I’m happy to be realizing an idea that I’ve been thinking about for a long time. The image of a vine growing on a concrete or brick wall is the perfect visual metaphor for all of us finding our way, surviving and thriving in less than ideal conditions. I like the reminder that we are also in a state of constant growth and transformation.
drawing urbanVine 3@20”x20” c Heather Hancock 2022
drawing urbanVine 3@20”x20” c Heather Hancock 2022
drawing urbanVine 3@20”x20” c Heather Hancock 2022
I’m planning for my fall studio making and find it helpful to work digitally at this stage to get to the feel and visual impact I’m wanting. One direction I’m interested in is creating sets of architectural and botanic- inspired (vine/encode…) pieces, exploring line in city and nature using a consistent palette and bold contrast.
rendering | abstract mies + urbanVine c Heather Hancock 2022
rendering | abstract mies + urbanVine c Heather Hancock 2022
rendering | abstract chase + urbanVine c Heather Hancock 2022
rendering | abstract mies + urbanVine c Heather Hancock 2022
rendering | abstract mies + encode c Heather Hancock 2022
rendering | abstract mies + urbanVine c Heather Hancock 2022
I’m getting geared up for fall studio time. Step one is to think about what’s currently available…what’s new this summer…and how my different groups of work are evolving and interacting.
ENCODE 3.40 thrive | 20” x 20” glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
ENCODE 3.30 grow + ENCODE 3.20 build | each 20” x 20” glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
ENCODE 3.7 aim | 20” x 20” glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2021
Over the past couple weeks I’ve been developing new concepts for graphic versions of client relevant environs. Four ecosystems are relevant to their community: city and lake, wetlands and desert. New technical solutions are supporting my interest in reducing visual ideas to their essence, distilling complexity into clean line, geometric form and simple repetition. This approach leaves room for a viewer to co-create the imagery. Here are some small sections of larger drawings still in the works.
detail
detail
detail
detail
A second approach consolidates key natural and manmade elements into single panels—leaves/foliage, water (lake, ocean, estuary), city, desert—with abstracted text creating the structure in each panel. This is a fully abstract approach with the text elements offering viewers additional information to detect and decode. Below are small sections of larger drawings still in the works.
detail
detail
detail
detail
Many of my commission proposals develop site-specific concepts that abstract the views+topography or themes+ideas for a given company or client. I always learn something new when I’m exploring the imagery, palettes or views that will create a sense of common ground or shared purpose for a group.
I recently looked back at this project for an energy company. The project didn’t move forward but lots of good ideas for using text and imagery to connect with a given community. Watching for a chance to re-visit this approach.
concept | energy client c Heather Hancock
concept | energy client c Heather Hancock
Fit in a lovely 20”x20” architectural piece over the past couple weeks and just received installation images. The client requested gold metallic tones alongside black and whites. Ties in with their wall covering beautifully.
Loving it : )
REFLECT 4.6 RHYTHM 20”x20” hand cut glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
REFLECT 4.6 RHYTHM 20”x20” hand cut glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
detail REFLECT 4.6 RHYTHM 20”x20” hand cut glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
detail REFLECT 4.6 RHYTHM 20”x20” hand cut glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
I am thinking about the sky in the new PEAK pieces. I can envision a super simple embossed element as a graphic cloud or sky. There’s a versatile line that I want to try as a sort of base concept that could be repeated and re-composed for endless variation. I could see a lighter gray textured line against the silver gray background. Trying it out digitally first.
simple sky concept test1
simple sky concept test3
simple sky concept test2
simple sky concept test4
Whenever I’m drawing foliage/vines, I often come back to wheat/grains with their upright structure and inter-connected repeating seed heads (deeply encoded from growing up on a grain farm!). Some days I’m thinking of lobby scale ideas. Others I’m thinking about small moments. This morning I wanted to see a 12”x18” composition with wheat…keeping the composition spare and graphic with imagery and text. Realized in shimmery glass (iridescent amber or green…or crisp white), this imagery takes on an almost sculptural dimensional quality that goes beyond 2D.
sketch01 grow/wheat c Heather Hancock 2022
sketch05
original concept in green+gray
wheat stems as tech lines
sketch02 grow/wheat c Heather Hancock 2022
sketch06
sketch03 grow/wheat c Heather Hancock 2022
sketch07
sketch04 grow/wheat c Heather Hancock 2022
sketch08
Samples are super helpful in understanding how texture and glass function in my work. I keep a small inventory of 8”x8” hand held samples. Samples come in a presentation box for easy transport and sharing.
