Share on Facebook

The next step I take in my process, is transferring it out of the computer into the realm of physical space. The printer gives me a pretty decent image from which to work. Then I use tracing paper and an old fashioned pen which must be dipped in ink, and trace the outline of the image. This is pretty important as my work is to reduce the complexity of the image into a representational simulacra of the captured moment in time into an artistic composition which is strictly defined by the use of line.

I trace this once more, in order to simplify the lines even further and then create a grid system on both the sheet of paper and my sheet of plywood. This allows me to freehand the resulting tattoo onto the wood surface with some accuracy.

Then the final step, which is slightly tedious, is coloring the fields of the painting. I use the wood grain and the “coloring book” lines to help me define the space with color. Light wood grain receives paint of one color while dark wood grain receives a different color. In this particular piece, the colors were selected within coloring book areas, ie a shirt, to be related hues rather than contrasting; this produces a harmonious image with rather delicate depth. Finally, a dark but transparent glaze is applied to shadowed areas of the composition in order to create some intrigue.

Next step, will be to frame it with carpentry trim and paint the trim to help define the image.

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

I must admit, when I started this website I had no clear idea about the objectives and goals which I had for it. There was this mostly fuzzy idea of “My art…. something, something, something… better…. maybe sell or get money, maybe just get famous… grow, develop…” but you can’t really hang a hat on that. I still do not have a much clearer idea about it however I do see that it can become part of my process. Documenting the transition through phases of producing art as well as documenting the process of some individual works. It is in this light or strain, that I am beginning a new category called Process. The aim of this category is to record the way that I work and more specifically to document the various stages some of my larger works go through in order to become complete.

There is a new piece which is now dominating my workspace. The composition mostly comes from a photograph I took recently, I had really desired to make this image into a painting. I actually wanted it to be a painting of greater scale than I had been attempting lately. I have enjoyed my work inside the laboratories of watercolor, felt pens and Moleskine notebooks, however I want more. I want to put bold colors on a big piece of material using brushes. I want to smear colors together and make some deliberate decisions that will result in some drying time. I also want to work on something inherently cute and somewhat iconic, hence my subject.

It is more important to report that a major factor towards beginning this work comes from community. It is community that I have not had the pleasure of experiencing in the past, at least not in so far in the art world. Its not that i have been excluded, rather that I did not understand how to find or join a community. Recently, I have discovered its really quite simple; become friends with fellow artists.

So an artist I have recently befriended asked me to provide an image with children in it, so that she may produce another work in a series she has been working on. After a week of deliberation, I gave her a copy of the source photograph that I had been planning to work on myself. It was only because I so unwilling to share the image initially that I realized that it was this very same one that I needed to let go of. So now we are both working on this image, separately and through our different processes. It will be exciting to see the results of our work, how they are similar, how they differ and which emotions that are emphasized.

Needless to say, I am excited, I hope you are too and that you will enjoy the documentation of my process as I work.

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

Several months ago, I started a project that involved blowing up an image that was snapped in South Australia on the beach. The pixelated image was slowly having the pixels replaced by color stacks of cardboard squares. By slowly, I mean to suggest that glaciers were moving faster than this project. The idea is still appealing but I think that base needs to be more sturdy than the cardboard that I was using. (Sidenote: what is it with me and cardboard? I mean really can’t I find a more, um, upscale medium to paint upon?)

So yesterday, I gave up.

Today, I decided that the bits that were glued to the board would look nice with some red, so I looked up the chinese characters for beach and painted them in red. Then I thought the sand needed to be included in the picture too, so I took some of the squares and glued them on and painted them yellow and BOOM! you’ve got a new image! Fun and done!

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

As always, enjoy!

Share on Facebook

From the small Moleskine:

Trees marching in formation of a flying wedge, appear to break through the wall of ugly that reality throws up too often.

Sitting in Washington Square Park on a sunny summer afternoon yielded a lovely vision of joy and peace.

Flying in aplane and the landscape below unfolded a vision of mountains rising up froom the bottom of a lake.

Getting closer and closer to the mountains that exist just on the horizon.

Mountains just out of easy reach, hanging out and waiting, beckoning for one to go get them.

I have some other works that need to be reported, but this will have to do for now.

Share on Facebook