Cracking reality, one accident at a time

Recently I had two accidents that offered new perceptions on previous work. Both involve painting, even though I've set that aside for now, and am focusing on the bike art displays and some 3-d experiments with polyform clay.

Some glass pieces from my clay project spilled over my old stash of not-quite-finished paintings. I'm not particularly interested in playing with the "edge" between the painting surface and 3-d reality, but when I saw these pieces on this particular painting....I re-arranged a bit, and something works, I think. Whatever it is seems related to what the painting was already doing. 

The extrapolated concept for this may acknowledge that these glass bits are usually used for decoration at weddings and other major life events... It's a thought of some sort. 

The other accident occurred as I took a selfie with an iPad, using the mirror filter. One of my large shaped abstract paintings was on the wall behind me, and I was and am still amazed by what happens when that painting is made symmetrical. It generates figures, all sorts of figures, quite readily. The slightest movement creates new figures. These remind me of religious imagery. 

Latest Work

I am currently exhibiting a new group of paintings in my gallery space, Dewclaw. The show, "Kinkade Meets Turner Paints Sci-fi With Fanbrush" began as a stylistic riff of sorts. I very soon let go of that, and continued on a rather simple, fast, poetic path. So much of my work is now serial in theme or in formal approach. It was great to go back to some good ole free-meandering. That said, the end results have followed a pseudo monster-based theme, which is fine.

 

 "Leviathan", 8" x 8", oil on wood, 2012

 "Genie", 8" x 11.5", oil on wood, 2012

 "Ogre", 8" x 8", oil on wood, 2012

This is such a great way to work, and one taps into all sorts of imagery and subtle expressions which would never arise from a more deliberate or planned process. I think I need to keep this in the game-plan, a running line of non-linear works.

 

Studio Happenings

 I plan on moving the 3-d craft plaques to Dewclaw, and using that as a second studio in July and August.

 Above and below are the recently cut shaped panels, gesso primed and then base painted with arbitrarily suggestive color washes and textures. A few are full into painting mode - acrylic painting mode. There are benefits to doing these in acrylic, sometimes just as a start, and even all the way to completion. Things dry and tend to become permanent to the ongoing process/image, much more readily than with oil. This can help me stay within certain parameters, and keep things cohesive in a good way. The downside is that I don't get quite so engaged as I do when using oil. I tend to fret over things drying, both on the painting surface and the palette.

I have also been painting some non-series works, and getting very disparate imagery. I'll post those once they make some sort of sense.

Forgotten painting from the past

 Greg's Gypsie Dream, 11" x 14", oil on panel, 1996?

This gifted painting recently emerged from a friend's collection. He had described a dream to me, and I had a very strong visceral reaction to his description. I remember the piece well, but it's still a trip to see one's own work in person, after a long separation.

Mutating Hobby Plaques

I keep re-working these things. I did finally enter the top two in a juried show, so they are officially part of my oeuvre. My statement for the show:

We all share an innate desire to build things. We gather raw materials from our environment, and we invent new forms. My newest work embraces this ancient drive, with a bit of a vernacular twist. In this series, I fulfill this urge to build, using materials and techniques of the hobby craft genre. I do so more from a genuine enthusiasm for these materials, than for the obvious kitsch angle (although that does play a role).

These “Craft Plaques” explore the aesthetic, narrative, and sensory potential of a borrowed, and vaguely defined, cultural heritage. I'm applying these materials much like paint, using intuition to propel process. I'd like to find innovative formal solutions within these pieces, but I also want to create a sort of new nostalgia, by way of new sensory experiences. Can we be “reminded of” something entirely new to us? Does our shared drive to create, form a common comprehension, one that resonates even from within solo artistic endeavors?

 

New Work

 "Mother", 4' x 4', 2012

Saturday I pulled out an old work that was framed, but that I never really resolved. The size and shape are perfect for the entry view wall in my upcoming "Mounts" show at Dewclaw. I decided to completely paint over and see if I could coax out a Mountsian image by this Saturday. It would have been enough to have a good image happen, but this (newly finished) piece also connected for me personally and fairly directly. That's something I used to experience all the time, but not so much now. I'm a little nervous because this was too easy. That's also something that I used to experience often, fast and effortless moments with meaningful results. So I'm stoked. I'll take a better pic and post once the frame dries and I can move it.

I also decided to augment the Mounts paintings with some new drawings. I've never really worked quite like this before. I used to do large and loose drawings, where charcoal gets smooshed around, much like painting. I've also used drawing to triggers ideas, by making numerous fast, almost autonomous drawings with a sharpie. I'm not real crazy about what these drawings are. They're tightly rendered doodles. I do really like how the process slows me down. It seems to set me at the perfect speed for processing some obsessive tendencies in visual thought. I think their small size also contributes to them being some sort of sweet spot for me, in terms of rendering thoughts as they occur.  They are each 5.5" x 7".

I'll display them on a painted rectangle, I believe just tacked to the wall with some tiny brad nails. I really wanted to have more done for the opening, but I will just work on them and add them to the show as I can. I plan on having a work table in the gallery for this show.