Samples are available for the following series:
ENCODE | text abstractions
Let me know what samples are most relevant to your clients/projects.
Custom samples can also be created for large scale commissions with design deposit.
Imagery across spaced panels gives a contemporary feel to an abstract landscape. Crisp graphic approach to sky and rolling land offers varying amounts of detail viewed at different distances across the lobby space. Sharing some sneak peeks of elements. More coming early 2023.
detail | abstract sky element c Heather Hancock 2021
detail | abstract landscape element c Heather Hancock 2021
detail | structural element c Heather Hancock 2021
hand held samples | glass/color palette directions c Heather Hancock
detail of | abstract landscape concept in development c Heather Hancock 2022
I love settling into making days. I am working from bigger drawings of various Colorado mountains to find moments with interesting form, dimension and texture. This fresh take on ice and granite realized in shimmery glass and matte textures is suitable for any contemporary space design.
sketch | Copper Mountain c Heather Hancock 2022
PEAK 2.3 (based on Copper Mountain) 20”x20” | hand cut glass and concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
rendering | Peak 2.3 and Peak 2.6 | hand cut glass and concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
detail c Heather Hancock 2022
It was interesting to develop a more deconstructed cityscape concept. A preliminary ideas is representing natural elements as separate full panels. This approach offers new flexibility with cityscape imagery.
design concept | Chicago cityscape c Heather Hancock 2022
One of the motivations for working on abstracted foliage concepts this spring+summer is this concept I am developing for a Chicago cityscape. Foliage is foregrounded and the city is viewed back across the lake (based loosely on images/perspective from museum campus).
crop from cityscape Chicago | concept development c Heather Hancock 2022
There are several ways to approach the abstracted water. I’m liking the simplicity of this graphic approach which combines glass + paint. Other ideas in the works.
crop from cityscape Chicago | concept development c Heather Hancock 2022
Happy to be in the studio moving two groups of work forward this summer.
UrbanVine is evolving and additional layers are making an appearance giving a satisfying textural quality.
urbanVine 3.5 | 20”x20” glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
urbanVine 3.4 | 20”x20” glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
urbanVine 3.7 | 20”x20” glass + concrete c Heather Hancock 2022
I am doing daily drawings using Colorado mountain ranges and peaks as inspo. Gradually understanding the geometries and getting the dimensional quality I’m looking for. It is deeply satisfying to bring drawings to life with shimmering glass. More soon!
I’m ready to do some layering with urbanVine concept…I‘m gong to layer glass (foreground whites/midground silvers) and add some very abstracted backgrounded textural elements. I love coming back around to this organic/vine idea with all new techniques and tools. The last time I explored this, I was using more realistic foliage shapes and simply couldn’t get the shapes adequately realized to convey the infinite variations in organic forms. Using a geometric leaf shape gives me a basic form that can be varied in many ways to convey the complicated angles and forms of a growing, changing, evolving vine.
And of course this drawing is vining down…love.
working with text rhythms…and contrast today
high contrast | black textured background | rendering SCAN rhythm c Heather Hancock 2022
lo contrast | silver textured background | rendering SCAN rhythm c Heather Hancock 2022
low contrast / silver gray background rendering SCAN rhythm c Heather Hancock 2022
hi contrast / black textured background rendering SCAN rhythm c Heather Hancock 2022
rendering. PEAK c Heather Hancock 2022
New pieces in grayscale have a light and fresh feeling with medium gray/silver matte background. The silver gray background has a true concrete look and connects directly with my exploration of how nature and city interact, co-exist.
urbanVine 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 hand cut glass + matte texture c Heather Hancock 2022
I’m staying with elegant grayscale for the moment but color could easily be incorporate in a couple different ways.
Colored glass could be used (ie layered greens, iridiscent). This is a matter of selecting a hue and developing a glass palette that works together and with enough saturation to contrast with silver gray background.
Color accents in paint could offer an abstracted approach to natural palettes. Using a defined circle shape (like I do in ENCODE series) at a smaller scale would be a playful way to introduce color into these pieces.
urbanVine 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 hand cut glass + matte texture c Heather Hancock 2022
