work relate back to the dominant theme of television and mass media,
communication and meaning.
These paintings allow for an element of "pure" painting for SANDBERG, by letting him be less
concerned with creating an objector rendering issues but more completely focused on painting
itself. The "mark making" paintings then become a outlet for creative brushwork and
non-formal approaches.
Exemplifying this the artist even constructs his own brushes to make these paintings in a more
consistant, making more uniform marks.
