April 30, 2008

Because I was not formally trained as a painter, I used my training as a graphic designer to teach myself to paint. One of my favorite classes was with Jane Sterrit who had us spend hours drawing negative space and pasting colored paper in the negative spaces. This was an important lesson and one that I have used in painting extensively. Once the gesture is drawn (painted) on the canvas I then fill in the negative spaces. This is when I begin to formulate the color palette for the painting. I will work on filling in these negative spaces layer upon layer until I feel the color is correct and can then move on to painting positive spaces and then finally adding details and type. While painting in this manner is unusual it gives my painting a more "Graphic-stylized" look which suits my painting style better.

April 29, 2008

Once the canvas is stretched tight but not too tight I put on the first of acrylic primer. After the first coat is dry (a few hours) I put on a second coat of primer. Now I can assess how taut the canvas is. If the stretchers are bending or there is too much give in the canvas I will take apart and restapple until it has a nice tight bounce to it without torque the stretchers. The next step I do is to do a gesture drawing from the pencil thumbnail that I have created. I can use any color but mostly I choose black, blues or browns, occasionally greens or reds. Once the gesture drawing is dried I start to fill in the solid areas starting with the background spaces then filling in the inside.

Next post I will discuss how I work the negative space and why I chose to work on it first.

April 28, 2008

Before I explain the second two parts of the painting untitled i wanted to see if I could sensibly describe the painting process. When I'm ready to start a new painting I leave my mind to the possibility of an idea. I don't try to force it and as soon as I understand what the idea will be I can start visualize things in a way. Now I've met painters who were able to see a painting in its completion the moment they locked it in. This in no way the case for me. First I lock in the thought and then dissect it a bit to see if it is
1)Truth
2) A universal issue-Not meaning that everybody will have experienced this issue but at least a fair amount
3) How do I translate this thought into a drawing, or painting, or sculpture

I WILL CONTINUE THIS THREAD TOMORROW.,

April 27, 2008

It seems I missed a couple of days posting-must blame it on this spring cold I have. I would like to go back the "Untitled" piece, this time talking about the upper right quadrant. This was the first section I painted before I had almost a year break in finishing the rest of the painting. I painting the right top during the Thanksgiving season. I am usually stuck with all the preparation and clean-up for the Thanksgiving meal so I painted this to express how I felt about the daunting task of holiday meal preparation. The 3 women floating over me are women of the past. The one with the pants is my grandmother, one is the grandmother of one of the guest who was coming to eat with us and the third is my deceased mother-in-law. I feel that when you cook a traditional meal you don't cook alone but carry the influence of those who have done this task before. I also like to believe that the women of our past are still with us especially when we are doing something that is about the family. The colors in this quadrant are noticeable different from the others which is because my palette had changed slightly from one year to the next.

April 24, 2008

Well today's post is going to be short and sweet as I am battling a cold and do not have much energy for thinking and writing any thoughts. There are many days of the year that I am unable to paint (today being one of those days). Usually after finishing two or three paintings I take a small break to catch up on life responsibilities, try to earn some non-art income and move some dust around the house. Right before I start a new painting after such a break, I'll do a thorough cleaning of my studio. Two days ago it rained all day and I decided it was a perfect day to set the studio right. Besides the usual empty paint jars and hardened brushes I found gold paint from Japan, silk screen ink and some old rough drawings. It was interesting to uncover these items as it caused me to wonder where my mind was at when I used these supplies and/or drew these drawings and how I have evolved or changed since them.

April 23, 2008

In this post I would like to explain about some of the symbolism in the top left quadrant of the painting titled. "Untitled" At the time of painting this section I was helping a friend spackle an large room that he had just attached to his home. The woman below him is his wife who has her arms folded as if to say "What are you up to?" Between the man on the scaffolding and the woman with crossed arms is a window which shows my backyard which is visible in my painting studio. The eye over the roof and the lips represent paranoid. The person who is under the lamp is my daughter who was about to undergo heart surgery. At the time I imagined after her surgery she would lay outside on a blanket and lay under the sun to heal. The woman who is falling from the sky is a friend who's live was upside down. Lastly the pink triangle with the rainbow is a combination of the triangle from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, which I was listening to at the time and the traditional symbol that is used by gays.

