Jim Dine was born on June 16, 1935 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he would attend the University of Cincinnati and receive a BFA from Ohio University in 1957. He then moved to New York in 1959. Dine soon became a pioneer creator of Happenings together with Allan Kaprow, Claes Oldenburg, and Robert Whitman. Dine exhibited at the Judson Gallery, New York, in 1958 and 1959. Dine's first solo show took place at the Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, in 1960. Dine is closely associated with the development the early artform of Pop art in the early 1960s. Frequently he became acquainted with drawing and painting everyday objects, such as various tools, rope, shoes, neckties, and other articles of clothing, and even a bathroom sink, to his canvases. He would deny his affiliation with pop art as America viewed it as.
Instead he claimed he used pop art as an outlet for his paintings that dealt with personal issues rather than popular issues. A few of his works of art that are based on tools such as a hammer, a five-bladed saw, screw driver and other shed tools. They represented his memories of his youth when he would work in his father's shop. The simple tools would be defined by their impact and reaction of the tools. Other famous works included “Study for This Sovereign Life”, an oil painting with sand in1985, “The Robe Following Her - 4”, an oil on canvas painting in1984-5, “The Crommaelynuk Gate With Tools” in 1983, and “Two Big Black Hearts” in 1985. Jim Dine's flexibility within his modern art-form made him much more popular and influencial.
Within my study I took a simple hammer to represent its power and affect; very similar to what Jim dine did with his tool drawings. Then, I used different art techniques to embolden the hammer such as using ink cross-hatching to define the metal head of the hammer. Then, I faded out of the ink cross-hatching to charcoal, therefore dulling the wooden handle. For my background, I made one side smooth with dark shading on the borders using charcoal to show the affect better which was a the smashing of glass all over the smooth background. On the other side, I made a rough background of charcoal to show the raw chaos a hammer can cause. This kind of symbolism was used by Jim Dine to reflect his approach on his personal memories. Throughout my drawing of the hammer and its capabilities, I relied on the back-up support on the great modern artistic genius, Jim Dine. Because of Jim Dine, modern art can be taken much more seriously and meaningfully.
Unlike the pop art of 1960's and the 1970's, Dine did not rely on current events and popular styles to express his visions and aspirations, instead his on personal life experiences would define who he was as an artist.
