I follow quite a few artists and creative types on social media and have always enjoyed the work of John Piacquadio as he quite often takes something that is already art in the form of a hand tied fly and then makes more art from it with ink, paint and paper.
I contacted John over the weekend and asked if he would share a few images and thoughts on his art for a T.F.M. post. He sent along a few images and then I grabbed a few more from his Facebook page this morning. There are a lot of images here but well worth a slow scroll through taking each piece in one by one.
John wrote... "The original focus of flies as a subject for my work came out of being a fly tier and growing interest in mindfulness. I remember a few years back wondering how well I really ‘knew’ the fly I was tying after the second dozen of a particular pattern, understanding every twist of dubbing, knowing what animal my material was coming from, knowing the unseen layer that lay under the top seen layers.
I wondered if I could somehow artistically reproduce these flies on paper in some unforgiving medium where I couldn’t erase or go over...an experiment in just innately knowing the fly. Was it in me, with just a wave of the hand, and a stroke of a brush...would the fly would magically appear? Ink became that unforgiving medium. The experiment appeared to be a success. I recently started expanding my subjects as well as my medium.
I’ve started matting and framing the paintings with the actual tied flies they are based on. Some of my work has turned into commemorative pieces for clients wanting to remember a special time on the river."
Visit the John Piacquadio website to see more of his work and be sure to follow along on Instagram as well.
I contacted John over the weekend and asked if he would share a few images and thoughts on his art for a T.F.M. post. He sent along a few images and then I grabbed a few more from his Facebook page this morning. There are a lot of images here but well worth a slow scroll through taking each piece in one by one.
John wrote... "The original focus of flies as a subject for my work came out of being a fly tier and growing interest in mindfulness. I remember a few years back wondering how well I really ‘knew’ the fly I was tying after the second dozen of a particular pattern, understanding every twist of dubbing, knowing what animal my material was coming from, knowing the unseen layer that lay under the top seen layers.
I wondered if I could somehow artistically reproduce these flies on paper in some unforgiving medium where I couldn’t erase or go over...an experiment in just innately knowing the fly. Was it in me, with just a wave of the hand, and a stroke of a brush...would the fly would magically appear? Ink became that unforgiving medium. The experiment appeared to be a success. I recently started expanding my subjects as well as my medium.
I’ve started matting and framing the paintings with the actual tied flies they are based on. Some of my work has turned into commemorative pieces for clients wanting to remember a special time on the river."
Visit the John Piacquadio website to see more of his work and be sure to follow along on Instagram as well.
