Hod Rod Pussy Willow

My newest painting (headphones help):

Hot Rod Pussy Willow from Steven LaRose on Vimeo.

A recent attempt at creating an engaging non sequitur with video and music:



An old sound thingy with an old painter:

A jocular acceptance that a design has failed and that a new one is needed.

I don't want to make sounds. I got everything set up; tape decks, samplers, moog app, stringed instruments and speakers and then when I began to listen to tapes I made ten years ago, I shriveled.
I threw my arms over my head as Apollo rapped his lyre upon my noggin. "That's enough now." He chided, "Show some respect."


The sounds were definitely sour. There is no cognitive dissonance at work here, mind you. I just needed to be reminded of where the fount for my fervor was found.

"Back to the stetchbook!" I shouted.

His Memoirs, Episode I

We can only assume that His life began today; which is a perfect place to start His memoirs.

His daughter took a photograph of Him.

Actually, His daughter took a dozen highly digitized 2-D representations of Him and We selected this one for its use of B.U.M.P.E.R. "What is B.U.M.P.E.R." You might ask. Well I'll tell You what it is; here at Fish or Cut Bait, B.U.M.P.E.R. is an acronym for: Balance, Unity, Movement, Proportion, Emphasis, and Relativity. We thought it was the best portrait of Him by a ten year old that we have seen to date.

The portrait above freezes Him like His paintings below.


This group of paintings was an experiment. Our guy in question, likes to work in clusters. He likes to think an idea out with paint. These ideas are not merely spurted out of Him in a Dionysian ejaculation, but rather, He can spend months at a time generating these images.

The point being: This guy who paints in clusters has come to the end of His suite and He is wallowing in the momentary euphoria of being without questions.


Our story actually begins on the evening of December 24th, 2010 when His wife Stacy makes a traditional (starting now) Dec. 24th Fondue Dinner.


One of the very few things bothering our protagonist at that point was the health and welfare of one of His domesticated animals. The cat Omeed, it seems, had recently had one of his ears pierced by an evil and grotesque monster who is surely suffering more than Omeed is today.


Omeed's ear may still be permanently bent from the battle but the infection has definitely subsided.

Protag was feeling all right. Protag had recently ducked under The Grim Reaper's scythe (a year of cancer treatment you see) and Stacy had just created a special meal for December the Twenty Fifth.


It occurred to Him the Protag that night that B.U.M.P.E.R. can be even used for food.

"Heck" he thought, "I bet that sounds can ultimately follow the Universal Laws of B.U.M.P.E.R. as well".

So tonight, with no paintings to make, Protag assembled the tools he had for playing/working with sound.

End of Episode I.

Thank You.
Our producers would appreciate any and all advice about the preferred method for sharing sound clips on Blogger.

What is on the table?

Steven LaRose, Know Your Fables, 2010

Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

Steven LaRose, Of Literary Criticism, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 5.75 x 7.375 inches

Lunar eclipse tonight. Big deal right? Freak out the natives? Is "freak out" bad? Have I told you about my "Peek-a-boo" theory? You can tell everything about a human by how they respond to The Peek-a-boo Experience. Do they jump-and-giggle or freeze-and-cry?

Coming to the end of a suite/cluster/constellation.

Steven LaRose, And Eke My Name Be Wiped Out, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 5.75 x 7.375 inches

Steven LaRose, Borrowing The Beggar's Banquet, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

Seasonal Print

Zaida LaRose, Merry Xmas, 2010
Ink on paper, 6 x 8 inches

The number one reason I make paintings is to freak myself out.

This week and next I am doing a cabinet job. A real job. A nine to five kind of thing (except for the health insurance, longevity, and pride).

More as the job ensues.

Cabinet job?

Charles Willson Peale
The Artist in His Museum, 1822
oil on canvas, 103 3/4 x 79 7/8 in.

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Fish or Cut Bait is like the old Kunst- und Wunderkammern, or art- and wonder-cabinets that began to proliferate, more or less, in the 16th century. Michael Kimmelman says they were "the result of humanist curiosity, technological advances in things like optics and engineering, a revival of interest in antique texts that were preoccupied with the marvelous, and global exploration, which exposed Europe to what seemed like a strange new world." They were pre-specialized museums put together by individuals like Charles Willson Peale. This blog reminds me to be on the look-out for connections. Kimmelman once wrote "Be alert to the senses. Elevate the ordinary. Art is about a heightened state of awareness. Try to treat everyday life, or at least parts of it, as you would a work of art." What a privilege.

In my virtual cabinet of wonder I would like to place Chris next to Chris and their posts about Denis Peterson.Goya, not that long ago.

Only yesterday I sent a jpg of Cerise Pink to p farrell artblog.

And not only that, I adjusted some levels on this thing that Todd Johnson made.

"Opinion is ultimately determined by the feelings and not by the intellect" - Old Herby.

Steven LaRose, Herbert Spencer, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

Maybe there is some misunderstanding about size. These paintings should be intriguing from any distance.

Steven LaRose, Gang Aft Agley, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

Steven LaRose, Devouring Aesthetics, 2010

Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

Is it Icing or Frosting?

