Drawings
lemon, no lemon / cowboy, no cowboy acrylic on wood 12x14 (no longer exists)
Been watching a lot of food-related shows and thinking about the Buddhist concept of inter-being. And the virtues of lemons. And the virtues of non-lemons. And Beyonce's new album title. Okay, not really, but it is about lemons. Well, not really - it is and it isn't. Apparently so is everything else. Is that right? I don't know.
pollen pummel drill acrylic on wood 12x14 (sold)
I got your back/pain acrylic on wood 12x14 (sold)
internet (portrait) acrylic on wood 12x14 (sold)
study buddy acrylic on wood 6.25x7.5
This is a little dude I've been slowly working on for a while. Just a little study, buddy. At first I was thinking about a Lucien Freud painting that foregrounds a large nude dude, a foot stool , and a red shag carpet. That carpet has always stuck with me for some reason. Such a committed amount of detail went into every fiber. So I used the idea of a red carpet as a jumping off point. After that, things got wacky. An old friend I showed it to recently said it made her think of Pee-wee's Playhouse. I can work with that.
Not a chance! acrylic and joint compound on wood 12x14 SOLD
Another fuzzy ditty. Getting lumpy. Sorta like wadis on this one. Am I playing the game? Not a chance!
Thanks, rugs acrylic on wood 12x15 (no longer exists)
We had a lot of rugs in our house growing up. Just about in every room. Swimming in their patterns, the cats (or "puds" for the initiated) would rotisserie themselves in a slowly spinning, sprawling square of afternoon sun. There's something dazzling in a rug's pattern. From afar they seem intricate, bold, and deliberate, yet fairly straight forward. But as you get up close, the tight structure dissolves into a beautiful array of pixelated color. In many ways, they reward patient observation. So I made this guy to show some appreciation for what they provide: warmth, quiet, and hours of a certain kind of learning and entertainment.
To be sure, the rugs in our house also contained a rich cultural history imbedded in them that both fascinates me and escapes me. Since many of the rugs we had have been donated or shared with family and friends or pitched outright, their particular mysteries may be hard to remember or interpret. But that doesn't mean I can't do some digging at the local public library to learn more about these patterns and motifs in a general sense. What I do know about them is what they've given me. And I'm grateful for that.
sidenote: This painting is a paint-over of another "painting" called Range from a series of sanded panels I did a while back. I often recycle old work that has dutifully served its purpose and yet thankfully still has potential for something new.
Nice Try Tie 2 (Ronny West Point Tie) acrylic on wood 15x20 SOLD
In a stunning upset, Plaid has beaten Stripes, one to nothin'! acrylic on wood 12x14 on auction at Artspace ; starting bid: $50 SOLD
Just another chapter in the endless saga of stripes versus plaid. Who will win in the next match, er, clash?? It's hard to say, folks. All we know is that today plaid can hold it's collar popped high for on this day...Plaid is victor!
This one along with the other one will be available at the Artspace action and there will be details on that show to come soon. It's on the fourth Friday of February. I know that much.
Liza and Louise acrylic and screws on wood 10x12 offered at Artspace auction; starting bid: $50 SOLD
Pushing this technique a little further and going for two flannel shirts-type look in both texture and pattern. The title is taken from a NOFX song about two lesbians - sort of an anthem from my teenage punk/skaterat days. This one was built up in many layers. Since the colors are mixed optically and the surface is not flat, there isn't really a steady hold, if you will, for the eye to rest. And as you get closer to the painting, like much artwork done in a similar way (Seurat and other pointilists, Chuck Close, etc.) the image disintegrates into a bunch of bits.
This one and a couple more made in the same vein will be hung at an auction show next month at Artspace. I'll add some more details about the show here later.
Nurses acrylic on paper 22x24 SOLD
I came across an image of a group of 13 nurses in training during the 40's. Made me think of all the nurses we have and have had in our family. We have oodles. Formally, there are a lot of rhythms set up in this image that made my eye dance. My hat's off to the original photographer who snapped this one. Couldn't find the person's name, but they really captured all the conformity in the room - "soup-to-nuts," as my mother (once a nurse herself) would say. I took this pic with my phone, so it's not the highest quality, but you get the idea. As might be noticed, I've taken certain liberties with the original image in order to add certain tensions. Perhaps they'll appear in a slow read of the image. That's the hope anyway.
