The Random Illustrator

Daisy of The Random Illustrator featured my painting of criminals on her blog.  Daisy has a cool thing going on where she generated a random word and runs with it.  Check out the feature here.

Artist of the Month at Urban Art Network

Dunce Boy
8" x 25"

acrylic and charcoal on panel

 

I was featured on Urban Art Network's website as Artist of the Month for January.  Click here to read the interview and check out some work.  Much appreciation to Teresa Bergen and all the folks at UAN who make so much possible.

Boy at The Docks

Boy at the Docks
6" x 6"
Acrylic on panel

Still working on some smaller works as part of my painting a day for etsy until I reach 100 items.  44 more to go!  I wonder if I'll stop there?

Getting into the practice of a painting a day has been a good experience.  It keeps me in practice, so to speak, and offers time for evaluation and reflection..  Not to mention a great deal of experimentation, both in size and color combinations.  I still find soft, subtle colors appealing.  The cool end of the color spectrum, I suppose.

Wading

Wading, work in progress

8"x10"

acrylic on salvaged wood

Some detail work seems to be coming back into my paintings.  I don't think the loose quality has totally left, "mark making".  For so long they were so loose, dribbles and sprays and violent smears.  Lately I have been given to these small, intimate gestures.

I could keep going on with this painting.  The more I look at it the more I want to go back in and rework a few areas.  There comes a point when you have to "stop".  Apparently my stopping point is two days.  I have the attention span of a gnat.  Time to put this aside for awhile.

Blog Abuse, Neglect

Oh, you poor blog. I neglect you! It's strange how time passes. Ten years ago I blogged everyday and now I can't be arsed to do it but once a month! Ho hum.

I have been spending a lot of time updating my etsy account:

I've been exploring some death imagery but am also experimenting with other subject matter. Solo musicians seems to be popular with the subconscious, as do pinks and teal blues.

Next up is the Love Show at Launchpad, 'Love In Retrospect'. I know what I'm going after, just how to pictorialize it? These are the challenges.

Top 5 Music Inspirations

Music sure can get you in the mood.  To paint!  To paint!  It can probably get you in the mood to do other things but that's not what this blog entry is about.  This blog entry is about what music gets me in the proper mind frame to start working.  For the most part I lean towards ethereal/ambient sounding music, it seems to get the juices flowing.  It isn't always the case, though.  Sometimes something absolutely jarring does the trick, gets the brush dancing.  Here are the Top 5 musicians which are in heavy rotation at the moment.

1. Youth Lagoon

2. CocoRosie

3.  Coil

4. Crystal Stilts

5.  Death in June

Show Cards for The Wall & A Link for Jedadiah Bernards

 

I'm delighted that Jedadiah Bernards will be playing music during the opening reception!

November 4, 2011: The Wall & Other Paintings

Portrait of Jean-Paul Sartre
12 x 12
Mixed media on panel

I'm excited to be participating in my first solo show at Launchpad Gallery, a gallery dedicated to emerging artists.  I've been working non-stop for about two months on the show and have completed nearly twenty works for the show!  I think I've got at least three left in me.

The shows title, "The Wall & Other Paintings", is a riff on a book of collected short stories by Jean-Paul Sartre.  I chose the title mostly for the protagonists dialog during the course of the story The Wall, whose focus is their untimely execution the following morning and the ramifications of facing certain death.  Other elements pertinent to the story are littered throughout the show, wartime imagery, communication, alienation..

The opening reception is November 4th, 2011 from 6 PM - 12 AM.  Jedadiah Bernards will be also be playing for a portion of the evening!

I hope to see you local folks there!

P.S. There's beer on tap for you Portlanders.

Biting Cold

Narcissus Mutilated

Mirror Pond

2' x 3'

Acrylic and charcoal on panel

This is another series I'm exploring, central themes being groups of men and water.  The series started out as swimmers floating in space, evolving into a means of exploring group psychology, and is now evolving further, I guess into nebulous realms, at least I hope so.

I don't know what the paint means anymore, it use to be a tool to achieve photo-realism but I find that less and less (and less) appealing as times goes on.  Now it seems like a tool for experimentation and I am concerned about the variability of paint, thick/thin, washes and gobs of paint, brush strokes..