Trent Reynolds
I am an artist living with my family in Los Angeles. I run a small business called Artist Laser out of my Santa Monica studio doing custom fabrication and consulting. Dabbleon is my online self portrait where I share all the things I am working on.
Teaching
I have taught art at Santa Monica College, SMC Emeritus College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, LACHSA, Milken, Graphaids, my studio, and more. I primarily teach drawing, painting, mixed media, and design fundamentals.
Teaching and learning creativity is a collaborative process and I find great satisfaction working with and learning from students.
Recent work
Podcasts
The following two series of paintings I consider milestones in my personal development. They are perhaps more biographical illustration than art, so I include them here on the about page.
The Paintings I Don’t Want To Make
Toward the end of my second year as a grad student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago I hit a low point. I had spent the previous year not happy with anything I had made and not feeling confident I knew what I wanted to do.
I was talking with a friend in my studio one day and I told him my greatest frustration was that I didn’t know what I wanted to paint but I knew exactly what I did not want to paint. Thankfully he was there to suggest the way forward might be to make the paintings I didn’t want to make.
I made a list of all the paintings I didn’t want to make. They were mostly cliché subjects like sunsets and waterfalls. Some of the things on the list were subjects I might enjoy painting but I felt weren’t my stories to tell. Once I had a long list I came up with compositions that combined as many of the things on the list as I felt I could.
When I was done I ended up liking the paintings quite a bit, and the process brought much needed insight that helped me see the way forward.
Time and Family
This series of paintings is from my BFA thesis exhibition. They are a combination of photography and painting using a process I developed with some grant money.
I would apply a photosensitive liquid to a large canvas, let it dry in the darkroom, and then expose the surface using a 35mm negative and enlarger. The enlarger was tipped on its side so I could get the canvas far enough away to make the projection as large as the canvas.
After the surface had been exposed I applied photo development chemicals with sponges to develop the photograph. I then worked into the photograph with encaustic (wax) and paint. This series felt like my first departure from what I was being taught as an art student. I discovered the thrill of finding my own path.