tea party

charcoal and acrylic on toned canvas

about 3' 6" x 7'

the things we cary

drawing / painting

charcoal, chalk, acrylic, and watercolor on panel

36 x 48

here is the road trip update long overdue. i wanted to automate the process by hiring api developers to make the frames auto center and advance automatically but the two people i hired bailed out on me so i am back to animating all these frames by hand.

google road trip

my google road trip is underway, more info coming soon...

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self portrait

this one was for advanced life painting. there is content but not too much, its mostly a technical exercise.

house for unwritten thoughts

digital projector

i got a digital projector a little while back and i have been playing around with it off and on for a bit. these clips are like sketches for what i may do in the future with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1ILgyqZ5O8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5TDl1rZ0GA

doodle

i haven't doodled for myself in awhile, it was a welcome experience

antonio frasconi

i have been trying to remember his name for about 3 years. i had seen a book of his work and read it cover to cover but for some reason the name never stuck in my head. luckily i stumbled upon his work today.

http://www.davidsongalleries.com/artists/frasconi/frasconi.php

sidewalk arts fatestival

woo! i won a prize at sidewalk arts festival for this drawing.  this is a re interpretation of the fates in very poor quality sidewalk chalk.  i used allot of water in this piece to wash away bits and reform them.  i am not entirely satisfied with this piece, the tone changed and the duality between executioner and someone who will be executed is lost here and replaced with a wholey menacing tone.  

subject 1

subject 2

subject 3

subject 4

subject 5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOAdhy-C5MY here is the process video that accompanies the asphalt creatures.

liminality continued

here are the finished pieces from the liminality series.  they are cut vellum and acrylic medium sandwiched between plexi.  this piece bothers me compositionally but it marks a change from the pieces being designed as window pieces to them being free standing pieces 

this one is about 30 x 40 the other ones are closer to 8 x 10 not including the frame.

i did this image for the trade portfolio at the southern graphic council global implications conferance in chicago.

this was the theme;

Mind the Gap: The Art and Science of Producing Prints on a Flattened Earth
Taking cues from the conference theme, Global Implications, this portfolio looks to address printmaking as an instrument of

mass dissemination, and perpetuator of culture. Participants should consider print's 'democratic voice' and how techniques and processes h

ave changed the way we do business and interact with our environments. What are the conceptual confines, expressions, and connotations of traditional print processes? Are print innovations progress or convenience? How will printmedia evolve and endure through the global flattening we have all been

thrust into? Participants should interpret the theme openly and as they see fit.

my veiws on the subject

the choice of the malt liquor old english is an homage tracing printmaking's commercial functionality back to the letter press. modern printmaking in my eyes is distortion of old english. much of modern print making is also rather low brow like malt liquor. its just out there to have fun rather than be a serious means of communication.

this is the black key block. i had to print it twice and it lost allot of the elegance and detail of the black layer alone.

new project

i have a new project i want to get going on soon.  i want to take stuffed animals and other childhood ephemera and dunk them in asphalt and then pull a print of the tarry animal.  the flattened toys will be displayed on pedestals with the large prints hanging behind them.  more updates on this soon hopefully.

process 13

i wanted to thank everyone who showed up to the show this friday.  the work was all quite strong and i learned quite allot from the experience.  i also wanted to give special thanks to those who bought prints.  if you would like information on upcoming shows shoot me an email and i can add you to the mailing list.  

i should have pictures of the show up within a couple days.  also two new paper cut paintings are being photographed so they should be up soon as well

scratch board

papercuts

i am doing these for my intermediate painting class.  its tough for me to do anything with elegance so these are quite a change for me.  

this one is just zoomed out to show how i lit it

babel fish poetry

N' they have fear of the largeness: quelqu' great it is been born, quelqu' it reaches the largeness, and quelqu' it has largeness pushed on them.

i ran this through a translator through a couple languages before returning it to english.  the original quote was "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. "

When there is damage, those prepare the fact that now it removes.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. 

