Trying to enter the studio with a mind that is mine.

I thought that this was one of my paintings, but it turns out it is Stentor roeseli from The Collection of Freshwater Micro organisms. David Lane from Porchlight Paintings sent me the link to the Institute for the Promotion of the Less than One Millimeter The Micropolitan Museum. There is some fascinating stuff there, like this antenna that could be controlled paint sags:Or this water flea that has inspired me to look into exploring ways to pull off a convincing black ground in a future cluster:Can you tell which is the daisy pollen and which is the Dennis Hollingsworth painting?
Thanks David.

When I come across something that has a kinship to my painting, I am thrilled. There is a huge difference between discovering something and beginning with something. Richard Scott, over at Art Babel, is smacking his talented head against the curtain "between the derivative and the original". Of course, I can only speak to my own experience. Until two years ago (the same time I started blogging), I used to surround myself with "inspiration". I would tack things to the studio wall and keep folders and three ring binders of all sorts of "cool" things. My paintings would become elaborate Frankenpaintings. Their originality was forced into life from the bits and chunks of my "cool" and rotting ephemera. Today, however, I try to enter the studio empty. It is tough however, especially when inspiration as outrageous as a black ground is introduced into my world. But, you get the point. On one side of the line I am responding to stimulus, on the other I am planning to respond. Fish or Cut Bait.

(image source)

Sofu Teshigahara who once said: "Ikebana could be done by everyone, at anytime, in any place, with every material and every container" has entered my life recently. I sense a kinship that has nothing to do with the desire to be original. Instead, ones responsibility is "to grasp and express the feeling of the material, to express the third dimension and asymmetrical balance. The concept that was foremost in his teaching was that the principles never change, but rather that the form is always changing."
(image source)

The Fourth Wall

In the past two days, I have experienced a spattering of increased traffic to this blog. This would be nothing that would normally peak my interest in the roller-coaster randomness of stat-checking, but what was abnormal was that the new visitors were all being directed my way by a private discussion group whose url began with "aspenmurals." So, a simple click brought me to: "Aspen Murals is an international consortium of highly skilled decorative artisans and artists specializing in exceptional quality specialty faux and decorative finishes. Our common bond is craftsmanship, professional demeanor, and extensive worldwide experience in all manner of venues including commercial design, residential decor, and public spaces. Our common language is that of design, color, and proportion. We combine old master sensibilities with global networking. We are uniquely qualified to cater to the multinational homeowner." It is a really great idea and they have a sophisticated web-site that shows off some beautiful stuff. I thought it would be to my advantage to direct such surfers to my sparsely updated blog (it is more of an image base really) The Fourth Wall as well as Jefferson Scenic's Flickr page which has some pix of the new drops we are working on (including action shots of my receding hair line).

Color Shift

I am testing the Blogger-brand video feature with a 30 second moment in my backyard. The shadows were fidgeting across a surface I was preparing and I kept seeing an intense lavender in the blue-grey. It could possibly be the fleeting burn of a retinal afterimage.

While I'm on the Blogger-brand topic, have you visited Blogger Play? It is a place that "will show you a never-ending stream of images that were just uploaded to public Blogger blogs." It is mildly captivating and boring. . . hypnotic, I suppose.

Day job

This is the third drop that we are painting for a musical theater "back east." It is my least favorite design, nothing personal to the designer Jay Fenton (imagine what he has to come up with? Musical dinner theater at "An Award Winning Resort and Golf Community"! Imagine! This is pure entertainment for those trying to create their little version of Heaven on Earth. This is theater for those who believe in the afterlife.) (How can we tell when bad grammer is only an emoticon?) ;D

Anyway, maybe I like this drop the least because I fucked up the most on it. I got too heavy handed with my brush, and I rushed too quickly into "painting" when really this thing needed to be sprayed. Why? You might be thinking "shit. . . I could paint that 20 foot tall and 32 foot wide drop in a week. . . If I had the proper medium and an appropriately scaled-up brush."

Here is the the rub and the crux of my displeasure with this drop = This drop is translucent. (Except for the ground row and the tree stage left.
Hah! This photo is completely and utterly flipped. It is interesting that when one paints something at this scale, top and bottom become so irrelevant. Lesson learned.

Again, anyway, this drop is translucent except for the silhouette in the top of the picture. In these photos we haven't finished the dark purple yet, and there still is going to be a raw umber glaze added in places as well.

I forgot how cool The Cult of the Binks can be.
It might be possible that this drop has turned out to be my "my least favorite design" because I kinda got schooled on this one. . . but I learned so much!

