Richard Müller

Horsehead complete!!

2012-04-16T09:50:00.001-07:00

After a month of construction, the beast is finished!
The finished product stands around 5 feet tall and weighs a good deal. Fortunately, I built the sculpture in detachable tiers so it can be moved easily.

The working title is "Ontological Horse: The Best I Could Do".
Ontological arguments found in theological philosophy are arguments directed at proving the existence of an omnipotent creator, usually through reason alone. A well known ontological argument is the 'Teleological Watchmaker' which supposes that if one were to trip over a rock on a beach, one could imagine that the rock could have sat there since the beginning of time, and that there's not much to it beyond this. However if one were to find a watch on a beach, one would have to assume that it was created by someone who knew what they were doing. Waves on a beach might over eons smooth down a rock, but they would never generate a complex mechanism such as a watch. Those who aim to prove creationism, use this argument to point to the complexity of nature and the forms within it as evidence of such a creator. Sadly, this thought can be pretty much tossed out by the old 'Thousand Monkeys in a Room' argument which seeks to prove that nature as a force can come up with some pretty dang complex stuff - namely you, me and everything we know, if given enough time.
What I'm trying to get at with the Ontological Horse is that the complexity of all things, especially living things, regardless of creation or generation, is a beautiful thing to behold. The horse that I made, though it is very complex and even has a clearly defined creator (me), by all accounts is a failure next to the sublime wonder that is a living and breathing horse.
Anyway, hope you can still enjoy the work I did. Even though I only took 30 days, and didn't spontaneously generate it...

Horsehead continues

2012-03-04T18:34:00.001-08:00

The horse head sculpture continues to be a struggle. The assembly is going very well, but I wish I could out-source the cutting of the wood into cubes.
Take a look at some of the pictures so far:

Textures

2012-02-12T22:44:00.001-08:00

I assume best viewed on iPhone.

Gorgeous Plant

2012-02-12T22:35:00.001-08:00

Our Version Of... (knockoff colognes)

2012-02-11T09:41:00.001-08:00

I Found Hell

2012-02-11T09:37:00.001-08:00

I'm pretty sure hell is just endless fluorescent lit hallways with an office...just...for...you!

Horsehead ...construction commences!!

2012-02-10T14:37:00.001-08:00

Phew...this sucker is going to take some work! I've been working on building the Horsehead sculpture from the video I posted in November. It's coming together surprisingly quick, but it is hard and demanding labour. A lot of time is spent squatting and fiddling with things, or thinking about how the hell to get it to be structurally sound.

Here are some small pictures of the work scene...

Claim Map Series

2012-02-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

I've been working on a drawing series for the past month inspired by topographic and mineral claim maps.
In my research, I found it fascinating that the geometric forms of mineral claims are imposed over the intricate and chaotic natural landscape. In this series, I am juxtaposing these two worlds and exploring their relationship.
I've been reading some Kant recently, and I got really stuck on his thinking regarding the noumenality of humanity. Kant reverses the direction of philosophy and points out that experience, meaning and order flow from us, not into us.
These drawings are meditations on the systemic order we apply to the natural world. In the event that you're not interested in Kant, I hope you enjoy them regardless.

HORSEHEAD

2011-11-30T16:43:00.000-08:00

Nothing!

2011-11-28T18:13:00.000-08:00

WOODSMAN

2011-11-23T14:31:00.000-08:00

Timber

2011-11-21T08:04:00.002-08:00

SHADOW preliminary

2011-11-21T08:04:00.001-08:00

The little sketch that led to SHADOW.

SHADOW

2011-11-21T08:03:00.000-08:00

There's something so beautiful about the moment ink is brushed onto paper. The quiet sound of the brush gliding across the page. The simple binary that is created by black on white. You can sit, and drink tea while drawing at a desk or on a wall.

There's also something great about turning Jay Reatard to 11 on your stereo, and going nuts overtop that simple binary with a set of coloured pencils like a drunk 6 year old.

Evergreen

2011-11-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

Most of my brain cells are dead

2011-11-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

Back in August, I started working on preparatory drawings and sketches for a painting I was hoping to realize. The work focused on an image I found of Japanese miners standing outside of a mine shaft in British Columbia. The process is a really tiresome one that involves laying several large glass palettes with a thin layer of oil paint.

After a couple of days, the paint dries. The otherwise ruined paint, is then scraped off with a stripping razor. After a couple of palettes have been striped, the ribbons of peeled paint form these mounds of colour.

The process becomes a means of painting by using fresh, wet paint as a fixative to apply these paint ribbons to the surface of the painting. Slowly, the painting gains this colour and texture that from a distance, mixes into larger forms and different colours; in much the same manner as painters Georges Seurat and Chuck Close. The illusion, known as optical mixing, is most readily available to one via computer monitors, television screens and virtually all colour imaging devices.

