Vince Cole
Vince Cole starts producing an image with a predetermined thought in his mind. An annual season ticket holder to the Cincinnati Reds, Vince enjoys following and playing a whole manner of sports including volleyball and bowling. His commonly used motif of sharp, brightly saturated shapes acts as a way of holding and giving reverence to his subject like a frame or a reliquary. His process starts with the edges of the composition as he draws shapes on the borders similar to stained glass before he begins to draw in elements of a narrative scene in the middle of blank space. Vince’s work radiates with color, reverence, and love.
Transcription of Audio Interview with Vince Cole
Britni (interviewer): “Where does your art style come from?”
Vince: “Ah, I just think of it, and I start drawing. And if I got five pencils, I’ll start with one color and go to the next one and the next. It’s very nice to come here, and to do artwork, and be with your friends. So, like I said, I do get the shakes, and sometimes my pictures don’t, you know, they don’t, you know, they’re not straight. So, it’s something I’ve got; there’s nothing I can do about it. But, yes, I’m doing a picture with the one girl; she has tremors. She’s the one that’s playing the piano, and that, and she’s got the tremors. And we’re actually doing a drawing. We’re switching it back and forth. You know, I’ve already started my outline, and it went to her, and then she’ll do something, and then she can send it back, and then I’ll do some coloring and other things. I think that’s going to be a good thing, you know, and especially she has the tremors like I do. Do it with with somebody different, the same, that you have tremors, and they have them, which I thought that was a good idea. So, I can’t wait till we get it done."
Transcription of image description for Vince Cole:
This rectangular image was created by artist Vince Cole collaborating with TREMOR artistic director and pianist Brianna Matzke. They worked together because they both have a hand tremor. It is mixed media on watercolor paper, and measures 18 inches high and 24 inches wide. In the image, we see a detailed drawing of five giraffes standing in a field. The field is depicted as a pattern of gently waved lines, drawn in gray pencil against a white background. There are two larger giraffes and three smaller giraffes, giving the sense that some are fully-grown and some are still babies. Each large giraffe is standing facing to the right, and has a baby giraffe facing toward it by standing to the left. The third baby giraffe is standing on its own at the bottom-right corner of the image. The giraffes are depicted two-dimensionally, and are colored with colored pencil, a rich mahogany brown with white spots on their bodies. There are also seven irregularly shaped circles around the edges of the image that stand out against the field of wavy lines. There is one in the top right corner, one in the top left corner, and five that are evenly spaced along the bottom of the image. The circular object in the top left is colored sky-blue, the circular object in the top right is colored bright yellow, and the circular objects along the bottom are colored gray and brown. The entire drawing is framed on all four sides by a colorful pattern of interlocking triangles. Each triangle is filled in by marker in a repeating pattern: first a purple triangle, then an orange one, then green, then blue. The entirety of the image was drawn first in pencil before being colored in, and upon closer inspection there are noticeable bumps and flaws in the linework; it is evident that the artist’s hand had a tremor. The overall effect of this drawing is happy and peaceful.