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..

Bombs (away)

Bomber
4' x 4'
Acrylic and charcoal on panel

Part of an ongoing exploration of airplane bombers.  They are ominous, powerful bits of metal and screws  flying through the sky heralding widespread destruction with the click of a button.  Sometimes I think about things while painting:  with this painting the airplane became a symbol of technological advancement as means of destruction of those less technologically advanced.  If I didn't have such a penchant for history I'd probably be painting robotic weapons.

Excerpts from a sketchbook, Cont'd.

Some excerpts from a sketchbook on a recent "Urban Hike" with some friends to the Shakespeare Garden in Washington Park.  The first sketch is some blind contour drawings of people who came to the park to view the gardens, it was amazing how many people occupied the space in the 15 - 20 minutes that spanned the drawing (temporality).  The second is some Jewish women sad over the deaths of loved ones, with Elmo running around in the background?  I guess I haven't tired of gluing trash into my sketchbooks.  Oh, trash..

Vague and indecipherable. Mystery.

Untitled

24 x 24

Acrylic and charcoal on panel

I don't know what to title my paintings anymore, maybe I just don't think it's important.  I kind of like it vague and indecipherable these days. "Mystery".

Charlie's Girls

Excerpt of a drawing titled Charlie's Girls
12x12
Mixed media on paper