Gallery Sitting Dewclaw

I'm not saying Dewclaw is slow on Saturdays, but....

you don't wanna know how many takes I did. 

Current show is Kamilah Gill's "Hashtag Life". She constructs very interesting painting compositions from her online imagery culls. 

How to remove cat hair from art.

Nest Tree

I received the dreaded notice from the health dept, to remove my brush pile. It's been 5+ years since my last notice, and this is the largest it's ever been (this sort of maintenance never seems to happen without prodding).

 I managed to break everything down in two days, into 3 wood stacks, a light crunchy scattering over the yard, an extensive and attractive garden border of twisted large branches, and this "nest tree" on the right.

 Mid-way through the pile, I found this old yard offering. The tree was still green from an artificial dye. It also had around 100 bendy branches that could not be snapped off, had to be clipped. I have a dead cypress in the yard, I've not yet removed. How funny to wedge this green dyed dead Christmas tree into the cypress' branches, making it look alive (and saving me a lot of tedious branch cutting).

 Before long I had an entire pile of bendy brush that would be hard to break down. Yep, I wove everything into the nest tree. Here's a detail. It has way more brush in there than it appears in these photos....way more.

I should mention that I almost hoard rotting wood. I really enjoy having it around, and even messing with the pile, digging through and finding the various stages of decomposition. Finding various fungus growth. The urge to build with it is strong too. I had to restrain myself from leaning the larger limbs onto other trees and building things. I would love to be able to engage in strenuous puttering like this all the time.

Gallery Ideas, Part I

I've rented a small space at the Circle City Industrial Compex. It's perfectly intimate, tucked away a bit, no windows, and a nice size for a small gallery. It's been a huge struggle to ignore this space and focus on getting other things done. I've only been in there once since I received my keys, but the ideas are flowing, some good, some whacky. Posting publicly will help me sort out the diff.

Exhibition ideas:
Unstable Art Show - I've been sculpting paint skins while they're still moving (wet), which almost sounds cruel. I'd like to have an invitational one-night only show using in-flux materials. This could be in winter so we'd have the whole snow/ice possibility. It could involve stacking materials. Pretty much anything fragile or ephemeral, as long as it's not fumey or food related. For the exhibition I'd cover the floor in plastic and possibly even display some things in tubs. 

Documented-only shows - I'd like to have a strong online representation and had even considered having the gallery officially be an online gallery, which happened to have a bricks-n-mortar space in Indpls. The space would serve almost as a set for the online activities, and would also be a sort of tourist attraction (at least in concept) for the "real" activities which occurs online....a sort of Precious Moments Chapel for you to pay homage to ;-) , full of momentos (for sale) of online conceptual moments of note. Document-only shows would play into this idea in that I would put up shows in the space, but only present a documentation of them. Not a new idea by any means, but it's still interesting to consider just how and what one could do with it.

Artists You Don't Know - I'd change the title, but this would be either one show or a series of shows featuring local Indiana artists who are making really intriguing and independent work, but who are not really on the radar.

It's Not Gonna Happen - (or Proposals for the Unlikely) -It's a much more positive idea than how it sounds. This will likely be a proposal show, where artists submit very informal representations of projects that simply will not happen, mainly because of context. That same inappropriate context is what makes the idea so fascinating though. For instance, I was making proposals for an area high school, and when I saw the natatorium being contructed, an image popped into my head and I couldn't shake it. Their mascot is a panther. I visualized this image of a panther where the huge scale and the cropped (swimming) shape made it impossible to read correctly on first glance. It actually looks like a loch nest monster or something inexplicable. That moment when you realise it's a panther would be so amazing.....Still, the idea falls so far outside of the norm, as school mascots go.....It's not gonna happen. I may keep this show limited to decorative painting projects, but public art projects are also a great place for "not gonna happen" ideas.

Fantasy Art Finds - (Needs better title) This could be either a proposal show or a theme show for new work. What art would you most want someone else to have made? This really is different from what art you as an artist would like to make, I think. The context could be narrowed. I've always liked to imagine my dream thrift store painting finds. What would I most want to find in a thrift store, or similar place, that some other person had taken the time to make?

Paintings for a Mobile Home - I first had this idea back when I actually lived in a trailer. As campy as the idea is, I was seeking a framework that would encourage sincerity. I've always wanted to keep one foot firmly planted in a non-academic, provincial place of art appreciation. It seems important to always consider what I'd be doing and how I'd be thinking if I were unaware of current art considerations. What paintings would I make if they were intended to be hung in a mobile home? It's almost impossible to conceive without irony, but fascinating to do so. I'm not sure if this would be an invitational show, or just a group I'd do.

I rarely feel inspired by others' theme show ideas, and I am a little chagrined at how much I'm going there myself. Next thing you know, I'll be pushing spectacle art events....

Iron-Artist Assemblage Competition - Timed assemblage of provided materials. Could also have a blind collaboration, where artists work in sequence on one piece. This was actually a side-idea to Sculpt My Yard Offerings - which was originally simply Sculpt My Dumped Tires. I bring in stuff that's been dumped in my yard, you or I make something from it. I though about somehow inviting others to make surreptitious yard offerings that I would try to distinguish from the naturally occurring dumpings. It would be an interesting head-trip, but is just way too insular in scope, even if it's made into a display of some sort.

The Strontium Show - Fun with phosphorescent paint.

I'll end the exhibition ideas here. Gallery Ideas, Part II will be ideas for funding the gallery, and also ideas for setting up the space itself.

Merit Pro, Indeed

I've lost her again.

visual clue:

Myrna's a trip.

The other cats don't even know there is a fourth floor.

