4.7.11 Photos

A trip out to Millville, PA.

4.5.11

Tilt Shift

My new favorite toy while I'm away from home and not in art mode. The photos are on the fly as a passenger in a fast-moving van. Composition is considered but it's mostly subject matter and luck as to the final result. The camera filters make it a little too easy to get a good looking photo with little effort so I'm not taking these too seriously.
I have a feeling they don't look so good at a larger size buy that's ok; I like tiny photos and images.

Terrain

Photos

Work On View

betsy birkey and I have work on view at Dollop Coffee, 4181 North Clarendon Avenue, Chicago, IL 60613 (just south of Montrose).
Stop by if you're in the Uptown neighborhood.

The show is up for the next month at least (possibly longer, Opening/Closing date TBD).

A big thanks to Todd Burbo and betsy for making this show happen and to Amber for tolerating my messes for the past month.

Photos

Eye In The Sky

I have a new camera. It's also a phone and a computer and completely overwhelming. This is a test to see if I can do anything truly useful with it (as I sit here watching The Soup).
Here are a few photos out of my sketchbook as samples, hopefully they translate on the other end of the webs.

Thaw

Time is short these days which is why I haven't posted in a few days. March is flying by quickly which means Spring will be here (in exactly nine days).
I started a new job this week and I'm still working on preparing for my show at Dollop Cafe next weekend. Work will be up for viewing on Sunday the 20th. No Opening or Closing scheduled (yet) so stay tuned.
A few more older drawings to share here. Largely unfinished (as usual) drawings these are part of a collaboration with a friend of mine, Andrew Harding. He and I handmade two leather bound books and trade them back and forth after we've worked in them for a while. It's been a while since we traded and I can't wait to see what he's done in the other book. The top two are entirely me and the bottom image shows more collaboration between the two of us.

 

pencil, ink and watercolor on paper

 

pencil, ink and watercolor on paper

 pencil, collage, oil paint, ink and watercolor on paper

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Guiding Youth

My intrusive good deed for the week:
I helped steer a kid away from buying a Rapidograph technical pen last night while I was at the art store. It felt good to have possibly saved someone from the hours of toil and the ridiculousness that is screaming at a pen that refuses to dispense its payload. I prefer to spend my time drawing and not cleaning and screaming.
I recommended disposable Micron pens (they were out of my standard .005 black) and dip/quill type pens but ended it by saying he should try out all pens, Rapidographs included, and find what works best for his style. I couldn't tell if his dad was giving me the stink eye for interrupting (because I knew more than he AND the sales associate) but I felt good about it.

Here are some older drawings of mine that I've been looking at recently to remind myself of where I've been and where I'm going. I take a lot of different turns in my work and sometimes I can't remember where I was trying to go with my imagery. If I'm not mistaken I'm still trying to catch up with imagery that I started to generate 4 years ago. There's only so much time before the next generation of imagery comes along for me and tempts me with the confounding shamanistic illusion that I have finally figured it all out. Once that happens it's almost impossible for me to remember my older work and what I had hoped to accomplish. As I was taught in school, it's all about the journey; I just want to have a few postcards to send back home.

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Goatsnake forever
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Parts & Pieces

These are some older drawings that I found recently, from within the past two years I think.
Mostly journal pages but also some cut out pieces of paintings on paper. I have some ideas about cutting work like this into separate pieces and then reassembling back into new shapes to play with composition and larger shapes. More to come hopefully (once my woodshop thaws from winter's grasp, I'm counting the days at this point).

 journal page

 journal page

 journal page

  journal page

 journal page

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Boulevard Bulwarks

I started the second large panel today (on the left below), roughed in as of right now, but it's nice to see it next to the other image. They feed off of each other in terms of creating the visual language which I started to doubt after finalizing the first one. Something seemed to be missing and I wasn't sure what it was. I like when my problems resolve themselves.
I'm still figuring out my technique and, as of right now, I think it's still fairly archaic and crude. With that in mind though how resolved/refined can I make these without neutering them?

 both panels 30" x 80", wood panels

 (((detail)))

The last image is of a hand painting that I've been working on since November of '09. Let it be known that I don't work on individual pieces for more than a few sessions before they are set aside for various reasons (spite, distraction, I forget, etc). Mostly it takes a lot of time to see and to think about the directions that I want to go. So when I say "since November of '09" it's not as intense as one might think. Nonetheless, I'm pretty happy with it. I'd like to start more contour shape paintings in the spring (the garage studio will be naturally heated and tolerable).

8.5" x 18.25", acrylic on wood

To see the previous state click here

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more drawings...

Sorry for the crummy scans. Just works in progress so I'm not too concerned with making things pretty at the moment.
The lack of definition and coherency in the drawings inspires my fancies and, more to the point, keeps the image open for added information and evolution.

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my scanner doesn't like faint pencil drawings and Photoshop doesn't care

Some recent journal drawings, sketches.
Ideas that I'd like to pursue as paintings someday soon.

 

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