Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Seriously, I need to focus.
Is that a perfect marshmallow or what? Zaida roasted it with loads of verbal coaching from us. It took all of my will power not to snatch the stick from her hands. The stick, by the way, is a skewer taped to a manufactured stir-stick. 
Once a week, I have been casually burning a stack of wood that is piled-up on the side of the house. A lot of the wood is from the crate that our Vespa was shipped in. And some of it is the under-six-inch-cut-offs from our recent home construction projects.
We are ready for primer this morning! The wood is so warm, it is too bad that we have to paint it. (I'm avoiding thinking about the actual door.) Some of you may notice that the Wasp Nest is not symetrical. Inherited property lines and architectural elements combined for some unique cypherin'. It was my first time building trusses and rafters, "Damit! I've cut this board three times and its still too short!"Still, I'm almost done.
By the time I get into the studio at night, I'm fairly spent. I'm tired of hearing myself complain about this. But the pressure comes from the fact that I have a painting show at a local college art gallery in less than a month. I have alternately been taking the exhibition casually and seriously. Jacques has written a great essay that will accompany the newer paintings. Part of me wants to shoot high and simply hang the best of the suite. I've even considered creating a poll and letting you guys decide which ones to hang. And, as everyone knows, there is always the last minute push that will generate new work. And what about a card? I wanted to do a little gatefold mailer like the one for the Calculated Color show that Chris Ashley is in. Jacques' essay is too long for that. Now I'm leaning towards a classic single image and quantity. Cheaper. I am feeling this is an opportunity to show the people of this small town what I do. I want to hand everyone I see a card. The checkers at the co-op who sell me beer every night (they must wonder what I do with it), all my faux and decorative clients, all my daughter's class mates, etc. But then. . . . should I really shoot high? Shouldn't I create some context? Shouldn't I hang some pieces from other suites? Sort of a retrospective?
And then when I finally get into the studio I have been completely obsessed (distracted?) with listening to old cassettes. This Sub Pop number 7 is awsome!
That is Charles Burns. Somebody hand colored it with marker! Did he? Cool.Ok. I gotta go lay some primer on the Wasp Nest. (Then there is Zaida's soccer match, and, get this, she is auditioning for a part at the Oregon Shakespere Festival later this afternoon. I'll tell you more later). In the meantime, here is another detail from a work in progress:
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Feedback Control
The melody is almost lost. Purified in a haze of screeching bliss. Above are two details from paintings in progress. Tonight I came to think of myself as an effects-pedal-junky.
Harold gave me a starting point for the drawing below with the words: Collective Anonymous. (We were chatting in Facebook).
Friday, September 19, 2008
Sup?
The image above is six inches square. It is part of a suite of drawings I started recently. One can find my other drawings by searching the word "pencilove" as a label. For a laugh, you must compare me to The Professionals. Marc Snyder has been setting the standard over at his blog. 
Marc has been posting a "Why Draw" series that is chock full of Pencilove Wisdom.
Carla, on the other hand, recently posted this painting by Blythe Hager:
It is a painting that haunts me on many levels. It is anti-drawing, and yet it relies on the facility of drawing. It is "anti" in the sense that it is derived from a photograph. The moment (a sufficiently gnarly moment) was captured with a camera and then wonderfully filtered by a human.Tonight I saw the neurotic flickering of our backyard campfire as a stately tai chi dance.
I should be drawing more. But why? A good fire is hard to come by. Why did I even bother to try and take a picture of it? (Not counting the faces, animals, and patterns that I gleaned.)I should be drawing more.
shit.
I should be painting more.
Instead, I have completed another phase of the Wasp Nest.
Vespa is both Latin and Italian for wasp—derived from both the high-pitched noise of the two-stroke engine, and adopted as a name for the vehicle in reference to its body shape: the thicker rear part connected to the front part by a narrow waist, and the steering rod resembled antennae.I don't want to get too heavy-handed in the "did you know" department but last week's Science Friday was an eye opener for me.
The game Spore, seems so cool. I've only read about it since hearing about it on NPR. I imagine that I will never have time to explore this game.And, of course, there is the Irony of it All:
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Statement
"Art is the illusion of disorientation, the illusion of liberty, the illusion of presence, the illusion of the sacred, the illusion of Nature. . . Not the paintings of Buren, Mosset, Parmentier or Toroni . . . Art is a distraction, art is false. Painting begins with Buren, Mosset, Parmentier, Toroni."
In the aforementioned order:
In the aforementioned order:
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
David Foster Wallace
Remembering David Foster Wallace - Mental FlossFoster Wallace is a huge loss - The Guardian
{David Foster Wallace: An appreciation} {} - Chicago Tribune
Friday, September 12, 2008
What's up doc?
Dr. William F. Giauque
Dr. Sudha Rao
Dr. Sherman Melankoff
Dr. Pierre de Lettre
Dr. Peter Selz
Dr. Oswald Jonas
Dr. Nello Pace
Dr. Marilyn G. Farguhar
Dr. Margaret Bubidge
Dr. Lawrence H. Moe
Dr. John Lohman
Dr. John Middleton
Dr. Jan Popper
Dr. Richard Blanchard
Dr. Edwin MicMillian
Dr. NylandHoly Rich-Tonal-Range, and Mythic-Sense-Of-Things-Observed, BlogMan! I've been hoarding this link for long on two years now. Over 1700 Ansel Adams photographs can be found at the Fiat Lux Data base. "Framed by the 1960s, Fiat Lux captures university campuses, its people, and UC properties statewide."
Pygmalion and Galatea
I don't really ever fall in Love with my paintings. There is a crush phase for sure. Some paintings have hung around like old friends (pun ignored once observed). But never have I fallen into full on Love. What a great mythology though. I just learned that Pygmalion and Galatea married and had a son, Paphos,[2] and, according to the author of Bibliotheke, a daughter, Metharme.[3]
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