I attended the Grand Opening of the Des Moines Social Club on May 10th.  The Viaduct Gallery had several artists on display including Tiberiu Chelcea, also known as Tibi.  Tibi has a degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science and his art has a scientific approach.



Calm Waters2012. Woodcut, unlimited edition. 13×20″

His collaborative projects are inspired by the way internet memes start with a simple image (or video, or some other visual unit) then remixed by a lot of people who are spread out geographically. His projects try to capture a diffuse, spread out authorship. The twist though, is the “remixes” are based on an analog image printed from a woodcut — probably the oldest method of producing multiples.


The original image, entitled “Calm Waters”, was part of a print exchange between Platetone Printshop from Nashville, TN and Red Delicious Press from Denver, CO. The image is 13×20″, printed on 15×22″ sheets.



A Piece of Me A Piece of You

In the first phase of his projects, he creates several new versions of the image from the extras from the edition. In the next phase, he invites artists to create new works based on this image.  Tibi invited me to participate in “Ripples” and I gladly accepted his invitation.