3 new paintings

It's weird, I tend to work on several projects at once so every once and a while I finish a bunch of them at the same time. I recently finished two sculptures and now I have three new paintings.  So a quick note on each of these paintings.

underland

40x40

oil

June 2012

Underland was inspired by two sources. One was a painting I saw while in Victoria, BC, which was a sort of barren landscape with a high horizon line and a small VW bug driving along the horizon. I saw it at a small gallery and sadly can't remember the gallery, painting, or the artists' name. The other inspiration was CS Lewis' Silver Chair.

twinseys

16x16

acrylic

July 2012

Twinseys started while I was at the coast. It then sat for a couple months while I tried to figure where to go with it. After a bunch of sketches I finally committed to a direction and the final piece just kind of flowed out to the completion. 

dias de los muertos

16x16

acrylic

July 2012

dias de los muertos was interesting one to do.  It flowed quickly, starting really heavy on paint, then pulling paint off, adding paint, taking it off scraping and repeating until I hit the happy point. 

Elemental

I had these four small canvases sitting around for a while, periodically starting but not really liking where things were going.  The idea for this began while sketching at a bar. At first it was muses, then dryads and nyads, but the image became more abstract. A forrest for the earth, red flames for fire, blue water, cloudy whites for wind. The elements are supported by a pillar surrounded by a small crowd of humanity. Above branching heavens and sun.

Earth

Fire

Water

Wind

Sun and Heavens

Base Humanity

Burst

Burst
Mixed Media
2012

 

My friend Dan's mum had this thing about never throwing anything out since it someday it might be useful for some art project at some time.  This sculpture is a fine example of her philosophy at work. The hand is my own that I had cast several years ago. It was intended for another sculpture which I haven't finished yet. The grip wasn't correct for what I wanted it for so I slopped some paint on it and shelved it.  Over time it sat, sometimes being used to hold toilet paper rolls. One day I was looking at some this resin pour that didn't turn out the way I wanted. I combined the resin with the hand then began sculpting the "bursting water" which is another set of resin castings.

There were a few times, especially during moves, that I've been tempted to throw things out that just didn't seem to work out the way I wanted, but then find these things useful eventually. The moral is just because things don't turn out the way you want it exactly doesn't mean it's useless. It might just take time to figure things out.

Temporary Art - or Found Objects on a Beach

May 2010 I was on the Washington coast in the little vacation town of Seabrook.  A short walk from the house and you were on the beach.  I've always loved the beach, even when it's too cold to swim.  I love the sound of waves crashing, the fresh salty smell in the air, building in castles in the sand.  This particular day I was alone on the beach for, I guess a couple hours. I really lost track of time while gathering and assembling various pieces of driftwood, crab shells, kelp, and even an old tire.  I didn't really have a plan or vision from the beginning, only an impulse of what needed to be where.  The result, I'm not really sure what it really was supposed to be but it turned out rather massive. It actually remained for a few weeks.

The next year when I returned to the same beach I was reminded of my piece of random beach art.  While walking the beach, enjoying the wind, there wasn't a great inspiration to make something like the previous year.

This last April, I again was in Seabrook, on the beach. The day was actually really unpleasant. Cold steady misty rain carried bitterly on the incessant wind.  Despite the conditions the desire to build had returned.  I began with a stump, and driftwood.  I wanted to make a sort of sand castle fortress.  I found a very cool stick and crab shell to make my little alien creature to live in the fortress. I didn't actually build as much as I wanted to, but the miserable conditions of the day won and I left after taking some quick photos.

  

What is most appealing to me about these, and even something I've loved about sandcastles, is the spending time building, creating, there is the memory and feeling of doing it. A moment of passion, then is left behind. It will crumble and fall in time or be crushed but what mattered was it's short existence.  

Mess with it till it's done

This piece began New Years Eve. 

An aside on my current view of that holiday. I barely celebrate it. The last couple years I've been more inclined to do something a bit mellow and be in bed far before the change of year.

That said, this last NYE I was at home and started painting while drinking some Dry Fly Vodka,  http://www.dryflydistilling.com/vodka/ (personal preference)  So I began what was going to be a self portrait. When I stumbled away from it I was digging the direction the thing was going. Then I started to work it some more a couple days later, and I began to hate it. Worked on it again, hated it more. I began messing with it, doing things like sewing together parts of the canvas, beginning to like where this is going. Then one day I took it into the driveway, dumped rubbing alcohol on it and lit it on fire. Surprising to see how hard it is burn a canvas. Now I'm starting to like this one, so what better way to improve it than to encase the canvas in resin. A couple pours later the canvas is in a thin shell of clear resin that has some cool looking holes, rips and tears. Sure it's kind of heavy now, but it looks much better. I'd even say I l like how it turned out.

The moral of the story is when you don't like the direction a piece is going keep pushing it, messing with it until it's good and done.

Scammed and Shafted

A couple weeks ago I got an email from some lady named Carmen Gonzalez, who wanted to buy some paintings she saw on this site.  I'm thinking great, awesome, wow!!!!!  It felt great to have that sort of an affirmation regarding some of my work, and frankly I could really use the cash.  So I let her know the prices of the paintings she mentioned, and she was to get me in contact with a shipping company she was using for their move to England. Cool my stuff was going international. I get the check and my jaw drops at the amount. I thought two things, first wow lot of money, did she think I under priced and was generously upping it for me, second thought was a whoa this isn't right. I let her know I get the payment and she claims the extra was supposed to go to her shipping company, and could I send the extra back.  Sure no problem the money is in my account, and it will still take 5-10 days for my return check to get to England. OK this is where the flags really should have gone off with rockets and loud stuff to warn me of the impending doom. I let her know check is on the way, "check? we need it for the movers can you wire it Western Union?"  Now like I said I thought the funds had cleared into my account, so I go ahead and wire the money. The next day (today) I get a message from the bank, account overdrawn by thousands. WTF!!!! I look up my account, yep, overdrawn. Turns out her check was a really good forged cashier's check from a real and reputable bank. I didn't quite get to work today, since I've spent the day talking with the banks, Western Union, emails to the Attorney General, and fraud organizations, and trying to file with the Seattle Police, who are surprisingly difficult to get hold of.

So there is my long dumb story. But on the silvery lining, she may have fucked me over financially but at least she didn't get away with any of my paintings, also I've learned something about selling from this, and yes most pieces on this site are for sale, email me for pricing and we will figure things out.  But now I know what to look for in scams, and as the 'Joes say, Knowing is Half the Battle.

Diorama

Diorama

Mixed media

2011

This "diorama" is composed of several pieces from unfinished projects that I was about to toss out, a failed hand casting and an acrylic on canvas painting.