ARTIST JOURNAL

I was stuck in a boring staff meeting at work. Luckily, I had my notebook and put together this little scuplture doodle.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers art, design, technology, Olympic mascots, donut hole solar systems, yeardy smeardy beardies and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

They just keep coming. The LEGO cloud series is on etsy

Artist Statement:

LEGO pieces and clouds are opposites by their form. LEGO pieces are plastic, rigid, geometrically modular standardized units mass produced by man. Clouds are biomorphic, fluid, randomly shaped forms of water and ice produced by nature.

However, what makes these extremes similar is their symbolic meaning. LEGO and clouds represent the creative dreams and aspirations of children of all ages.

Each LEGO cloud sculpture in the series is titled after the word, "cloud" in a foreign language. This evokes the notion that LEGO is a universal toy and clouds are universal elements.

Buy "Wolke", "Nuvola", or "Nuage" for $20 (plus $8 shipping) on etsy.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers art, design, technology, fish tacos, foggy business, Faceoff Friday and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

ALERT! ALERT! New art series on etsy by yours truly. It's called "Screw You". The first two pieces in the series are titled, "Ralph" and "Walter".

Artist Statement:

The circular portrait is telling the viewer, "screw you". There are holes placed in the top of the piece so a string may be inserted and be worn around the neck. The viewer changes roles and becomes part of the sculpture. Rather than receiving the "screw you" message, the person wearing the sculpture is communicating that message with everyone he/she encounters throughout the day.

Be warned, however. The viewer can interact with the piece on a very literal level. The pyrographed word, "screw" is a reference to the physical screw in the piece. The figure in the portrait becomes "you" as the viewer looks at the portrait. The viewer can then take the message to a different level and turn the tables and say "Screw you" to the sculpture itself and whomever might be wearing the sculpture.

Buy "Ralph" or "Walter" for $10 on etsy.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, bandit seagulls, hairdryer guns, funny chinese signs and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

quick little sculpture doodle I made while at work. It's a business card tower.

Recently I have been infusing animals and architectural elements into my paintings. This series springs from the long-lasting relationship that architecture has with nature. These paintings study the ranging existence of architecture from a suggestive living, breathing existence to stoic, symbolic icons of human thought. The same ideas are applied to the representation of animals.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, revolving doors, homemade Pong watches, antartic volcanoes, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

I finally made the investment in a Giclée printer (pronounced "zhee-clay"). Giclée prints are produced from a high-resolution, large-format archival printer. They are commonly used in fine arts. A detailed explanation can be found at wikipedia.

Having full access to a Giclée printer opens alot of doors for me. One of which is selling my digital illustrations. The first illustration I will be selling is shown above. I'm still deciding on whether or not I want to include a detailed background or keep it as it is.

The fella in the illustration is from a collection of 300 photos I purchased on ebay. About half the photos have German writing on the back. The collection spans between the 1930s to the 1950s.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, revolving doors, homemade Pong watches, antartic volcanoes, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

title: yet to be determined
medium: enamel and acrylic paint on gessoed burlap jute
size: 16" x 20", 2" thick

Pointillism. I've never done a pointillism-style painting before. This technique is visually rich, yet simple. That duality is fascinating. It's so simple. It's just dots. The dots form a recognizable image. Yet, the human eye is able to define details within the overall shape. It's that interpretation of details that makes pointillism so rich. I decided to keep the pointillism technique strictly in white. I feel that applying color detracts away from the simple, yet rich impact. With color, the focus shifts towards color choice and arrangement rather than the presentation of the dots themselves.

Other sources inspire the use of Pointillism. I've been playing a lot of Stars Wars Battlefront II on XBox Live lately. I often see stars from the game when i go to bed and close my eyes. It's a wild experience.

To complement the duality within the pointillism technique, the subject matter follows a common theme found in my Art which is taking two objects and grouping them in the composition to emphasize or sometimes redefine their meaning.

This painting features an astronaut and an ornamental detail of a soffit in the Mosque in Tooloon, Cairo. Cultures of past, present and future and their interaction are examined.

Past is represented by the Tooloon Mosque soffit. Present is represented by the modern day astronaut. Future is represented by the combination of the two.

Star Wars Battlefronts II has an influence in defining how the future is represented in this painting. The Star Wars universe takes cultural queues from our world's past and elevates them to grandious heights.

It's this cultural elevation that I believe current science and space exploration wishes to achieve. It extends beyond our current struggle to travel past our moon by a limited few wearing cumbersome white space suits. It's about elevating the cultural experience throughout life. That's what the Star Wars setting portrays. It's a rich tapestry of technological evolution through the influence of the cultural past. This cultural elevation is not just a thing of the future. It's happened in the past as represented by the Tooloon soffit . It's also happening in the present represented by the astronaut and it's all represented by a simple gathering of dots. Quite simple really.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, toasters, really big trucks, penguins, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

As an artist I've always preferred to let thoughts about my work develop in my mind over time rather than putting them in words on paper (or words on screen). However, the more and more I write about my Art, the more I learn how much of an invaluable tool the process is.