To ensure that the paint dries within at least a couple of days, I have to really dilute it with mineral spirits. This step here is the one that is killing me! Despite the ventilation I installed in my studio, the stink of the spirits just ruins me.

The next step after I built up the surface of the painting, was to lay down a thick layer of beeswax. The combination of beeswax and pigments, or encaustic painting, is one of the earliest forms of painting. Ancient Egyptians and Byzantines used encaustic paint two thousand years ago. So long as you don't leave it on the back seat of your car in July, encaustic painting lasts millennia. The technique allows molten wax, pigment and a binding agent, such as damar resin, to be applied to a painting in very thin and transparent layers. Drying instantly, encaustic paintings also have a stunning glow, texture and smell to them.

I wanted to use the transparency of encaustic painting to distort the underpainting, so I applied thick and gooey layers of wax to the painting. The wax also helps to bind the three-dimensional ribbons of paint.

I realize I've displayed only details from the painting. Once complete, I'll document the piece and add it to the website. In other words: you have to wait...

Light Through Leaves

2011-10-10T08:58:00.001-07:00

Two drawings in preparation for an installation I'm working on. Through several of my paintings, I explored the physicality of light. As we're all accustom to, light travels quite well through negative space. I'm looking to play around with this pretty fundamental idea. In my paintings, this materialized in pieces such as Ranger and Hung Line. Recently, I've been hoping to work on a sculptural piece that transforms the forms of light in negative space into positive space.
There are a couple projects on my plate right now, so I might not get a chance to start on this for a while, but here are those preliminary sketches:

The Moment of Alignment (Nothing Can Protect You From A Direct Hit)

2011-10-03T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Moment of Alignment (Nothing Can Protect You From a Direct Hit)
mixed media

I've been assembling this installation for the past couple days. The painting of the wood took a relatively short time, however their positioning required a little more time. When a piece is meant to discuss the subtle geometry of organic and synthetic forms, the arrangement of these forms is paramount. That wouldn't be much trouble, if the 'forms' weren't 50 pound blocks of wood. I had to sit in my trusty studio LA-Z-BOY, and consider the shape mentally rather than physically.
It really bothers me when artists will list their work as mixed media, leaving the viewer with a real disconnect between themselves and the media. So I think it important to mention that all the materials involved were found objects. The text has been engraved into a warped yet beautiful plank that was then sealed with clear acrylic medium. The sculptural object below is 4 large blocks that I assume must have been railway ties. They had previously been used in a garden and were completely rotten through. However, I cleaned as much of the disintegrated wood off as possible and sealed the ties with an latex house paint.
The engraved text reads NOTHING CAN PROTECT YOU FROM A DIRECT HIT. The text is derived from a air raid precaution notice from Toronto's Swansea neighbourhood posted during the Second World War. The specific text describes how one may construct an air raid shelter out of household materials. The last section describes how a shelter may protect one and one's family from shrapnel and collapsing material, yet ends with the final sentence "nothing can protect you from a direct hit".
I am not a fatalist, and do not want to endorse a when your time's up, your time's up mentality. However, I enjoy the tension created between an event that is told to the viewer, and another that is constructed by the viewer. Though I would like to leave some aspects to the imagination, so I won't go further into a full explanation.

Below are details and alternate angles of the installation:

subterranean life

2011-10-03T09:43:00.001-07:00

Sketches of work horses and canaries for some forthcoming work.
Click on image for a detailed version.

Enjoy

Dragerman #4 - Detailed Images

2011-10-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Bodies of Water
20" x 24"
oil on canvas

DETAILS FOLLOW:

Makin' a Paintin'

2011-09-20T10:01:00.001-07:00

This last one is the most current. It is reasonably close to completion, I guess. However you never can tell...
The working title right now is The Cape (three bodies of water)

My apologies for the poor iPhone camera quality. I'll be taking some higher quality photos with the ol' Nikon in the next bit.

Pit Ponies

2011-09-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

The Maine Coast

2011-09-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Back to Canada, back to work

2011-08-30T17:32:00.001-07:00

After a good and long slog into the United States I am finally en route to Montreal. Through some gift of the universe, I managed to dodge Hurricane Irene almost completely. The weather networks reported that Irene would be downgraded to a tropical storm as it neared Boston. Despite the T shutting down, and the purchasing of all preserved food in the local Trader Joe's, I would place Hurricane Irene's presence in Boston somewhere between a light misting and a rainy afternoon.
Though of course preparation and forewarning is really the only advantage the human race may hold in such events.

I'll be starting on that painting of those Japanese Miners I sketched out two weeks ago once I purchase some materials and pay off the serious Visa bill I gathered while living off of Snickers and chocolate milk on the road.

Updates soon...

The shower stall

2011-08-26T17:55:00.001-07:00