Eric Daigh is an American artist based in Traverse City, Michigan. He gained acclaim in 2009 when he won third place [1] for his pushpin portraits in the Inaugural ArtPrize competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His artwork displays a strong sense of play and uses a variety of unorthodox and unconventional everyday life materials including pushpins and Post-It notes.[2]

Eric Daigh
Born (1977-04-11) April 11, 1977 (age 47)
EducationUniversity of Montana
Known forModern art, Installation art, New media art, Conceptual art
MovementModernism
AwardsArtPrize

Artwork

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Eric Daigh’s artwork combines creativity along with hours of diligent application. As a process artist, his work starts with taking a series of photographs of his subject. After carefully analyzing the photos, he uses a computer and specialized software to break an image down to a very low resolution and forces the computer to make the image out of only five colors (red, blue, yellow, black and white).[3] He then uses a grid map to show where to stick the pins row by row. At first glance, Daigh’s artwork appears to be a low-resolution portrait, but upon closer inspection, onlookers can see each piece is made up of thousands of colored pins. Many of his art pieces use over 11,000 pushpins to complete a three-foot by four-foot piece and as many as 25,000 pushpins for a four-foot by six-foot piece.[4] In Summer 2010, Daigh surpassed his own world record by creating a commissioned pushpin piece for automaker Acura, which used 109,687 pushpins.[5]

Background

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Eric Daigh was born in Orange, California and is a graduate of the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. He is known for his large-scale creative use of pushpins in portraits and multimedia artwork. His artwork combines the use of photography, graphic design and imagination to create a photographic mosaic art piece. His inspiration comes from artist Chuck Close, an American painter and photographer known for his photorealistic massive-scale portraits. Portrait photographer Martin Schoeller also inspired Daigh.[6]

Honors

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Exhibits and Records

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References

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  1. ^ Kaczmarczyk, J. "ArtPrize's push-pin 'Portraits' by Eric Daigh featured on CBS Sunday Morning", November 30, 2009, "[1]", July 19, 2010
  2. ^ McCray, V. "ArtPrize winner won't be pinned", April 23, 2010, ""ArtPrize winner won't be pinned » Life » Traverse City Record-Eagle". Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Retrieved July 20, 2010.", July 18, 2010
  3. ^ CBSNews. "Push Pins and No Paint", July 11, 2010, "[2]", July 19, 2010
  4. ^ Moye, D. "Artist Eric Daigh Creates Portraits With Pushpins", 2010, ""Artist Eric Daigh Creates Portraits with Pushpins - AOL News". Archived from the original on May 26, 2010. Retrieved July 20, 2010.", July 19, 2010
  5. ^ Taylor, J. "Daigh's world-record push-pin art", July 7, 2010, ""Video: Daigh's world-record push-pin art » Arts & Entertainment » Traverse City Record-Eagle". Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved July 20, 2010.", July 20, 2010
  6. ^ Telegraph. "Push pin mosaic portraits by Eric Daigh", "[3]", July 19, 2010
  7. ^ Kaczmarczyk, J. "ArtPrize's push-pin 'Portraits' by Eric Daigh featured on CBS Sunday Morning", November 30, 2009, "[4]", July 19, 2010
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