Latest Work

So....I've been messing around with these sculpted surfaces, and today veered into a new direction, within this new direction. I'm experiencing an affinity for tin foil that's not really about the art politics/policy of using tin foil at all. It's working for me materially in a way that's very similar to paint, plus optically, it's off the charts, in terms of eye bang.

I wouldn't classify this new work as New Casualist or slacker abstraction (I believe this was coined by MAH), because I am still wrestling with finding or creating a sound, ringing resolution. Still, I must acknowledge that those influences helped me pass through some materials and handling barriers, with relative ease.

Dewclaw Inaugural Exhibition*

I'm calling my new work and show space Dewclaw. The first show will open next Friday, Dec. 2. There is a lot going on that night around town, so we are also having a preview opening on Wednesday, Nov. 30. 5-9 pm each night. I'm excited to finally show this first group of Lane Markers together and in subdued light.

This space still feels like a chapel. It will be interesting to see if this holds when other work is in there. For now, it's so perfect for this group of work, I could cry.

If you're around for either of these nights, please stop by. Dewclaw is part of the newly opened South Studios at the Complex. We are a few doors south of Wug Laku's area in the Circle City Industrial Complex. 1124 Brookside Ave. I currently plan to have the space open on Saturdays 1-4 pm and by appointment.

* Coincidental acronyms are harmless....really

The genie's out of the bag

Okay, first off, I did not intentionally mangle the metaphor for this post's title. I realized after the fact. I have a standing order for a commissioned painting. The specifics were left open, other than a preference for certain colors, and a light unusual landscape. It sounded so straightforward, but I've been workin within frameworks so much lately. They are loose frameworks, but still, I rarely paint on the wide open ranges now.
I'm finding it difficult to stay on task with this commission. I'll switch over to acrylics, and maybe even follow a sketch. In the mean time, it's really been a blast to forage like this. I miss it.

Kincade channels Whistler and makes a sci-fi poster.



All are in progress.

Lane Markers on web site

I've finally uploaded works from the Lane Markers series to my site, along with this brief verbal description of the series. This group is demanding studio attention, after being cast aside for several months. It's good timing.

Recent Work

Logo 1, 6" x 6.5" Logo 3, 4.75" x 3.5", acrylic and oil

Logo 2, 5" x 4.75"

Party Favor, 10" x 7", acrylic

Life After ____, 11.5" x 10", acrylic and oil

Gifted and Lucky, 10" x 11.5"

Forgotten Parties, 9.5" x 10", acryic and oil Missing Decade, 9.5" x 11", acrylic and oil Abandoned Legacies, 13" x 11.5" Stroll Troll, 10" x 8" Present, 8" x 8", acrylic

I resisted posting this new work until it was hung. These works were all completed in June or July of 2011. All were started in acrylic. Some maintained most or all of the original acrylic imagery. Some were continued in oil to the point where the acrylic start is no longer present. All are on 1/2" shaped birch plywood. They are currently on view through August 26 in Asynchronous Salon.

Horse Painting

This is from the late 1980s, is/was about 12" x 12", and I still remember the panicked focus with which I painted it. The slathered-on medium dripped through the brushstrokes as they were being made, and at some point I finished painting, and then watched and waited to see how much more image melting would occur. I don't remember if I laid the painting flat to limit the sludge flow. I probably did.

I went through a phase where I really wanted to paint, but did not want to think about what I was painting, or why/if it were important. I just wanted to paint. I would go through old dictionaries looking for simple line illustrations. I'd find something and I'd paint it. This is from that period. At the time I was rejecting all art dialogue, both from the outside and from within.

It's interesting to see art reduced to such conceptually simple terms.

Studio - Two Painting Stations

It felt so badass to set up two horizontal painting stations in my little 9.5' x 13' studio. I've been using both acrylic and oil in these newer works, and it's a real mental chore to change out the materials. This is much better. I actually "go" to the area to do either acrylic or oil.

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.

Thorazine Thursdays

From a newly scanned old slide. This is small, about 5" x 7", late 1990s, and has a great title, which I can't remember.

Weird Old Painting Wednesdays II

Suspects and Victims, Name the Game, each panel about 14" x 22", 1985?

I recently found some old slides, and also fixed my scanner's transparency capability. Expect more oldies.

Weird Old Painting Wednesdays

"Protagonist", 36" x 48", 1987?

I remember challenging myself to make a cheesy romance-novel type painting. This was not done joyfully. I was punishing art, and myself. The foreground figure shows the loose paint method I used for much of the 1980s. The rest shows me struggling to paint. No idea how it survived long enough to be photographed, but I'm happy to have the image. It really cracks me up.

Serendipity

The Texan Love Hovels painting is now in Texas. Thanks for the purchase, you know who. I'm just stupidly proud that I built a crate entirely from existing "on hand" supplies. Okay, I did go and purchase the handle, but I do have two such handles around here somewhere, so I'm not counting that misplacement.

Lane Markers

Tea Plantation Road

Pump Station Bend

Obofia Forest

Upena Cove

All are 9" x 14", oil on linen.

*10-29-10 Updated with Titling :-)