Three More Four By Fours

 Sleeping Together

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

Closer Together 2

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

Constant Terror Leads to Better Days

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

Further 4x4's

 Sleeping Beauty

4"x4"

Mixed media on wood

 Ghost Ship

4"x4"

Mixed media on wood

 Closer Together

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

4x4 Paintings, Continued

 

Ask The Crow

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

 

Playing Games

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

 

Sleeping Bird

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

4x4

Going large, going small. I have 100 4x4 squares and I'm going to paint on them all. I started out using the 4x4's as warm ups for the larger paintings I'm working on but I've become rather enthralled with the small pieces. It's surprising how much impact fits into a 4x4 square. It's also nice to test imagery for addition to my "visual language". Some things have fit well, others haven't fit so well and have been painted over. Here are some of the first batch, more to follow.

Sleeping

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

God Hates

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

Arresting

4" x 4"

Mixed media on wood

Nervous Communication

Nervous Communication

6" x 6"

Mixed media on panel

Here's a small piece I finished recently. I like that all of these men are sitting about each other with headphones on - as if listening to something together in the open air is out of the question. Why? And what are they listening to?

I'm using smaller pieces as warm up exercises for the larger pieces I'm working. I really need to get some larger work done for the streets next year (I feel like a prostitute when I talk about "the streets"). Updates may be fewer and further between but I will try to post some of smaller stuff inbetween. I do have four days coming up with nothing scheduled and am hoping to fill the days with painting!

First Friday at Launchpad Gallery: Facing Fear

I will be participating in Launchpad's Facing Fear group show for First Friday in November (along with approximately 100 others artists of various disciplines)! If you enjoy art and Portland's quirky sensibility I highly recommend coming down and checking out the show. Launchpad shows are usually well attended and a lot of fun.

I'm really excited about the piece I have in the show: war meets existentialist lit meets my trademark loose and defined mixed media black and whites..

Hope to see you there!

First Friday show at Studio 2507

Got a First Friday show going thanks to Bridget Larrabee, check out her website for additional details.  The folks at Studio 2507 will be hosting.

Stop by the studio/gallery and check out some of my work.

Studio 2507

2507 SE Clinton

Portland, OR  97213

6pm - 9 pm

Cheers!

First Thursday Street Gallery Tonight!

Looks like a beautiful sunny day today in Portland, OR. Probably one of the last during this season for the First Thursday street gallery. I'll be down in the Pearl today on 13th between Hoyt and Kearney.

Friction, Redux

Friction

24 x 24

Mixed media on panel

Last month a gentleman at the street galleries asked me if I had any larger work, larger than 12 x 12. I've been painting 12 x 12's for the better part of the last six months and I've always been meaning to go larger so I took it as a queue. I am more satisfied with the end result but it was a bit trying. I suppose leaving your comfort zone always is.

After The Show

After The Show

12" x 12"

Mixed media on panel

The source image for this painting was one of those vintage "How To" books. I took the image and made it my own - not following the steps outlined in the "How To" to come up with the final image.

I am becoming more and more interested in experimenting with paint. I use to mix paint on a pallette and then obsessively paint surfaces to render something as photo realistic as possible. I was never satisfied with the end result and it felt like torture! I guess it seemed the only way it could be a "real" painting was if it was done in a photo realist fashion. After a few years and some good teachers in art school, my style has loosened up dramatically and everything's the better for it.

I won't have a lot of new paintings to post for awhile due to the move to the art community. I've been focusing on nude figure studies lately and I can't wait to do some more! I might skip some packing this weekend and make time for painting. I need to get into "the zone".

Sketchbook Excerpts, Cont.

In about an hour I will be off to Texas. I'll be in the land where everything's bigger for a week so I won't have anything to update on until after then. As you can see above I'm taking a few of my favorite drawing implements. My favorite materials for sketchbooks are soft graphite pencils (in the 6B and softer category), white acrylic paint (to cover botch jobs and add visual interest all at the same time!), various erasers, miscellaneous charcoals, and a perennial favorite, rolling ball pens!

Sketchbooks are really a place for ideas to be stored. My problem when it comes to art is having too many ideas. I'm trying to make better habit of drawing ideas and keeping them in "storage" rather than trying to execute a series on a whim. One of my good friends told me to slow down and pull back, likely sage advice!

These were some color studies for flesh tones I did for a class I was taking, basically all skin tones are derived from white, siennas, yellow ochre, ivory black, and a little bit of red (buying prefab skin tone is, in fact, cheating). The color mixing possibilities are endless. It was also a fun way to put pictures from my "male models" collage folder into my sketchbook!

I read Scene and Herd at Art Forum every month when I get the reminder from my subscription to do so. I like to people watch on the photos and imagine I'm part of the smoke and mirrors "glamorous life". So one day, without anything to draw, I started inserting myself in the photos! It cracks me up but others might find it a little odd (what's new?)..