April 22, 2008

I have been thinking about doing an Earth Day post today for the past week or so. As an environmental, vegan, animal rights, localvore, back-to-nature person this day is a celebration of many things that I believe in. Normally for me Earth Day is spent either gardening, cleaning a local state park, or attending Penn State's Earth Day celebration. However.....
Today was the most un-Earth Day I have spent in a long long time.
My day was spent accompanying my friend while he fished (while I photographed the process), me and my daughter watched the unloading of the Ringling Brother's circus train, and I drove more than I normally do in an entire week. My dinner was packaged cereal with a banana and I bought meat to feed my dog and two cats. Although this was truly a non-Earth Day experience I did have very Earth Day thoughts. First while my friend was fishing (no fish were caught) I noticed a yellow flower that I have not seen before. While my daughter and I waited two hours for the circus train to unload, we sat outside on a beautiful sunny day discussing how uncomfortable the elephants must be in the train cars as the train cars were obviously too small for the elephants to stand. We imagined the elephants chained down in the cars and how uncomfortable and cruel that was. Although I drove more than normal, I took my daughter's VW bug which is considerable more fuel efficient than my older Volvo x-country. Yes I ate a packaged food but it was organic cereal with a organic banana and organic soy milk. Tomorrow I will be back to making much of my food from basic organic vegetables and grains, will walk in the woods with my dog, cultivate my organic garden and try not to use the car. But every day can't be perfect. This earth day I did not follow my prescribed lifestyle of living simple and with minimal impact. Some days this just can't be done. Instead today as I did things I normally don't I thought about the impact my decisions have on the planet as well as its inhabitants human and non human and how a single person can minimize a negative effect even when things do not going as planned.

April 21, 2008

In 2002 I created a piece which I never named more than "Untitled". The reason for my un-naming of this painting was that it never really had one focus that I could cull into a title. It's basically a collection of small happenings and back stories of a personal nature. There was no specific meaning to the overall work. I started this painting almost a year before completion. Divide the canvas into four quant-rants-the upper right side was all that was completed for a year until I decided to go back and finish. I can't remember why it was left undone. I don't usually work in this manner but I had a middle school daughter and was reconstructing my house so I suppose those reasons played into it's non completion in 2001.

APRIL 20, 2008

Today would have been a perfect day for painting as it was raining and gardening chores have to be put on hiatus but alas no canvas and most likely I need to purchase a few more paints and brushes to get started. As I often do every three or so paintings I cleaned the studio. Now my studio is not by any means large (9' x 10') but you won't hear many complaints from me as I used to have a corner of my toolroom as a painting studio. I build this mini addition to my house two years ago and have yet to put up inside walls or celling. There is however insulation, electricity, heat and windows, with a near by source for water so I am delighted. Today as I dusted and vacumed I found many supplies I had forgotten about and reviewed some paintings I had not looked at since their completion. One of the paintings was "untitled". "Untitled" has lots of mini stories and I thought it could be interesting to start a thread in my next post about the symbolisms and back stories of this painting.

April 19, 2008

I want to go back to the thread I had going a few days ago concerning creating controversial art. When I was a kid my father always accused me of doing things differently just to be different. Actually this wasn't the case as I did things my way which may have been different from the way most people approach things. Although I am well aware that some of my pieces will be controversial that is not the motivating factor in creating them. When I'm developing a new piece I open myself to find something universal that I want to comment on. In one piece "The Lesbian Amish" I was imagining what life would be like for an Amish woman living with her lesbianism repressed. Many people who viewed this piece found it offensive as I was mocking the Amish lifestyle when in fact I was only comparing living in the closet for both Amish and non Amish persons.

April 18, 2008

So today I decide to stretch a canvas and start my next painting "Jackson's Trip to Heaven". Recently I have been painting 48" x 48" as I like this size; it's not too cumbersome to tote around and fits perfectly on the diagonal in the back of my Volvo X-country. Unfortunately once it's framed it will not fit and I have to travel with the painting tied on the roof rack above the car. As far as painting it is a comfortable size for me as I can both stand or sit while painting and it is not too big for my easel to handle. I had a set of stretchers ready, ordered from Upper Canada Stretchers, but found I only had small pieces of canvas left. I have been using a hemp/organic cotton canvas that I order on line from Near Sea Naturals. It has a nice texture and the combination of hemp and cotton makes a strong fabric with a nice hand.

