Sam Moss

        This month Sam Moss launched a blog which chronicles his most recent visual project, daily drawings which he has titled Imagined Faces. He states that though the "imagined" aspect is not a rule, the drawings (which he often does "on the cusp of sleep") typically turn out this way. He scans the drawings directly out of his sketchbook.
        The faces remind me of a combination of Ray Johnson's work and Ken Kesey's sketches in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (though this may be off the mark as I haven't seen the book in a while and google books has removed ONLY the pages with illustrations). Johnson for the composition and Kesey for the style.
        The fact that he is so close to sleep is possibly responsible for some of the stranger aspects of the drawings, as just before and just after sleep are generally considered to be the times when the creative and subconscious are most readily accessible. Little bits of other information (sometimes less immediately obvious) find their way into the portraits, giving them a strange transitory movement. Some of the drawings feel like they could be imprints of the artist's mind, with floating shapes, images and text all mashed into the same plane as the figures. It is difficult to speak for them because their language is very visual.
        The works very clearly represent Moss' artistic style, which can be seen in his other visual work (mainly drawing and collage) as well. While I imagine he would identify foremost as a musician, Moss is also a visual artist, a sizable sampling of which can be seen on his website alongside his music.

Imagined Faces
Moss' website




images: imagined-faces.blogspot.com