I can't recall my college professors requiring us to write about our Art that we shared in critiques. It would have forced me to define my thoughts and ideas. Developing ideas in the mind without specific written thoughts can sometimes result in vague, loose, and perhaps weak ideas. Written words force ideas to be defined.

Then again, it could cause some harm in the development of an art student. It may imply that students must present work that is fully polished. A vital portion of an art school critique is discussing the process of making Art. A written paper presents some unnecessary challenges in that the nature of the Art is still under development. A written paper can too easily try to solidify the Artwork's intent when really the Art (and the art student) is not ready for that. Plus, college art students never have enough time to work on their Art. I had many sleepless nights back in the day. Four years is short time to maximize the rich opportunities found at the university level. Time possibly could be better served working on the Art itself rather than writing a paper about it.

Another 180 now; a paper can be written in a way that shares ideas explored in the process of making a painting. Perhaps that's the mindset that should be emphasized when an art student is crafting a written paper on their Art. Heck, it doesn't even have to be a gramatically-based paper. It could just be a list of keywords. Such a keyword list wouldn't take much time to write, but it would require some thought to be defined in written words.

I say all this because I'm always amazed at how fast thoughts develop as a result of sitting down and writing. Sure, I can develop ideas by letting ideas stew in my head. However, those thoughts can take hours, days, and even months to develop; whereas it can take a matter of minutes when I force myself to sit down and write about it.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, toasters, really big trucks, penguins, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

Recently as I've been selling paintings on ebay, I've been having some fun with the packaging. Above is a sample.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, toasters, really big trucks, penguins, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

There are two new Mohawk Monkey paintings in auction format on ebay. Check 'em out. The auctions end this Sunday, November 12 at about 8:00 p.m. CST. K5 is $7.50 and K3 is only $5 (& $1 shipping).

I usually don't do weekly auctions cuz ebay charges too much. ($0.70 for each item under $10 with a thumbnail preview regardless if the item sells or not.) But, I haven't done a weekly auction in a long time so I figured I'd give it a shot. Weekly auctions get more exposure than store items; a lot more exposure.

There are 9 other Mohawk Monkey paintings in the same style and format. I want to see how these two sell before I post the other 9.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, french fries, really tall buildings, gorillas, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

There are 11 new AIN'T paintings in my ebay store.

Each one sells for $3. (Shipping is $0.39).

WHAT A BARGAIN!

Included in this batch is Francis Bacon, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, Anselm Kiefer, Gustav Klimt, Lee Krasner, Barbara Kruger, Erik Maldre, Gerhard Richter, Julian Schnabel, Barrett Skrypeck, and Frank Stella.

I received a request to paint Gustav Klimt and Skrypeck from an artist named Barrett Skrypeck which led to the idea to include myself in this series.

Check out the comments link for my artist statement.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, french fries, really tall buildings, gorillas, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

Outside my cubicle wall hangs a photo collage I made about 3 months ago. The total size is about 20x28". The two photos are of a "surviving Zapatista soldier" and a rack of computer servers. I cut the face into the server rack.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, french fries, really tall buildings, gorillas, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

Recently I have been working on language-based Art. Above are a couple examples. The phrases can be interpreted as the moose saying the phrase or as an observer saying the phrase. There's a nice duality there.

However, I'm uncertain if I should sign my name, put down my url, or leave it blank.
Throughout my artistic career I have rarely signed my work. I felt that it distracts from the piece. The artwork needs to speak on its own.

However, signing my name would help establish an immediate connection to me, the artist. As I make more and more pieces my body of work growns and I feel like a signature on pieces would be the unifying force between the work and thus help build a sense of brand.

Putting the url down would make it more of a promotional piece which has a completely different feel and tone.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, french fries, really tall buildings, gorillas, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

So i haven't been making many posts lately. Art is being made. No worries. I'm posting this quick doodle I put together while at work to bide some time. This piece of black mat board is quite happy to be perfectly fat and free. Though I prefer to think of squares as being chunky rather than fat.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, baseball, jackhammers, gorillas, dynamite, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

Watched "American Masters: Sketches of Frank Gehry" on PBS last night.

Just a few quick observations here.

1. the little people
Gehry's buildings are simply brillant and he is a very creative, bright, fascinating individual. However, no Gehry building since 1992 would be possible without the tremendous advancements in technology and the behind-the-scenes people who are able to yield and master such technology. I think that's very important and it was barely touched upon in the documentary.

