The Art Work of Asher Mains

The girl in this painting is based from a photograph I took in Northern Ghana while studying there in 2005. I have been working with stencils for some time now and for this one I used a reverse process where I apply a black layer first and then allow the darker layers to show through from the back instead of layering lighter layers first. The title of this painting is "There is a glut of diamonds" based on a quote by my friend Albert Rom. He was speaking specifically of his wife but the essence was that the probability of all the events that led him to and shaped the lives of his wife and him were so improbably that it causes pause to realize how valuable and rare human interaction and relationships can be. By contrast, diamonds which are ubiquitous and in surplus have been marketed as something containing value. There recently has been a discovery in Russia that will satisfy the world's diamond demand for 3,000 years.  Real beauty is in people and the fortune you have to interact with them. 

The girl in this painting is based from a photograph I took in Northern Ghana while studying there in 2005. I have been working with stencils for some time now and for this one I used a reverse process where I apply a black layer first and then allow the darker layers to show through from the back instead of layering lighter layers first. The title of this painting is "There is a glut of diamonds" based on a quote by my friend Albert Rom. He was speaking specifically of his wife but the essence was that the probability of all the events that led him to and shaped the lives of his wife and him were so improbably that it causes pause to realize how valuable and rare human interaction and relationships can be. By contrast, diamonds which are ubiquitous and in surplus have been marketed as something containing value. There recently has been a discovery in Russia that will satisfy the world's diamond demand for 3,000 years.  Real beauty is in people and the fortune you have to interact with them. 

The girl in this painting is based from a photograph I took in Northern Ghana while studying there in 2005. This painting is just two layers and was applied with spray paint on a transparent substrate. The title of this painting is "There is a glut of diamonds" based on a quote by my friend Albert Rom. He was speaking specifically of his wife but the essence was that the probability of all the events that led him to and shaped the lives of his wife and him were so improbably that it causes pause to realize how valuable and rare human interaction and relationships can be. By contrast, diamonds which are ubiquitous and in surplus have been marketed as something containing value. There recently has been a discovery in Russia that will satisfy the world's diamond demand for 3,000 years.  Real beauty is in people and the fortune you have to interact with them. 

This is the last in the series for some time. 30"x40", coffee, ink and spray paint on raw canvas.

This is my dog, Banksy. He is an ever present companion and a tough art critic. He held very still while I did this wet on wet technique painting of him. 

This is an experiment I did based off a couple photos I took of Tori. I made stencils of her face and hands and then arranged them to give a look of double exposure. 

This is a prototype of a series I may be working on involving coffee sacks and stencils of models drinking coffee.

This is an experiment on canvas using organic liquids and ink. The process is a bit like watercolor where you have to leave the white from the background to show through. 

This was an experiment using charcoal, tea, ink, coffee and wine. The red wine turned green once it dried.

This piece was inspired by a recent trip to Rome. There, in the Vatican museum were rows and rows of busts of important people in the region that had been preserved. It was an interesting motif for me to think about while in place with such history that, "It is man's destiny on earth to rearrange stones". You see it in the buildings, and even money whereas it represents gold or silver. The first title I was working with with this painting was "If you are important, you will be turned to stone" . Ultimately, "Stony Illusions" illustrates that even though someone may be immortalized in stone and their name attached to it - they are still lost to history. I do not know who this man is and his preservation among many is an illusion of posterity. As rearrangers of stones on earth, even if you are important, the stones will overtake you.