Sleeping on Stones acrylic on wood 7.5x6.25
pumpkin spice lint ball acrylic on wood 12x14 (no longer exists)
More fun with making acrylic string tangles. I like the visual static that starts to hum when you get a bunch of layers of this stuff going. More to come.
Purse(Clutch) acrylic on wood 6.5x7.375 not for sale
About 2 weeks ago I went to visit my family in Boone, NC. While there I noticed a sweet pattern on my mom's new purse, or "clutch," as she likes to call it. All around it has big bold black and white stripes with a red interior and accents. Something about the look of it struck me and stuck in my head for a while. I used the basic design of it to make this one. The acrylic allows you to do some pretty interesting things in terms of utilizing it's somewhat plastic properties. I assume you could do something similar with oil, but it would be far more expensive, might be a bit unreliable going from one color to the next, and it would take forever to dry. So I went a more immediate route.
Sweater Nest acrylic on wood 7.375x5.375
I've been having fun using acrylic in a somewhat sculptural way. With a little ingenuity you can make acrylic look fairly close to string. I'll be making many more of this type. They're sort of a bear, but I'm tweaking that process a little bit. Another process I'll be tweaking is my documentation of these paintings. Gotta get some more lights and standardize it a bit so my images don't look crummy. I'll get there.
Nurse V acrylic on paper 15.5x11.5
Yet another drawing/painting made from family photos. Although she's gone now, she's still with us in one way or another.
Aunt 2 (with windbreak) ink, gesso, acrylic, and graphite on paper 22x23
Another painting/drawing inspired by a family photo.
Distorted George, 1969 #2 (Camo George) gesso and acrylic on paper 22x25
Having more fun with this image of George Carlin being a goofball. I decided to expand the view to that of the original image while pushing "digital distortion" look a bit into the decorative. I have him slightly camouflaged here, which wasn't really planned, but I like it. Well, it was sort of planned. I had been thinking a lot about Ann Gale's work and how her subjects dissipate into their surroundings. I suppose that's the aim of camouflage, too. With this painting, I think had I aimed for a camouflaged look on the outset, it wouldn't have turned out quite like this. I've tried making an image like this before (with lines making up the figure in the foreground and also the background) with pretty bad results. Something about the boundaries of the body being too strictly adhered to makes for a stiff drawing or painting and one-way ticket to the garbage can. I'm much happier with how this whacky picture turned out. It seems loose enough, and it makes me laugh every time I look at it.
Distorted George, 1969 gesso and acrylic on paper 9x12
I've been making a lot of heavy stuff for a while, so I decided to lighten it up a bit. This drawing is from a still of George Carlin performing on, I believe, the Tonight Show in 1969. Shamefully, it's taken from his Wikipedia page, but fuck it, the original image made me laugh as he always has. As I made this one, I decided to pass the source image though a couple of imagined modes of distortion - first by the lined static common of the era of the original broadcast and then through a more digital distortion of the video viewing we enjoy today through youTube and other online video sites. Distortion on top of distortion. Something like that.
untitled illustrations (2014) ink, graphite, and/or correction fluid on paper ~9x11
Although I haven't posted anything in while, I've been working on some illustrations and planning other dog tag projects over the last year and a half. The collection of drawings above were created while I was working at a local fountain pen company. While there, I made illustrations for a short time in order to promote the products they sold. A few of them have that feel as well as the company's watermark. Making these were a lot of fun and reminded me how much I enjoy building an image with a collection of little marks using a pencil, pen, syringe, Q-tip, brush, or whatever I can get my hands on. They're of James Gandolfini, Robin Williams, Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Car, a study of an Ann Gale painting, and Bill Mauldin. All but the Gandofini and Williams photos were taken by the very talented Sarah Mattozzi.