2. Julian Schnabel is great
Also, I enjoyed the variety of people featured. It was great seeing Ed Ruscha talk, then the next clip is Gehry's therapist and so on. However, by far the best person on the documentary was Julian Schnabel. He was wearing a fluffy white bath robe and sunglasses holding a big glass of brandy sittting in what looked to be a throne. Schnabel had a few great lines. One such line came from the discussion about the Bilboa Guggenheim's relationship with the Art it houses. Schnabel said that if the Bilboa is stealing attention away from the Art, then perhaps the Art isn't good enough. Well put.

3. the villian
They touched upon Gehry's critics shortly. I believe Hal Foster was the only critic who had airtime. He had about 3 or 4 cuts. However, it was funny how the lighting was very dark and verboding. Filmmaker Syndey Pollack made certain that Foster was cast the role of villian his documentary.

4. touchy-feely
I know alot of critics of this film say that it doesn't delve deep into the issues of architecture and the film is profusely pro-Gehry. I have no problem with that. It's an uplifting film for any artist to watch. Nothing wrong there.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, baseball, jackhammers, gorillas, dynamite, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

New series: art with maps

It's curious to see the borders of different cities. I grew up on the edge of Chicago near some southwestern suburbs. It was always interesting to note which town I was in. On major streets there are town marker signs, but the side streets never have these town markers so at times it was impossible to know which town I was in. Now that I live in the western suburbs of Chicago, I experience this lack of place all the time which has led me to investigating this topic further.

It's challenging finding maps of the different suburbs of Chicago. It's like some sort of intentionally hidden secret. However, I managed to find a website that shows the borders of any city in the U.S.

All cities take on various forms and shapes. Some are simple rectangles. Some are complex forms with snake-like extensions. This variety lends itself quite well in art form. I have just begun exploring these shapes on a formal level and also in conceptual terms.

So far I have a few cities cut from masonite board. Those include Villa Park, Illinois; Crestwood, Illnois; and Winfield, Illinois. Shown above are Villa Park and Crestwood. By no means do these cutouts stand as their own. They will be infused with other elements. I just need to figure out what I want to say with these.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, baseball, jackhammers, gorillas, dynamite, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

Recently, I've thought about making some posts about other artists that I find interesting. However, I decided that this blog needs to keep its focus and remain strictly as my artist journal. So I'm about to blur the lines by providing a link to an interesting website.

Saatchi Gallery has a website where you can display your work for free. Don't expect too many cow heads and bottles of blood (that's what i think of when I hear Saatchi's name.) Instead, there's a large amount of traditional work and a few off-the-wall pieces here and there. In addition to showing thumbnails of your work, you can list your email address and website.

The only reason I mention the website is that I'm considering putting a few pieces on the site. I'll probably revisit my sculpture doodles or something equally conceptual.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, baseball, jackhammers, gorillas, dynamite, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

Here's the second painting in the 24x24" 19th century series.

order of elements painted:
1. textured brown background (followed by some sanding)
2. portrait of Oakes Ames (what a cool name) (followed by some sanding)
3. blue cicada
4. orange number 8 (Clarendon used)\
5. orange trim at top
6. victorian trim
7. brown/white symbol in lower left

The composition is much tighter compared to the loose composition of the previous painting.

I also wanted more repetition in this painting which explains the use of the victorian trim.

The symbol in the lower left is intriguing, but it seems like it's dominating the painting. I'm considering sanding it a bit so the white isn't so bright. However, I like the contrast of the symbol when compared to the rest of the painting. Its presence is very curious. I may just leave it.

The curving shapes of the "8" and the top trim work well together. I especially like how the 8 is behind the victorian trim and the top trim is on top of the victorian trim.


---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, baseball, jackhammers, gorillas, dynamite, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

Shown above is the first altered civil war portrait painting. Previously, I had painted 4 straight-forward portraits of just the figure's head on a neutral background. This series looked empty, incomplete, and a bit boring. So the paintings are being revisited with a new approach. The centralized portrait is only the beginning in the painting's life cycle. The composition has grown far more complex by introducing new shapes and colors.

I have been struggling with the decision of what exactly to place in the painting. The decision was made to infuse images that are relateable to the nature of the portrait. I've been making this more difficult that it should be, because I'm concerned with people relating the added imagery to the portrait. For instance, if I put a silhouette of some swinging a baseball bat into the painting, then people will think the portrait is of a baseball player, which he is not. So I conciously decided to use images that are a bit vague and open-ended.

I may abandon this train of thought because my options for imagery has become limited and time-consuming and more importantly, the portrait really doesn't say anything in the end. I'm much more interested in imagery that will provide some contrast, such as technology. Yet, my overarching concern with this series is that I explore the qualities of composition.