Is Pride the opposite of Learning?

Hello. . . is this thing on?


ps lesson learned:
Red dyes can stain like there is no tomorrow.
It is impossible to hide some things on a translucent drop.

These are two superstars of my bookmark list

In chronological order:

Drawn! is a multi-author blog devoted to illustration, art, cartooning and drawing. Its purpose is to inspire creativity by sharing links and resources.

Albert Einstein said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources,” but what the hell did he know anyway?

The links and posts on Drawn! are written by a small group of professional illustrators, designers, and cartoonists.

Have you ever noticed that more and more Illustrators and Graphic Artists have smoking chops and a growing fan base?

I'd like to create a taste by sampling 9 images from Ryan Alexander MacDonald's blog. But don't worry about his context just yet. . . why not click through my blogtrait (or scroll-o-ramma) of some dude I've never met. . . .

I would add <$Brief Epigrams$> to at least one of your lists.

Three More New Paintings (from me) That Turn My Proverbial Crank

Steven LaRose
092407 a,b, and c
20 inches tall, 16 inches wide
Rosco vinyl acrylic paint system on homemade wood panels

Three new paintings

Moving Pictures

I am slowly warming to youtube video clips on a blog. I often skip them until I have time to really watch. Consequently, most of the world of video passes me by. But, here are a few via Jacques that caught my eye. The first is Postmodern Times, "Postmodern Times is a series of short animated films presenting new ideas about global consciousness and techniques for social and ecological transformation. Our first episode, "Toward 2012", introduces the project, explaining concepts from the best-selling book, "2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl" (Tarcher/Penguin, 2006) by Daniel Pinchbeck, in the author's own voice. Future segments will focus on shamanism, sustainability, alternative energy systems, the Mayan Calendar, quantum physics and synchronicity, human sexuality, and a host of other subjects." I can identify with a lot of this first segment.
The next pair of videos, also from Jacques, were titled Skillz/no skillz at his posting. I would like to posit that the first one should be No Soul (a technical display), while the second one should be called Soul (a charming rendition of the human condition). Note: This is not Alvin Lee.

I've got a soft spot for this sort of glorious debacle.
John Morris has nothing but video hits over at his blog. This eight second clip of Warhol on Johns is priceless.
Now, for the hardcore, here is 18 minutes of MIT Media Lab's John Maeda scrambling around simplicity and complexity. I find this clip appropriately scattered.
Do you need any more this week?

Monique Prieto

Kristi Engle recently turned me on to the paintings of Monique Prieto
update, here is a newer painting (a little tougher to appreciate):

Fish Hatchery Field Trip

A Portait of Stacy

I live with a woman whose record collection might be best explained by the Slacker radio station "Alternative Chill". What, you've never heard of Slacker radio?
PC Magazine
"It's the most exciting thing in digital music to happen in a long time"

WIRED
"Slacker Steals the Show at SXSW"

Time Magazine
"Radio's got a problem...that could change if the pioneers behind personalized radio continue to win over music lovers"

Wall Street Journal
"Internet radio races to break free of the PC"

CNET
"A revolutionary new music service and a portable device to go along with it"

Los Angeles Times
"It's a pioneering effort to bring customized radio programming to the car, the gym, or anywhere else you might go."

The Motley Fool
"Fear the Slacker...the more I learn about Slacker, the more I am starting to believe that it will be music-subscription services like Napster and growing broadcast technologies such as HD radio and satellite radio that need to be looking over their collective shoulder"

New York Times
"Aimed in name and concept at the music lover who does not want to fritter away hours creating playlists"

USA Today
"A new service is taking personal taste in music to another level by combining elements of Internet radio, portable music and satellite distribution."

Orbitcast
"Slacker is sure to ruffle some feathers as they look to combine satellite radio, a digital audio player, and custom WiFi radio - all into a single sleek device"

Gizmodo
"This is one space you'll definitely want to stay in tune with"

Engadget
"Slacker will provide a internet radio network that won't just reach you via browser, but will also stream to a Slacker portable by way of WiFi and -- get this -- satellite service"

Fox News
"Analysts say Slacker is the first to make "personalized music" portable"

TechCrunch
"Slacker just picked a fight with just about every major online music company I can think of"

Laptop Magazine
"A new player on the scene is poised to revolutionize how we listen to music"

Ultrasound

I'd like to take this moment to publicly announce that I am
EXPECTING
(clarification update: I've got 10 new paintings that seem to be finishing themselves this week. The six panels above are still "in the womb" and may undergo changes).