Flabbergast

Steven LaRose, The Possibilities of Defeat, 2010

Oil on wood, 11.5 x 14.5 inches

This painting just snuck out. It is the newest addition to the Divine Slog set. I'd sure like to hang them all together someplace before I paste a PayPal button on them.

What Do I Get When I Cross A Nina Roos With A Rick Veitch?

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Steven LaRose, Veitch Roos, 2010
pencil on bristol, 6 x 6 inches
$40 (shipping included)

For Nina's World click here.
For Rick's World click here.

More is Different

I'm not feeling like I want to start a new painting before I go in for surgery. Instead, I've been making those six inch square drawings displayed in the previous posts. Don't ask me why. Nothing ever turns out the way I expect. How can that be rewarding? I'm a hardcore hobbyist. I like that. But then those Paypal buttons make me uncomfortable. Again, don't ask me why. It is too late for soul searching. Money sure helps things. But money can also mess up a pleasant hobby. I need a manager. What else can you get for 40 dollars? How about this original page drawn by Jim Aparo and inked by Bill Sienkiewicz?
But then there is 15 dollars for shipping and it is very unclear if this is an original page or merely a scan. If I was slightly more interested, I would send The Artist's Choice an email and find out.
Doing an image search on Google under "drawings for sale" makes matters worse. This is the first image and it comes up as "Nude hands behind head Pencil 12"x 8" Pencil.£10.00". I wish he would have made up his mind as to where the lines go. The next image was a giclee print so doesn't count. The third image is titled "Fragile Beauty" and I have no patience to navigate the site to see what it would actually cost to acquire this original drawing.
Sigh.
A $40 search on Etsy uncovered this:
Turns out Stasia Burrington has an interesting illustration thing. Her web site made me feel a little better. I'll keep drawing, if only to raise the bar.
UPDATE: I just came back from Mary Addison's blog and I simply have to cut and paste her truth: "I was about 18 when I took my first painting class. I was told I needed to find something to paint about. That tripped me up because I kept trying to find "something" and I didn't understand "about". My first painting was of a pair of Mardi Gras beads and sunglasses. It felt pretty empty at the time, but I was 18 and that's who I was. I kept painting and I kept looking for something to paint about. It took me awhile to realize that that the constant searching was not just part of the work, but that it was the work. 25+ years later, I'm still searching. Life happens. The process of painting is an ongoing narrative. Not only within each painting, but in the bigger picture (no pun intended.) Sometimes it's lame, sometimes its a failure. Sometimes it's shallow. Sometimes it's beautiful and funny, or tries to be heroic, and sometimes it's sad and painful. I have no idea. That's about as authentic as it's going to get for me."

Second Guests

The other day on Facebook I posted "SHORT NOTICE ALERT: If you could draw a picture, what would it contain? (The ladies went to see a movie and so I am heading to the studio for a bit of drawing. I’m searching for motivation/rhyme/reason/advice by 4PM PST)." Six people responded before the deadline and their titles made up the drawings of the previous post. The following are from people who chimed in after 4PM. All drawings are $40 including shipping.

Steven LaRose, The Ladies Going to a Movie, 2010
(Title by Victor Gockel)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

SOLD

Steven LaRose, Shadows That Describe Contour, Part One, 2010
(Title by David D'Andrade)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

Steven LaRose, Shadows That Describe Contour, Part Two, 2010
(Title by David D'Andrade)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

Steven LaRose, Pure, 2010
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

Steven LaRose, Holiday, 2010
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

SOLD

Steven LaRose, Cloud, 2010
(Title by Christopher Stearns)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

Steven LaRose, Baywatch, 2010

Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

Steven LaRose, Hormone, 2010

Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

Steven LaRose, Bad Kitty, 2010
(Title by Scott LaRose)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

Drawing

From Wikipedia: "Drawing is a form of visual expression and is one of the major forms within the visual arts. There are a number of subcategories of drawing, including cartooning.

Steven LaRose, "All of the Shoes I Wore Throughout Grade School"
(Title by Todd Johnson)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$40 (includes shipping)

Certain drawing methods or approaches, such as "doodling" and other informal kinds of drawing such as drawing in the fog a shower leaves on a bathroom mirror, or the surrealist method of "entoptic graphomania", in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots, may or may not be considered as part of "drawing" as a "fine art."

Steven LaRose, "Angst and Nico"
(Title by Anna Kunz)

Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$40 (includes shipping)
SOLD

The word 'drawing' is used as both a verb and a noun:

Drawing (verb) is the act of making marks on a surface so as to create an image, form or shape.

The produced image is also called a drawing (noun). A quick, unrefined drawing may be defined as a sketch.

Steven LaRose, "Hopeful Errors"
(Title by Thomas Craig)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$40 (includes shipping)

SOLD

In simplistic terms, drawing is distinct from painting, perhaps more so in the Western view; East Asian art, which generally only uses brushes, has historically made less distinction between the two.

Steven LaRose, "Hurter's Hunter"
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

$40 (includes shipping)

Critics may praise a painter's ability to draw well, meaning that the shapes, especially of the human body, are well-articulated, or a drawing may be considered painterly.

Steven LaRose, "The Inevitable Hour"
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches

$40 (includes shipping)

SOLD

The term drawing suggests a process and intent that is distinct from the traditional act of painting.

Steven LaRose, "Popsicles Available on Europa"
(Title by Janet Galore)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$40 (includes shipping)

SOLD

While there are drawings that are finished artworks, drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem solving and composition, often as a means of preparation for a painting.

Steven LaRose, "Sharon Butler"
(Title by Sharon Butler)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$40 (includes shipping)

In contrast, traditional painting is often a means of execution or finishing an artwork.

Steven LaRose, "Ski Jumper"
(Title by Dan C. DeGidio)
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$40 (includes shipping)

It is fair to note that modern painters often incorporate methods of drawing in their painting process, particularly in the early stages of a painting."

Steven LaRose, "Vulgar Beast"
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$40 (includes shipping)

Finally

So there I was. Sitting at the Medford airport. Waiting to spend an hour on a prop plane to Portland. I had tightly scheduled an Endoscopic Ultrasound with a hot-shoe surgeon when the overhead voice said, "We are sorry. No planes today." I played it cool. I insisted that Stacy didn't need to pick me up and I would enjoy taking the bus back to our house. A bus is full of hurt people. It was a luxurious pain in the butt that I had to pull the battery from our other car and swap it for a charged one. That battery wasn't even two years old. . . I think.The ticks off of one dog can be astounding. I walked the dogs up to the Fairy Ponds thinking that
I might get inspired. I was feeling mighty low. While I was up in Portland, I stayed in a guest house that was affiliated with the hospital. I drove the car all the way there with the help of only six Google map suggestions. I checked in, started an extra indulgent steamy shower, and turned on the television. We conserve energy at our house, but there is something about a borderline environment that makes you want to behave in a borderline way. If you sleep with dogs, you get fleas, right? I pulled a tick off of my abdomen yesterday.
I thought the Fairy Ponds might inspire me to paint nothing but the fairy ponds. I didn't feel it. The dogs were splashing about in a way that needed supervision. I wanted to escape the three hours I had spent surfing the guest house's cable channels. I had left the studio oozing with mountebankery. I was depressed and irritable.
I actually think I considered giving up painting. If your painting is wrecking, what do you do?

Out of nowhere the tumbler sounds a metallic cluck.
I'm feeling better tonight.

Steven LaRose, How Bad Things Trick You, 2010
Oil on wood laminate, 32 x 48 inches (in studio shot)