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).