April 17, 2008

I realize with some controversial pieces they will never be shown in the usual art forums (i.e.. juried shows). That's my summation anyway. So I set my sights on an unjuried show that would take place in any city that had its own newspaper. If my piece is protest worthy in any respect it could reach the media through a local newspaper. Unfortunately controversial pieces don't always get front stage as I found out in a Biennial several years ago. My piece "The Menstruation Theatre" was juried in the show but placed down the hall to the restrooms, past the the coat check. It took a bit of effort to actually find the piece. It reminds me of DuChamps piece in the Philadelphia Museum of Art which is in the further-most corner of the museum in a small dark room. In my next blog I will tackle my reasons for doing controversial pieces and how they do and don't work to an artist's (my) advantage.

April 16, 2008

I had heard the story years ago how people were being buried alive. To alleviate the fear some people had that they could be prematurely buried ,coffin makers devised a variety of systems that the "dead" person could activate in the unfortunately case that they were indeed buried alive. One such method was to tie a string to a bell from the coffin to above ground attached to a bell. In the piece "Not Quite Dead", I've assembled a crude version of this safety coffin. In my next blog I will discuss showing such a piece and the pitfalls of producing art that is controversial.

April 15, 2008

I decided to create "Not Quite Dead" after reading an article about a funeral for the word "nigger" that was held at the Detroit Memorial Park Cemetery in July of 2007. The NAACP orchestrated this funeral to "put to rest a long-standing expression of racism". The coffin was carried by eight pallbearers as a local church choir sang. Although I like the premise of this event it has done nothing to eliminate the use of the word. In fact I find "Nigger" used more often in rap songs, in podcasts and by comedians. My personal opinion is that it's not any particular word that is a problem just the state of our country that find abusive words necessary to get a point across. Not sure if it's fault rests with disfunction families, education or the state of community where it's members see no alternative but to live a life full of negatively. While the word "Nigger' gets the most reaction because of its racial undertones I find "Cunt, Fag, and shit-head equally offensive. It is my hope that some day these words will fall by the wayside and we will have no need for artificial funerals and hurt feelings. In my next blog I will further discuss the purpose behind the bell and string tied to the coffin in this piece.

April 14, 2008

I would have liked to continue the thread I had going for the past 2 days about the piece "Not Quite Dead", but today have to put my eldest dog down. No matter how hard I try to forget, I can't help watching the clock and thinking of the event that's about to occur. Jackson is a 10-1/2 year old Vizsla with a loving personality and an obsessive compulsive nature. Until he became really ill his main objective of the day was to love well and search out un-attended foods. Over the past few days I have been wondering aloud to him of all the wondeful things that await him once he has donned his worn out sick body. There will be plates filled high with food strew about for him to eat, open garbage pails filled with food, a lake with unlimited fresh drinking water, a soft warm bed and a body to curl up next to. His sight is back once again and he can race with his old friends Tuck and Magik, 2 greyhounds that used to run with him in the nearby woods. "This time", I tell him, "You will be in the lead".

I've decided tomorrow to stretch a canvas and start my next painting which will be tentatively named, "Jackson's Trip to Heaven". I intent is to document it'sstages in this blog recording the progress as I work including a photo of the painting at the end of each painting session. I have not yet approached a painting in this manner so it will be new to you the reader and me as well. In my next blog I will continue with writing about the piece "Not Quite Dead" (See April 12 & 13, 2008)

April 13, 2008

"Not Quite Dead" is a single metal file box painted with acrylic. On the three sides are underground scenes with rabbit, mole and snake nests, pieces of pottery, a deceased family pet, a can, seeds sprouting and soil. Each side's color is painted with the states California, Pennsylvania and Arizona in mind. On the top surface is a layer of moss, a bell, a string and a gravestone. Inside the drawer which is partially open is a coffin with the word "Nigger" (made of Fimo painted with acrylic) lain in a bed of red silk. Part of the string from the top of the metal file box comes into the drawer and is secured to the side of the small wooden coffin. On the sides of the pulled out drawer are words painted in acrylic including "cunt, wop, cracker, wetback, fag".

In my next post I will tell of my intentions in creating this piece. Currently I don't have an available photo of the piece but will post as soon as it's available.

April 12,2008

Alright so this is my first attempt at blogging and I hope you will all bear with me. I create art in a little unfinished studio at the back of my house in central Pennsylvania. Most of the time I try to work out personal issues in my art works, find the commonality and humor and hopefully create something thought provoking. My last piece which is now  been shown in an unjuried show in Altoona, PA. is called "Not Quite Dead". The main objective of the piece is to get viewers to consider the power of words and the meanings that are attached to them. In my next blog I will describe the actual piece (visually).