Drawings That Look Like Cross-Stitching. Eric Beltz Elementary Forces.

Eric Beltz Elementary Forcesabove: Eric Beltz, Elementary Forces 6, 2013, Graphite on Bristol, 18″ x 15″

Santa Barbara-based artist Eric Beltz’ Elementary Forces is a collection of hypnotically detailed graphite drawings on Bristol that illustrate Beltz’s decade-long work inspired by his in-depth research of history, religion and symbolism.

Eric Beltz Elementary Forces

Elementary Forces 1, 2010 Graphite on Bristol, 13″ x 13″:
Elementary Forces 1, 2010 Graphite on Bristol 13" x 13"

A series of black and white pattern-based drawings meticulously constructed of tonal grids reference Colonial American cross-stitch samplers and quilting. Under close observation, the black and white drawings vibrate and create phantom colors that play with optical perception.

Elementary Forces 2, 2010 Graphite on Bristol, 10″ x 10″:
Elementary Forces 2, 2010 Graphite on Bristol 10" x 10"Elementary Forces 3, 2010, Graphite on Bristol, 13″ x 10″:
Elementary Forces 3, 2010 Graphite on Bristol 13" x 10"Elementary Forces 5, 2011 Graphite on Bristol, 14″ x 40″:
Elementary Forces 5, 2011 Graphite on Bristol 14"I Snow All About You, 2011, Graphite on Bristol, 14″ x 13″:
I Snow All About You, 2011 Graphite on Bristol 14 1_2" x 13"

“I have not used color in my work for 10 years but have stumbled across a method to make my grayscale palette bleed chromatic hallucinations,” says Beltz.

Pillars of the Sky, 2012, Graphite on Bristol, 23″ x 18″:
Pillars of the Sky, 2012 Graphite on Bristol 23" x 18"Soul Mirror, 2011 Graphite on Bristol, 38″ x 30″:
Soul Mirror, 2011 Graphite on Bristol 38" x 30"Santa Barbara Swastika, 2013 Graphite on Bristol 30″ x 30″:
Santa Barbara Swastika, 2013 Graphite on Bristol 30" x 30"
detail from above piece:
Santa Barbara Swastika, detail, 2013, Graphite on Bristol 30" x 30"

A review of his work in Art In America Magazine describes it as “focused largely on our nation’s foundational myths and its flawed founding fathers” and that his Elementary Forces continues to engage with and undermine Americana, especially the four drawings based on needlework samplers. The article goes on to say that Beltz’s adaptations (made by meticulously shading small gridded squares) demonstrate his handwork skills, much as colonial samplers showed off the talents of the girls and women who made them, but Beltz tweaks both form and content. Applying his technique to a low-tech craft yields a marvelous kind of analog pixelation, an Op-art buzz that nods simultaneously to its manual source and to its digital counterpart. While channeling the past, he ironically declaims the merits of historical amnesia, as conveyed by the truism pseudo-stitched on Elementary Forces 4: “Happy is that people who have no history.”

Elementary Forces 4, 2011 Graphite on Bristol 14″x 16″:
Elementary Forces 4, 2011 Graphite on Bristol 14" x 16"Revive, 2011, Graphite on Bristol, 16″ x 16″:
Revive, 2011 Graphite on Bristol 16" x 16"The Flood (in progress), 2013 Graphite on Bristol 23″x 18″:
flood_zoomThe Flood, 2013 Graphite on Bristol 23″x 18″ (Final):
The Flood, 2013 Graphite on Bristol 23" x 18"The Heavens Open, 2013, Graphite on Bristol, 23″ x 18″:
The Heavens Open, 2013 Graphite on Bristol 23" x 18"Man In Landscape, 2013, Graphite on Bristol, 23″ x 18″:
Man In Landscape, 2013 Graphite on Bristol 23" x 18"About the Artist (courtesy of Koplin Del Rio Gallery):
Beltz received his MFA from UC Santa Barbara where he currently teaches drawing in the Department of Art. His work has been featured in Art in America, Juxtapoz, Flaunt Magazine, and others. His work has been shown in galleries and museums across the United States and is held in the permanent collections of the Nerman Museum (KS), the Progressive Collection (OH), and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (CA). Eric Beltz is the current Artist in Residence at the Art Design & Architecture Museum at the University of Santa Barbara.

Eric Beltz at Koplin Del Rio Gallery

Eric Beltz