And death shall have no dominion.

Steven LaRose, Fossil Poetry, 2010

Oil on wood, 14.5 x 11.5 inches

Steven Grant LaRose
I thoroughly messed up a pretty painting last night. It was oddly liberating. Now I'm wondering if I should try to "save" it or turn it to the wall and let it hibernate in its grotesque state. I need a new technique or tool. Something I don't have control of yet. Maybe a piece of string dipped in paint or maybe tape because I hate seeing tape used.

Todd Johnson

congratulations! strangely enough i was thinking about this very situation yesterday after you posted you jr. retrospective. the techniques -- the wide array and how it's really easy to mimic things you enjoy or want to pursue because the wrist skills are there. how this becomes a hinderance was what i was more thinking about but then i stopped ... See Morethinking about it.
yeah tape --- phooey. i'm always trying to fuck shit up but man it's so stressful. i even have to aestheticize my fuck ups ( not so much in a pretentious way but rather in a comfort [ yeah i can live with that version of nastiness] kinda' way) so I can walk away unhaunted ( or sleep ). I find it's easier to turn them to the wall when something else is around to work on.
new technique that you don't have control of... hmmm. hey I got my own problems see... but seriously. they often come during hypervigilant periods or exactly the opposite and from a most unlikely source e.g., watching the lady at the bakery apply frosting or some such.
what is it about the type of painter that NEEDS a new way to present paint? ( not a judgement cuz i do too ) not all do right? who are those other painters and how come they don't care? are they making cruddy paintings as a result?

March 22 at 4:00pm

Steven Grant LaRose

I think there is a blog post in this. Really. Who are those painters who don't care. Are they walking cameras? Do they have important messages? Maybe that's how you pay the bills with paint?

Wed at 7:06am

Todd Johnson

it suddenly reminds me of, i guess it was the late 80's / early 90's, when animation for all prime time audiences was gaining serious traction. some of those ( like 'the critic' for example ) were not taking advantage of the chosen medium. in other words, it could have been real actors. why is this animated? like when people see a photo of ... See Moresomething nifty and say " oh, that would make a good painting" and proceed to do so.

yeah, paying the bills i suppose. i almost want to say hotel / bank art but i won't. not to say I haven't been guilty over the years but uuhhh...

Wed at 9:06am

Todd Johnson

BUT . . . that doesn't mean I'm going to jump into some kinda "why is this a painting?" way of thinking.

Wed at 11:43am

Steven Grant LaRose

Oh, I'm in a couple of dentist offices in Chicago. And that's because I was durn good at my shtick then. I wonder what high horse inspiration got me hooked on the opposite of "oh, that would make a good painting"? I know that feeling. That's why I have a camera with me all the time. But then the painting is done before it is even started. What is that opposite? "I wonder what makes a good painting?" I don't know what makes a good painting? Its like playing peek-a-boo with yourself?

Wed at 12:00pm

I don't know

How to paint from your subconscious in five easy steps.

At his blog Flotsam and Jetsam, Christian Rex van Minnen shows us how his imagery percolates out of the materials he uses.





The last step is a bit of a jump, but who cares? I like the early stages. I'm not convinced that taking the surface to this extreme is important. It becomes rather stiff. The painting's possibilities shrink as the painter's noodling increases. Still. . . I get it. "The image tends to fluctuate between the poles of abstraction and figuration, the truth of the paint and illusion of the image, the personal and archetypal. Essentially, the work begins with an abstract soul, composed of lead and carbon and mineral spirits, and eventually is layered with various forms of oils and iron oxides, not dissimilar from our blood, which brings the form into time, place, and at times, a social context. The technique is paired with, and symbiotic to, the concept." (source) (interview)

I'm sure I'm creating correlations

Nina Kluth, "Bild mit Rostrot und Braun", 2009,
Acryl/Öl auf Nessel, 110 x 130 cm
(link)

Opportunity

I have recently been granted the Use Rights to this structure. What do you think? Tool shed or gallery?

My Week in Hospital

Operative Report
Surgeon: Patrick Y Lee MD
Location: Providence Portland Health Services
Adm Date: 03/03/2010
Date of Procedure: 03/03/2010
Preoperative Diagnosis: History of a T2 N1 adenocarcinoma of the rectum.
Procedure: Complex laparoscopic-assisted low anterior resection, coloanal anastomosis, takedown splenic flexure, and loop ileostomy.
Indications: The patent is a 46-year-old gentleman with a rectal adenocarcinoma, initially staged as a T3 N1, underwent chemoradiation, completed on 01/07/2010, and repeat ultrasound showed the lesion to be a T2 N1 and presents for an anterior resection with coloanal anastomosis.
Description of Procedure: Two pages of single spaced gobbledygook describing five hours of surgery in amazing detail.
Pathology Report (Microscopic Description): Ten regional lymph nodes are examined, all of which are negative for malignancy.
Final AJCC Pathologic Stage: T2, N0, MX

This is all good news. They got it out and the nodes were clean. So then I had to kick back and recover in a hospital bed for four more days. I was on my back and facing a wall upon which hung a television and these two items:

Steven LaRose, My View, 2010
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$50 (shipping included)

I tried watching the television. I quickly learned to turn it off when the nurses came in. They were magnetized to it as much as anybody. Down lower on the wall, in a corner, there were these strange bags that I thought were barf bags. They were just out of my range of focus but they had this interesting illustration on them. As I was unsure of what it was, I decided to draw it the way I saw it. Classic Introduction to Drawing stuff.

Steven LaRose, Incongruous, 2010
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$50 (shipping included)

These first two drawings must have happened late in the second day on Thursday. I never thought I would move again, but they had me up and taking steps on Thursday afternoon. Morphine helped. As did the nurses. Did you know that nurses are people too? Even though they have to wake you up and take your vital signs every hour, they've all got stories. It was oddly liberating when it turned out that none of the dozen I dealt with had an interest in my drawing. So that was one of the reasons I started on the next drawing. I needed to simply do something without observing or making decisions.

Steven LaRose, Stuck to the Knitting, 2010
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$50 (shipping included)

SOLD

Something where I could keep pushing the Morphine button. Something to keep my mind off of the pain. The pain was being constantly measured on a scale of 1 to 10. A smiley face is a one and a tear soaked howling wail is a ten. The nurses kept apologizing for this scale. I kept assuring them that it was fantastic. It was very similar to grading art assignments or talking about the qualities of wine. They just giggled at me. It is apparently very easy to make nurses giggle. Zaida cracked me up when she returned from one of her Portland explorations with Stacy because she had purchased a new figurine that she named Kevin.

Steven LaRose, Kevin, 2010
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$50 (includes shipping)

SOLD

Zaida got to spend some time in the big city while I grocked out. She even went to Voodoo Doughnuts which is funny because she hates donuts. Apparently she didn't eat any more of these, but I get to keep the hat. Family came and went. Nurses shuffled in and out. I moved from Morphine to Oxycodone. Consequently my daydreams shifted in tone. Time became less fluid.

Steven LaRose, Admission, 2010
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$50 (includes shipping)

SOLD

One of the last nights, when the nurses promised they wouldn't be checking on me for three hours, I made the last drawing of my week in the hospital. I let my subconscious reign and surfed the wave of no-sleepy high.

Steven LaRose, Devices, 2010
Pencil on paper, 6 x 6 inches
$50 (includes shipping)