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..