Artist Post #2

Drew Rios is an apparel designer for Nike, a graphic designer at Toho Water Authority, and a graphic designer also at Fahrenheit Ultra Lounge & Restaurant. In the past he has worked with graphic design in the music industry. He received training in digital art at Ringling School of Art and Design. His specialties in digital art include music branding, print design, and type design. I discovered this artist on a site called Society 6. Society 6 sells prints of different artists' works and each artist has their own profile where they can post their different works and give brief descriptions of their works or descriptions of the inspiration for the work. This is a link to Drew Rios' profile. I was immediately drawn to this work of Rios because of spacey elements he used in it.

Earthrise

Drew calls this work a "tribute poster to the first image of earth from the moon." I find the mysterious mood created by the color pallet and haziness to be very relevant to the mystery surrounding space when the first picture of the earth was taken from the moon. This is the picture of earth which Drew is referencing in his work: Earth  

I interpret the texture Drew has created in the Earthrise to be some sort of replication of the texture of the moon in the original photograph. One thing I take issue with in Earthrise is Rios' way of showing the magnificence of earth. He takes a very obvious approach to showing magnificence by placing the beams of sparkling white light in a frame around earth. In the original photograph there is this natural and subtle magnificence that I wish Rios could have captured in Earthrise. I believe he was on the right track with his color pallet and texture but the added beams of light don't sit well with me in their artificial framing. However, I should explain that much of Drew's works have a 1980's vibe to them which he discusses briefly under some works. This could be why he incorporated the striking beams of light. Also, with his background in graphic design for products, it was natural for him to frame the main object of the work so that the eye is immediately drawn to what he wishes you to view first. 

Astroknot

Seeds of Mars

These are just two more of his works. Astroknot is an example of another 80's/space inspired work. Seeds of Mars is much like an early botanical drawing which he incorporated comets into to humorously suggest that the earth was "seeded with the DNA of martians."