Here's the order of what was added to the first painting:

1. illustration of the eagle holding the banner. This was a safe and comfortable first image to add... civil war figure and patriotic eagle is a nice combo.

2. frame from a 19th century ad. The frame was added in a traditional sense that it actually frames the portraited figure. Also, the top half of the painting is blue outside the frame.

3. birds. This is the most dramatic addition. The birds come from an Audubon illustration. Only about 25% of the illustation is shown and they were silhouetted. I first thought of painting the silhouette with a thin layer of white. Ultimately, I went with the the ocre-yellow. The white would have really stood out alot and I was afraid it would completely dominate the painting. The ocre-yellow blended in too much with the painting so I immediately put a white outline around the silhouette.

4. Finally, the number "2" was added. The font used is Clarendon which has a nice Old West feel. The reason I selected the number 2 was that the characteristics of the number 2 mimicks the portrait's nose quite well.

I'm learning that i need to place the large elements on first, then add the smaller ones. The eagle is really getting lost. Perhaps I'll add a thin layer of blue to make the eagle pop. I'm spoiled by Photoshop in that you can easily move layers around. It's a bit more difficult to move "layers" around in a painting.

Now, the only question is when do I stop adding elements to the painting? I stopped working on this painting and went on to a second painting. I want to gain some more experience with layering elements before I make the decision to add anything else to this particular painting.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, baseball, jackhammers, gorillas, dynamite, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---

Artdude75 brought up some good points in a critique of my work in my last blog post. He was suggesting that the series needs to be more than simply a portrait on a blank background. That the layout needs to change in some way.

The images could benefit from a more dynamic composition. That's been a weak point throughout my artistic career. My work (at least recently) tends to have a single focal point and that's it. It's an image on a simple background. In essence I've been saying, "Here's the image. It's right here. Take it our leave it." The 19th century portraits series uses a singular focal point. The advantage of this technique is that a sense of balance is achieved having a focal portait in the middle surrounded by a field of empty space. The disadvantage is that I sometimes feel like the painting's life have just began and I'm neglecting them. That there's something missing.

There's another reason why my Art in the past couple years has been stripped down to a simple image on a simple background. I have been targeting specific markets and collectors with my ebay store. For example, I made a whole series of paintings of animals wearing neck ties on a simple background. Each animal was targeting a particular collector. For example: elephant painting for elephant collectors, monkey painting for monkey collectors. I was afraid if I started to infuse too many elements into the painting that I would dilute the strength of the subject matter and thusly lose that market.

Now the animal neck ties series did have a bit of twist because each animal was wearing a tie. So it did explore a bit of relationship-based Art where two common images are placed next to each other which in turn redefines those two objects. However, the only result of this series was that the neck ties made the animals look "cute" and didn't accomplish anything beyond that. So it still resonated with the particular market and the paintings were selling successfully (some are still available). Though I was never comfortable with the series because the series itself was too comfortable and obvious.

The idea of taking two common objects and grouping them to redefine their meaning has been an approach I've studied going back to my college years and it's still something that interests me. However, I'm afraid that it still doesn't address the bigger issues of composition. I've been thinking about this for a very long time and it's funny that Artdude75 brought it up in his comment, cuz he hit the nail on the head. Well, it's about time I did something about that. Take things to the next level. Really layer things up and see what depths these paintings can attain.

I need to go to the library and check out some books where I can find some shapes or images that will help inspire me to infuse new elements into this 19th century series.

I've been thinking about using images of objects that existed in 19th century and still exisit today in the 21st century. I've also thought about incorporating technology shapes. Nothing too obvious because i think it becomes too trite to simply bring together contrasting elements of the 19th and 21st centuries, but if it's done in a unique way it could really fly.

Or it can become more autobiographical. Perhaps I'll carry my camera with me the next few weeks and snap shots of shapes and objects that appeal to me aestheically and bring that into the paintings.

Or I could still try to retain the civil war collector market and infuse shapes and elements that reference the portrayed figure's place in history and personification of the era itself.

The fortunate thing to all this is that I'm working with 24"x24" board so I will have space to get creative with the layout. Another downside to my attempts to cater to the ebay crowd recently is that I had been working primarily with 8x10" and 5x7" (easier to ship) which doesn't allow for too much experimenting with composition. So the 24x24" board is a good starting point.

Perhaps I'll find it's too obvious to have my focal point in the middle of the painting (portrait of 19th century figure). Then again, when I'm done with this, the 19th century figure may be a small portion of the piece.

---LiveJournal is my artist journal blog. Visit my other blog which covers design, technology, baseball, jackhammers, gorillas, dynamite, and more! UPDATED DAILY!---