You can see a shift in the way my sketchbooks are going. I'm getting a lot looser with the materials and as the caption readings, performing "experiments". I used to be wrapped up in thinking I was competing for The Most Perfect Drawings Ever but that has ceased to interest me.

Pardon Me, Am I Personaly Identifiable?

I thought it might be fun to post some of my favorite pages from sketchbooks. I only buy Bee Paper Company Super Deluxe sketchbooks, I got one for a class a year or so ago and was immediately sold on the product. The paper used is 91 lb. paper, much thicker than a lot of sketchbooks I've had or seen. The heavyweight paper is great for working in wet media when in the mood for such an affair. I also like utilizing the "front" and "back" of sketchbook pages as seen below.

I love to mess with the covers of my sketchbooks! It's my favorite thing about starting a new sketchbook. Just make it all messy and screwy and add to it until it feels "done".

Somewhere along the line I started pasting images from my stash into my sketchbooks. I think it was recommended by a drawing teacher. I like how a pasted image may (or may not) relate to a drawing on the opposing page.

Captain Oswald Boelcke! From a brief period of fascination with attractive WWI pilots.

I'm not sure if I like writing thoughts and feelings (oh - my precious feelings!) into sketchbooks but I'm beginning to jot things down in them with more regularity.

I'll upload some more sketchbook pages from time to time. I'm trying to get into the habit of drawing a page daily, or if not drawing a page daily, at least making up for missed days by drawing several pages in one day. It's fun to try to find ways to make things interesting.

Untitled

Untitled

12" x 12"

Mixed media on board

I started trying to stop making sense of collages, instead focusing on form and visual interest (the last two posts are along the same lines). I don't know what a painting means without its meaning being justified prior to painting it? Does a painting even have to have meaning, I mean, can it be vague and indecipherable? Does it take on meaning if there is none, creating its own? Likely so.

The Function Machine

The Function Machine

12" x 12"
Mixed media on board

Swimming

Swimming
12" x 12"
Mixed media on panel

Incorporating two of my favorite things to paint: vintage war photographs and fish!

The strong left vertical line which cuts off the painting and the thicker line on the right hand side started me on this line trip. I guess it added some kind of visual interest which at the time I thought the painting was lacking. On this painting I used a "load the brush" technique I picked up during a class, where one color of gray and another color are loaded side by side on a single brush and then streaked across the canvas. Calculated risk taking..

Secret Theater

Secret Theater
12" x 12"
Mixed media on panel

I'm not satisfied with this painting at all! This is mostly owing to the central figures legs as well as the too-vast blackness which absorbs the center of the image, and seems to me, to take over the entire image. Why am I even showing it? To show some defeat, maybe, or, my ability to self edit. I think about fixing it sometimes but most of the time it's ON TO THE NEXT IDEA.

The image comes from an old war photo. Apparently theater was a means of entertainment for some soldiers during wartime. The soldiers dressed up in elaborate ramshackle costumes (some even in drag!) and created productions. They kind of remind me of low budget performance art from the 60's and beyond.

Milwaukie First Friday Exhibition

Tonight I will be taking part in downtown Milwaukie's First Friday. I'll be showing some black and white war collages. Come down and see me! I'll be at the intersection of S.E. Main Street and S.E. Harrison.

Survey

Survey
24 " x 24" (overall)
Mixed media on board

I feel this is one of the more successful paintings of the year. You can see the faint outline of the individual 12"x12" panels which make up the overall 24" x 24" piece. I tried to make each individual panel interesting on its own while relating to the whole.

I like the billowing smoke plumes arising on the lower left panel. The airplanes were troubling to paint, I'll never look up at an airplane the same way again (that is, without studying its form!). It contains a lot of recurring themes throughout this years work: smoke, fire, vintage black and white scraps, war, flora.

I've shown this piece a couple of times this year. I usually hide it in the back of the rest of my paintings because I don't want anyone to buy it, but, if someone came along and loved it I'd be happy to part with it - such sweet sorrow.

Some Body

Some Body
20" x 20"
Mixed media on panel

The other day I had tremendous anxiety about driving. I felt like an accident was going to occur and I would be a participant. Would I cause it? Would someone run into me? Every moving vehicle seemed a threat. After fifteen minutes of letting my mind race I remembered I was doing this painting..

I think this is the third time I've painted a car accident or a car in some state of disrepair. There was the broken down rusted vehicle in the forest a few months ago and then one last year that sold.

When paintings sell I always wonder how they're doing out in the world. I wonder how they're doing on people's walls, how people respond to them. I wonder if they're decorative or if people stop and ponder their content? I want my paintings to have a sense of mystery about them, some drama (dramatic mystery?). I use to want to be very direct and to the point but I'm not interested in that anymore.

Friction

Friction

12" x 12"
Mixed media on board

In honor of the gay pride festivities of which I unfortunately did not attend this year.

My Loose Thread

My Loose Thread
12" x 12"
Mixed media on board

The title of this painting came from a Dennis Cooper novel.

What I love most about this painting is the upper right area, the strange marks, drips, scratches of paint, covered in a soft white..