If we are thrust in order to do don't we bleed? In order to do the [ku] it is superior and don't we laugh us? In order to do us, if our poisons it does because it does not die? When and we are damaged, us it doesn't take revenge?

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge? 

When it possesses the blood, them you call that; There is a blood in the blood.

It will have blood, they say; blood will have blood. 

there seems to be a cumulative effect on the distortion as well

What is the sound of one hand clapping?

The hand of 1 flights is sound of the thing which is hit what?

Is the hand of flights of 1 healthy thing that is struck what?

What the hand of misconduct of the thing which 1 comes to hit is healthy authorizes?

bablefish

What the hand of misconduct of the thing which 1 you eat hit is healthy authorizes?

What matter's improper conduct's hand does 1 hit is the healthy authorization?

Which matter' s inappropriate conduct' S-hand does 1 struck is the healthy authorization?

the mediator

this image for intro to print was based of Fritz Lang's metropolis.

the mediator of the head and the hands is the heart is the core metaphor of the film, i wanted to re interpret that while still having an homage to the original film.  these ended up being mono-prints but i got four of them that were close enough to edition.  drypoint 13" x 30" on rives bfk

old stuff

My scanner is not working because i need new ink.  so until i actually go out to get more i just have to archive by photographing.  this is a piece i did in intro to print during the spring semester.  18 x 24 lino cut on rives bfk

animal preserve

on thursday for my water based media class we went to a local animal preserve.  mostly it was just sad animals in large cages.  the site used to be the center for disease control where they worked on treating syphilis.  

the top right corner is my favorite part of the piece.  i have to work on getting more ritch pooling of color like that in the future. 

there is an odd story behind this boat being at the animal preserve.  one of the men who works there was traveling across the country in his 20s on this boat.  while in savannah the boat sank twice the second time being right at the animal preserve.  while staying in savannah he met a woman, fell in love, now they are 70.  to me the boat in this picture symbolizes a journeys end.

back alley

another one from the garden

gardenwc

just a little plein air water color work.

new litho

this is a litho i am working on for my intro to printmaking class

red lantern girls

the horses and other animals that get merged in with my teramorphic landscapes are some form of reference to my grandfather who spent a great deal of time painting the outdoors and wildlife.  i have a love of the outdoors but i have a very limited first hand experience with it so these creatures and places take on a mystical quality.  there is something unattainable about them.  

watercolors

these are from my exploration of water based media class i am taking, i am glad to be working with watercolors again.

here are some Max Ernst like landscapes i nocked out, the symbolism for me is quite a bit diferent though.  the figures bound in stone speek of a unification with the earth.  even the long skiny pillars are much like sky scrapers if they were filled solid and then eroded over time with the wind.  

random doodle

i have started drawing regularly again, mostly just nonsence little doodles like this one i did on the top my dark box for silk screening.

i have been slowing down allot with drawing figures.  i think it is killing my line-work and energy but i am getting more anatomical information in.  i dont know if the exchange is worthwhile yet but i think it is probably something i should at least try for awhile to see where it goes, perhaps if i do it for awhile the knowledge i gain will translate into my more energetic drawings.  this guy had that weird but that i have seen in drawings but never seen in person.  i also notice v's repeat throughout the body.  i have yet to properly analyze the importance of this but i am sure it means something.

sketch club

i finally made it over to sketch club.  it was just what i needed, i haven't felt that energy and inspiration for drawing for quite some time.  when you get a bunch of people in a room there is an energy, i was so happy to be in a room with people who were exited about drawing rather than just waiting to go back to bed.  i hadnt noticed the lack of energy in my classes as being something that was holding me back untill i went to sketch club and drew with people who love drawing.  my batteries are recharged now.  

self portrait

finaly got this image cleaned up enough to post. keeping things in proportion and making sure i keep my body the same way in a self portrait is one of the things i struggled the most with here.

