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.

60 Blanks

In endurance terms, it was about six too many. Sanding lies ahead. Priming will be a breeze.

I'm juggling using these as bases for the craft plaques and/or for the 2-d painted abstractions. It's not a smooth transition back and forth - work space organization issues and also very different ways of thinking. Having plenty of them will help me plunge in however and whenever I need to. I will also be using Dewclaw as a studio for a couple months this summer.

I should have swept before I started.

How to remove cat hair from art.

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

Asynchronous Salon - installation

Last weekend Mary Addison Hackett was in town to help install Asynchronous Salon, and to perform her wall painting. I put her up in my newly converted artist's studio fantasy suite, complete with cat, clamp reading light, and sweet scents of linseed oil.
The Marsh Gallery at Herron School of Art is a beautiful space. It's on the east end of the main hall, and this show will be up through August 26, with a closing reception on the the 26th, 5 - 8 p.m.



Steven LaRose's series "The Barely Comprehensible Realm".


*MAH photo
*MAH photo
*MAH photo Nomi Lubin's collages. More work at "Paintings" and "Not Paintings".

*MAH photo My recent shaped panels paintings.

*MAH photo *MAH photo Mary Addison Hackett's Pool Paintings from Fluid: The Elusive Chapters from the Passage of Time.

*MAH photo

Mary Addison Hackett's alla prima wall painting which she did while listening to Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs." The album is 64:07 in length, as is the painting, per MAH's pre-established rules. A videotape of the painting will run throughout the exhibition.

*MAH photo "The Suburbs, 64:07"

Spacial weirdness. Ahem...above.

Until next time......

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.

In The Studio

New panels! This group of 18 panels includes five distinctly kidney shaped ones. I'm not really out of painting grounds yet, but the current crop of ongoing work has gone stale and overwrought. They are cowering in a pile in the back.

Studio Turf Wars V

Paintings everywhere are broadcasting to me. Finished pieces in the front room are begging for dramatic, and surprisingly specific, reworkings. The new body of little shaped paintings are calling. The metallic grounds say to finish up and prep some more. The fantasy birds idea (initially a kids' room idea) want to be made into small paintings for art fairs, under pseudonym? I need to make sales call samples for Indy On-the-Dot. I may move these commercial projects out of there tonight. They're basically done except for drying. I'm tired of stepping over and on things in there.

Studio Buzz

I've not painted for a few weeks, and have lost momentum with the metallic ground paintings. I decided to go ahead a start another group of small shaped pieces. My plan is to work within a much more narrow and focussed area, using a limited palette (although the red-purplish "comma" shape just screamed to be different) and a really simple, central shape/object. This one keeps haunting me, and making me want to zero in with a more narrow focus.

Meanwhile, I'm pulling out paintings from around 2005 and reworking them. Above is the reworked version. I'll be brave and show the earlier piece below. Title was "Conscription of Venus", may or may not keep. The above could well fall into the "Lane Marker" series, and it has me thinking of these markers with a broader subjective vista in mind.

So, with the metallic paintings, which I do plan to continue working on, and another pair of paintings (for now, a secret project), I have four distinctly different groups of paintings going. I really like this a lot. I can move deeply into the process and then back out to a broader perspective.

Studio Turf Wars IIII

The "Lane Markers" are moving forward. I'm itching to work on them again.

Redneck Lighting Studio

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

Studio Turf Wars

I could pretend this day job stuff is a distraction and a hindrance, but the truth is, I like the break. This little playstation is just an add-on to a dresser and mirror I'll be painting, though it will probably take every bit as long to do. Client's instructions are simply to replace all the pink with other colors.

Studio Turf Wars II

Turf War

Studio Latest

54" x 48"

I think maybe hide this somewhere, while it still has some of the fresh pearl peach base showing through.

Limbo Paintings

I came across this studio shot in a cat folder. Great reminder of dear little Cricket (rip), and also of some lost paintings from 2005-6. They are stacked facing down, and I haven't viewed them in a couple of years. I'm a little afraid of them. They are surely finished at this point (?). I don't accept them as showable work, but I can't quite paint over them. I did pull this one out and am living with it, trying to determine it's fate.

Third World Studio Artist

This temporary squatting set-up feels third world-ish, minus the guaranteed buck at the end of the day.

Day Job Studio Hog

I'll finish this tomorrow, but won't install for a couple of weeks. This is my main painting wall....

The Art Practices Are Aligning

This is surely the most similar my day job art and my personal art will ever be. The blue shapes in foreground are foam board and will hang from a ceiling. The rest are prepped and based wood panels, awaiting painted exploration.

In the Studio

Log cabin samples and paintings. (I guess I'm still posting).