Abstract art created by inkjet printer

Instead of using paintbrush and canvas, Campbell Laird, an artist by profession, is using inkjet printer to create abstract art masterpieces. For a layman the masterpieces of this Tasmania-based artist may appear as a printout generated by a faulty printer, but for Laird such inconsistencies are a selling point. Naming his art works as ‘multiple pass inkjet prints’, Laird has started turning out the desktop printer imperfections into pieces of abstract art.

How inkjet printer helped Laird in creating abstract art

Laird, who holds a master’s degree in fine arts, got the idea of using his inkjet printer to create abstract arts when a print went very wrong. “One day when I wasn’t happy with the color saturation of a print I just decided to run the print again over the top of what I had just printed just to see what would happen,” Laird says. “The second time through was out of register but I loved what happened when the second layer of ink went down.”

Laird reacts to the output of the inkjet printer and creates a new layer based on what he sees. As a result, each printout is a unique piece of abstract art. It is obvious that there is no original file to such a creation to go back to make amendments, and because of vagaries in alignment and register, one can’t simply recombine the fragments. “This is the only way to make these prints,” he says. “Trying to layer all the passes on one image file can’t work as the file becomes overloaded with millions of lines and intersections and appears as just an unrecognizable blob on the screen.”

According to Laird, each abstract art piece of his represents 5-7 hours of work. The process can take its toll on your printer — in his case that means “thousands of dollars of damage”. This is the price of an abstract art masterpiece what we pay.

Have a look at some more of Laird’s abstract art works by clicking here.

Image Credit: Campbell Laird