When Ori Toor sits down to create a painting in his Ramblings series, he usually has only an image or stray narrative in mind to begin the work. The illustrator, artist and animator from Tel Aviv says he is always surprised by what happens next and that “things never turn out the way I imagine”.
“I’m not even sure I have any imagination,” Toole said. “Or maybe my imagination process becomes completely visual: I need to draw and see things in order to imagine new things. Things happen on the canvas, not in my head. It’s really important to me to stay surprised. I don’t see the point of doing anything I can predict. If I feel like this is happening: I’ll immediately cause a happy accident, like remove something important or add a random element to ‘ruin’ the work, and see what happens next.”
Tull’s freelance work reflects his penchant for improvisation, whether it’s a thrilling multi-element Nike ad, a Wired magazine illustration or one of his animation projects. All of this showcases an artist navigating and thriving in the midst of chaos. But the Gibberish series is the most vivid expression of his talent for creating dynamic stories that flow throughout the page and offer multiple entry points and interpretations. Mysterious machines line the landscape, imbued with familiar forms and abstractions, and miniature and towering figures appear nearby. Tull is somehow able to create a cohesion, if not through a color palette or intersecting lines, then through the viewer’s assumption that it’s all part of a puzzle – even if that’s not the case. In recent years, a selection of works has been officially titled “Gibberish,” but he says it’s “an evolution of what I’ve been doing for years: basically mindlessly doodling.”