19 x 25

white and black charcoal on hand toned grey paper

something new

i was watching a pollock bashing documentary in art history the other day,  one thing i have been noticing is that when people are doing something new with art there is usual some questioning about wether something is art by the artist or by the critics.  so if your questioning wether something is art you may be onto something.  

infuences

i was asked to write about my influences and how i developed the mark making i have now.  its a tough chalenge because i draw from everything around me, as my painting teacher Steve DiGiovanni would say even paintings you dont like offer something to be learned.   you can see his stuff at www.stevedigiovanni.com .  

my old drawing 2 teacher, Chris Durante showed me the beauty of showing where you have been in a drawing and got me working predominantly in pen for along time.  this built to spill poster by jay ryan is a good example of the beauty of showing where you have been.  this poster would not apeal to me as much if he had removed the leg that he redrew on the left side.  Chris also had a strong emphasis on loose gestural line work.  after class my friend Mauricio and i started a drawing group called the burn that also focused on loose gestural drawing.  the drawing rooms were often open so we always took advantage of that.  loud music filled the room as we would t

ake turns posing, sometimes we would stick our bodies through chairs to further confound the form and really force us to look at what we were doing.  other times we played a drawing equivalent of musical chairs where we would play a short song and draw each others portraits, when the song ended so did our drawings.  

my old figure drawing teacher larry morrelli turned me on to allot of great artists that would influence me.  http://www.fimp.net/larryex.html some of his older work can be found here.  he always said, draw with a sense of desperation, thats one thing that really stuck with me.  the constant search was another strong point of emphasis, the strugle to look, to see, and in effect, the strugle to find what is there.  another good larry saying is something along the lines of sometimes you have to destroy something in order to make it better, that one is not stated correctly i feel, but there is a point in drawings often, usualy preceeding the magic 15 miniutes where the drawing just gets worse and worse before everything starts snapping in to place.  another related quo

te is that its better to d

estroy a drawing for the chance of a beautifull drawing than just settle for an ok drawing.  Giacometti was one of the more influential people he turned me onto there were others and i am probably going to continue this post further.

where do i come from, what am i, where am i going?

i have been in somewhat of a slump as of late,  it started out almost a month ago when i got sick, this caused me to get behind with some major assignments in school.  i sleep every other day at least twice a week and even this does not afford me enough time to catch up or even just to maintain and finish the regular work that i have to do.  

on top of this i have been rather introspective as of late.  i seem to be stuck in a set way of doing things and this is bugging me.  to me school is not about what you know, its about what you dont know and how far you are willing to take it.  although i feel i have been learning a ton about anatomy this quarter there is still so much i do not know.  i knew a fair amount of anatomy of the head.  the torso i knew somewhat about previously in relation to the skeleton but learning the muscles on top really helped me bridge the gap between what i see and what i know is underneath.  i am still struggling with knees arms and legs.  blocking in the feet has helped a lot with placing figures solidly in a location.  i feel a have a lot more to learn about them, they seem to be the mushiest part of the body given the extreme number of bones there.  it make sence though because most of the weigh seems to land on the feet.    

i guess the closest thing i can think of to drawing the figure would be garlic, the bulbs of garlic under the skin are similar in some ways to muscles under flesh.  i like figure drawing because it is so hard, the only thing i can think of that is more challenging than figure drawing is drawing fast moving water.  running water is also like the figure in the sense that what it flows over affects its form, it has the additional problem of being transparent and reflective.  

alien doodle

just some sketches

i was getting some good results using a marker to create a grey ground and then working generals white charcoal pencils over it.

i am practicing blocking in forms as a way of keeping things preportional, seems to be working alright.  i am begining to think that you realy should be able to master the thumbnail before you can consistantly master finished drawings.

our love t desing

still working on this one, the typo needs to be fixed but here is a wip to show i am still alive, i feel like i am not letting illustrator do what it wants so i will have to play around with it untill it works.

new shirt desings

together
8" x 9"
ink and conte on toned paper
$50

consumes
8" x 9"
ink and conte on toned paper
original drawing $50

these will be turned into two layer silk screens and printed up in the near future