All Prints
The Equilibrium (Deco)Series & Equinox Series juxtapose two movements in the history of art and design — Minimalism and Rococo — opening up each piece to the viewers’ own interpretations on decoration, pop art and pattern. Hudson frequently explores balance, symmetry and harmony in a post-painterly minimalist style. Recently his experimentation with positive and negative space have developed into a more intricate intersection between geometric and curvilinear shapes. Vibrant colors and high contrast create precise visions of order and chaos, inviting the viewer to come closer. However, the order, chaos, conflict, and tension represented in the work are not incongruous. The various colors and shapes are combined to conjure up a positive, multifaceted, and realistic outlook on the future of relationships between seemingly disparate components of society.
The Holding pattern: His chosen subjects — attractive women in their mid 20s to late 30s — are adorned with decorative patterns superimposed upon their faces. Combining photographic and geometric Rococo-inspired pattern brings to the surface ideas of symmetry, objects of decoration and feminine nature. A sense of either obstructed or assisted beauty is gained if approaching these works with a focus on their purely visual elements. However, the pattern acts simultaneously as a decorative element and a buffer or separation point from the viewer’s gaze.
The term Holding Pattern is used in aviation to describe a maneuver designed to delay aircraft already in flight while keeping it within a specified airspace. The demands that society places on young women to either perform professionally, marry, produce offspring, and/or build a family and home environment inspired Hudson to create this project. The second iteration of the Holding Pattern series are not only much larger than their original counterparts but a further investigation into the parts they played as decorative objects and their element’s places in art history. Hudson began mirroring the women’s heads in a variety of way until settling upon what is now an ongoing body of work titled the Holding Pattern (2).
The Beauties Series, which includes Staying Warm, Fun in the Sun, and America’s Most Beautiful Debs, are an example of works that explore conventions of beauty and sexuality as Hudson deciphers their connection to his own identity through digitally manipulated advertisements from vintage Ebony Magazine and Jet Magazine “Beauties of the Week”. “As this series evolves, I’ve begun to use this imagery to explore my own identity by digitally superimposing my face onto the original images. The future of the series is to employ this style and approach including additional images of men as well as women, thereby examining the often indistinct borders of modern sexual identity.”