Aaron Johnson presents new Reverse-Painted, Acrylic Polymer Peel Paintings - on the American flag

Aaron Johnson's reverse-painted process uses two main surfaces. One is the base, on which the acrylic polymer paint - distributed over the second surface - is later imposed. In his upcoming show, Star-Crossed, the base surface is no other than the American flag.

The work process starts by preparing the base surface. Aaron stretches the polyester-made American flag over a frame. Then, using a make-shift tool, basically a hammer fitted with long nails, Aaron perforates the surface of the flag, to allow the polymer from the second layer to later penetrate and immerse in the flag's surface.


Behind Aaron, in the middle of the image, you can see the "harlequin juggler". This painting, that currently exists on the back side of a stretched plastic sheet, will become the second layer - which will be later affixed to the base layer, the flag, in a pour of polymers.



In the next step, the "harlequin Juggler" layer is laid face down on the floor, and the polymer mix is poured on the painted plastic sheet.


The polymer is poured across the plastic. Aaron dips his hands into the polymer to assure even distribution of the polymer.



After the polymer-saturated flag has dried, the paint that resided on the plastic surface is now congealed to the flag, and it's time to cut away the excess plastic around the stretcher - leaving, for now, the plastic layer on the face of the flag.



When the polymer has completely dried, the plastic is ready to be peeled away from the painting, leaving all the acrylic polymer paint permanently on the flag.



Peeling the plastic layer off his piece: "Rushmore Hell Beast".


"Star-Crossed" opens Thursday September 4th at the Stux gallery in Chelsea, NY.

To see more of Aaron's work, check out his site.

Leonardo Drew - from found objects to city scapes

Small and large pieces of wood take up almost every piece of space in Leonardo's large studio in Brooklyn. From 2 by 4's to tree stumps and unidentified objects meshed together - they will all end up on the wall as part of his next large scale art installation.

Laying down the objects neatly on black, numbered squares, Leonardo towers over the pieces like a city planner over his model, eye-balling each object carefully before he lays it down next to similar or different ones on the black square.

"My neighborhood is a God send when it comes to found objects", he says. "Almost every step I take I see an item I must incorporate in my piece. I typically wear gloves as I go through the 'stuff' out there, but once I bring it into the studio I take off the gloves. The 'stuff' becomes mine, I feel 'connected' to it - I feel the need to work with it directly, no barriers".

Check out Leonardo's work on his site at: http://www.leonardodrew.com.