Studio Alienation

I've not painted for about 3 weeks and it feels like forever. Top piece was painted with the cat toy underfoot, and this connection was noticed a week or so later. I photographed to post here a week after that, and am just now doing it, one week later. I have a to-do list jet stream overhead, countered by this seductive studio undertow.

Some days are more exciting than others

All before noon today:

1 - A plan for managing the confusing mix of multiple unrelated projects
2 - A big picture perspective, and plan, for dealing with a current small beans issue
3 - A one-liner rant about a current small beans issue (a different one), that seems funny to me now
4 - A pretty well fleshed-out idea for an exhibition of my work. Includes title and a good start in conceptualizing the idea and the actual language for describing the idea. It's looking more and more like "Spawn" paintings will be re-addressed from a different role of artistic authority.
5 - A pretty well fleshed-out idea for curating a group of work. Includes title and a good start in conceptualizing the idea and the actual language for describing the idea. I also know exactly who and where this show should be shown. It's an idea which I've been trying to distinguish for a few years. It still needs much work, but I now know how to pitch it in a way that preserves the integrity of the idea, and which will be understood by others.

Today I love this little pile of chaos.

Now go get dressed.

Confession

The byline in my Rocktown, Indiana should read "Life and Art in Mystical Middle America". I accidently typed "mythical". It's a pretty big difference, and yet I've never corrected it.

Google Earth and Titles

I've greatly improved my Google Earth method for titleing (titling? that can't be right) paintings. With the Love Hovels (a series which I have yet to really flesh out [so to speak {and I love an excuse to use multiple bracketing (stop me!!)}]), I roamed Google Earth from various starting points. I had a vague idea of where a specific 'love hovel' could possibly be located, I went there via Google Earth, and then I tried to hover over a spot with fairly rounded off coordinates.

So I had exciting titles like "46N, 123W", and "38N, 91W". Very tedious and confusing.

With the '"land markers" I did imagine a place for each one and 'went' there, I then zoomed in, switched into map mode, and scoured both the street names and landmarks for something that struck a chord. This worked really well. I love that these titles reference real places, but intuitively and anonomously. I sometimes changed or added 'road', 'lane', etc. I don't think these references are traceable through google, though I haven't tried.

Without further ado (because this post has plenty 'ado' thus far [surely no one is still reading this post {which clearly earns the 'entertaining myself' label}]), I give you these new titles:

Rothboden Place
McJunkin Road
Upena Cove
Obofia Forest
Pump Station Bend

The best part is, I know exactly which painting each is, and even remember where on earth I have placed it.

These are Cool

High-jinks

Several years ago I designed a stencil and paint scheme for these three adjoining offices. I just saw it again this week and shot some photos.

It cracked me up. I thought the motif was more integrated into the design.

I could see doing an entire line of designs which play off of this historical paint scheme look. I think it would be so cool for kid's rooms, or nurseries...with a more appropriate motif. Wish I had added a 1/4" line on that frieze.

This should be the boring part

But it's not. It's so fun to cut and build.

Missing Time Mondays

Embracing My Inner Soft Pornographer

Thanks Abby Kent for this great photoshopping. It was even more hilarious in its original context. I had just posted images of my "Mounts" paintings on a message board, along with some thoughts about them, where I ignored mentioning anything about the blatant sexual innuendo. This particular group of folks were not having it; I was called out.

I truly think of this as a subtext, a quietly humorous aside. When one paints nudes every day for a few months, very quickly the model's physical nudity loses its domination of the experience. Over the past several years, I stopped worrying about having suggestive shapes and meanings in my work. I became less self-conscious about it, and eventually came to encourage it in a playful way. This seems integral to my imagery and to my conceptual considerations. I have always maintained a mental boundary; I have always held it away in its "interesting and funny subtext" role.

Well, I'm calling myself out now. I may have been fooling myself about the impartial nature of my tourettesian tendencies.

I'm finally connecting with these recent paintings. They had been very focused on formal decisions, especially in dealing with awkward and contrarian aesthetic choices. They are beginning to lurch more into an area of personal expression, and it's because I'm letting the imagery be truly sensual, rather than jokey sensual, at least in my own perceptions.

I think I need to give the subtextual suggestions a promotion. I think they may be more real and more important than I admit to myself. So, here's to horns and fallopian imagery!

*1-12-10 Correction made, Abby Kent invented Soft Porn Ben and Jerry's, not Pat Strong.

Backsides

Redneck Lighting Studio

I needed to photograph a dark painting. These quickly rigged diffusers did not entirely squelch the glare, but helped some.

Timer Shots I'm Unable to Set-up in 12 Seconds

Press shutter release, run across floor, climb scaffold, pose in a convincing "I'm so busy working I don't even notice my picture being taken" stance.

First attempt

second attempt (so close)

Loch Ness Panther

Late last year, I bid several areas for a local high school's natatorium/sports complex expansion. This particular area and idea were never going to happen. This huge wall beside the pool was slated to have acoustical tiles installed all over it. Still, once this idea hit my head, I couldn't shake it. I just came across it and am still blown away. I think this sketch explains it well enough. Yep, this was never going to happen for a number of reasons.

If you are in a position of needing such an idea, please take it and make it happen.

Body-Morphing Stairwell

May Flowers (1997)

Ha ha! I just rediscovered this image (curiously in my "cats" photo folder). Yep, it's a 'face scan' and I used it for my show invite card. "May Flowers " was exhibited at Utrillo's Gallery in 1997. There were about a dozen 10" x 8" paintings on board, display "floating" about an inch off the wall. It was a very sweet little show.


"Naive 2"

"Botero's Mum"

"Naive 3"


"Venus Craft Balls"

Fast fun paintings, reasonably priced and sold, good natured artin' all around.....oh, those were the days.

UPDATE: more of these paintings here.