Deconstruction Times

Deconstruction Times
12" x 12"
Mixed media on board

Ever feel like you're being ripped apart?

Tricycle for Shannon

Tricycle for Shannon
12" x 12"
Mixed media on board

Some back story on this painting.

I hit a dry spell recently and couldn’t figure out what to paint. I was banging my head up against the wall. I hate these moments; it’s as if the whole world becomes some gray drab slate and every brush stroke against a surface becomes a moot point. Then, I looked up from bed (I was effectively coping with the dry spell by laying in the dark) and when I looked up from the bed I saw Shannon's painting of a tricycle!

I immediately sent her a message and asked if it was okay to co-op her tricycle? I always loved the story of the tricycle so thought it would be fun to reinterpret. I was expecting offense but luckily she was more than okay with the idea. Above is the result of said interpretation.

A buyer at the street gallery bought one of Shannon's tricycles. Of mine, she said it was “too dark”. A common theme which I wonder if I will escape?

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's still raining in lovely Portland, Oregon. I wonder if some kind of record is afoot? With the continuing rain the street gallery was a no-go last week. I was disappointed when I came to the realization that I wouldn't be attending this month but was glad not to be in the thick of the heavy rain that began to fall in the evening.

Laughing Jackass
12x12
Mixed Media on board

I was originally attracted to this image of a bird because it looks like some kind of angry, stout seagull. I like seagulls, and crows for that matter, because they're scrappy little scavengers by nature (human element?). This bird's a Laughing Jackass. When I look at it now I feel like it's smart beyond its status as bird, that its furrowed brow relays some kind of provoked rage or hostility towards its immediate surroundings or maybe the world at large..

May Showers Bring June Flowers

Excerpt From a Painting by Francis Bacon
12 x 12
Mixed Media on board

The month of May was doomed to rain. This is typical in Portland which I think of as overcast and rainy nine months of the year. While the normal spring-jingle goes "April showers bring May flowers" it can be sang in Portland that "May showers bring June flowers".

Tomorrow is the monthly street gallery I participate at with a friend but the forecast calls for rain. I'm crossing my fingers that June is not doomed to rain as May was.

The painting above seemed fitting for an entry such as this. It was one of the 50 Project I did exploring a limited palette. I had a lot of fun doing this painting and I think it was completed in the span of 45 minutes. Sometimes the universe gives you one (just as it takes one away).

Moody Broody

Last week I was turned down for a showing because the general tone of my paintings is too dark. I expect this, I mean, they are pretty "dark". I don't know about too, but they are dark. I wish there was another word for dark? I was watching a film the other day and I heard the quip "moody broody" and I like it! Anyway, this series of paintings does not belong in an ice cream shop or the like. I'm not sure where they belong.

1,000 Dreams on Fire
12" x 12"
Mixed media on board

Most Accidents Occur At Home
12" x 12"
Mixed media on board

The rejection of the black and whites has given me the perfect opportunity to explore another series I've stumbled on.. ..but I don't foresee my foray into the black and whites ending anytime soon!

Golden Cows

Somewhere along the way I picked up a small obsession with cows, specifically, golden cows. I'm not quite sure how this came to be. I think I overheard a conversation about the biblical story of Aaron and Moses? I like the idea of gold, richness, and how dependent we are on these animals.

The painting above is an excerpt from a classical painting. I've forgotten the source. It was part of The 50 Project, for awhile during the project I was taking portions of paintings done by others and focusing in on aspects of the paintings.

Golden Cow 2
12" x 12"
Acrylic on board

I don't think I'm finished with painting cows for now. I see cows in my future!

Teeth Boy

I thought I would share one of my favorite drawings to date.

This is a drawing based on a collage I did. I obsessively collect images, in fact, my filing drawer is full and is literally overflowing.. I'm not sure if I should buy another filing drawer or of I should sort through my collection of scraps and, uh, "scrap" some of the images. I love collage, the way a new world is created out of seemingly unrelated bits of paper. Collage is amusing to no end, really. I think the sources for the images used were an old 50's magazine article about the last day of school, some medical supply catalogs, and Crap Hound #5, Hands, Hearts, Eyes.

Teeth Boy
18x24
Charcoal, Graphite, and Sharpie on Paper

Bitches Behind Bars

Starting a new blog is something I’ve been meaning to do for some time!

My friend Shannon and I were talking about starting blogs in honor of our acceptance into an intentional creative’s community housed in a redeveloped bricker from the early 20^th century. It was previously used as a care home for the elderly.. ..neat vibe. I’m sure some strange adventures are underway for all of us participating in this venture. This post may be a little premature as we do not actually move in until August but I thought I’d get going on the blog…

To Be Determined

12” x 12”

acrylic on board

To Be Determined is one of the paintings I did this year during a three month course titled The 50 Project. The course is a post in and of its own! The instructor of the class bought this piece. When I ran into him and his lady friend at a benefit auction she exclaimed, “We call it Bitches Behind Bars!” I thought that was hilarious.