Joseph Barbaccia from the US amazes us regularly on social media with his paintings from polymer. His technique is actually quite simple, in the technical sense, yet very time consuming.
Joseph’s polymer clay art is based on the 19th century art movement’s “visible strokes of color” style. “However, instead of oil-based pigments, I use plastic-based pigments in clay form. A strand of extruded polymer clay replaces a brushstroke,” he explains.
Joseph builds his polymer paintings based on images created in Adobe Photoshop. “When I’m happy with this image I make a couple of full-size prints and my work at the computer is done. For now,” he adds. After mixing colors of polymer, he starts extruding or cutting tiny little pieces for his new “painting”.
“SummerMaze, my latest artwork is based on images of Block Copolymer Thin Film Nanopatterns. A block copolymer is formed when two monomers cluster together and form 'blocks' of repeating units. Investigation into their potential applications for integrated circuits, storage media, optical devices, human tissue interfacing, and other uses,” says Joseph about one of his latest artworks.
Looking closely at this round, 33 cm polymer painting, you can spot tiny little extruder snakes creating an interesting organic pattern inspired by nanopatterns. “Of course, I'm predominantly interested in their visual appearance. The pattern is consistent while having a definitive unpredictability,” he adds.
In his future work Joseph would love to bring more three dimensional form to the artwork while keeping the visual "feel" of the repeating blocks of shapes. We can’t wait to see what comes next!
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