Oh yeah. I'm in such a bloggy mood that I'm going to open up my performance tonight with an "Oh yeah."

Except, I always get hung up on where the period goes. Is it after or before the quotation marks?

This tangent takes me clean off my game. What did I want to say? What was so bloody important?
Stacy came up with this idea to invite some of Zaida's friends and their families over for a cookie making party. I don't want to go into details, but a beautifully composed cookbook will be printed by a very small publishing house who specializes in limited editions.

The oven was on all day. Each person brought a recipe. Decorating the sugar cookies was an event. It may seem like Brent is portraying a patriarchal figure in the picture below, but he is simply waiting for the blue squeezy bottle.
Yeah, that's Brent. You might have seen him in:

Role
1984	I Married a Centerfold	Actor #1
1985	Love Lives On	Patrick
1986	Scarecrow and Mrs. King
1986	Knots Landing	Domestic
1986	Highway to Heaven	Page
1989	Night Court	Jeffrey Zane
1989	Live-In
1989	Martians Go Home	Dr. Jane's Patient
1990	Cold Dog Soup	Benny
1990	Brain Dead	Dewey
1990	Zapped Again!	Larry
1990	21 Jump Street
1990	Room for Romance
1990	Jacob's Ladder	Jerry
1991	The Silence of the Lambs	Officer Murray[1]
1991	Shannon's Deal	Vince Mooney
1991	Dead in the Water	Lake Guard
1992	Mom and Dad Save the World	Throne Room Destroyer
1992	Bodies of Evidence	Erik
1992	Honeymoon in Vegas	Vern
1992	Bob Roberts	Bif, the Patriot
1993	Falling Down	Rick at Whammyburger
1993	The Pickle	Farm Boy
1993	Carnosaur	Peregrine
1993	Josh and S.A.M.	Bill at Reunion
1994	SeaQuest DSV	Commando
1994	The X Files	Brother Andrew
1994	Ed Wood	Conrad Brooks
1995	Chicago Hope	Heckling Mental Patient
1995	Muscle	Guy Davore
1995	The Preston Episodes	Harlow
1996	The Faculty	Rick
1996	Star Trek: Voyager	Butch
1996	Married with Children	Cletus
1997	Touch	Arnold
1997	Lost Treasure of Dos Santos	Evan
1997	[Coach	Delivery Man
1997	Switchback	Man on Porch
1997	Seinfeld	Lou
1998	I Woke Up Early the Day I Died	Detective #1
1998	Just Shoot Me!	Mel
1998	The Naked Truth	Lomax
1998	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Mouse
1998	Almost Heroes	Trapper
1998	Weird Science	Ectocist
1998	The Ransom of Red Chief	Deputy Muldoon
1998	Carnival of Souls	Cop
1998	Buddy Faro	Skip
1999	Tyrone	Weed
1999	Home Improvement	Carl
1999	Dangerous Waters	Wiry Man
1999	Universal Soldier: The Return	Squid
2000	Nothing But the Truth	Mickey Troy
2000	Blessed Art Thou	Dominic
2001	The West Wing	Professor Donald Huke
2001	Say It Isn't So	Streak
2001	ER	Fred Hopper
2001	Dead Last	Hobnobber #1
2002	Buffy the Vampire Slayer	Manny
2002	The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest	Security Guard #1
2002	Blood Work	Cab Driver
2002	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Steven Masters
2002	Gilmore Girls	Jackson's Relative
2003	Dragnet	Cliff Hartley
2003	One on One	Hale
2003	Threat Matrix	Bartender
2003	Vampires Anonymous	Eric
2003	Carnivàle	Slim
2003	Line of Fire	George Dexter
2004	The Closer	Morgue Attendant
2005	Monk	Store Manager
2005	Embedded	Rum Rum & Chip Webb
2007	The Valley of Light	Man at Store

Oh. . . and Kate Mulligan, Brent's wife, in the picture above is wearing a tiara for reals.

You can learn a lot about a person from these sorts of parties.

I know one guy who was in Seventh Heaven.

Here is a painting that I finished after everyone had left.

Steven LaRose, You Ain't Got No Alibi, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

According to quantum mechanics there is no such thing as objectivity, Part 2

Steven LaRose, You're Awake, I'm a Wanker, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

Steven LaRose, The Cycle List, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

Steven LaRose, Mother Nature Spoke to Me, 2010
Oil on acrylic on wood, 7.375 x 5.75 inches

Social Studies

Teresa hung some paintings in her first Arts and Crafts fair this weekend. I sat with her on opening night as it was her shift to supervise the tables. My first impression was that this may not be the appropriate venue for paintings in general. It took awhile to even find her section.
As the evening wore on, it became apparent that the customers were of a different ilk. I am not exaggerating when I say that I did not see one person spend more than a fraction of a glance looking at her paintings. And let me tell you, I was watching with profound interest. After a couple of hours, I started having fun by positioning myself in different places and manipulating the flow of traffic by standing in strategic locations. Then I wandered around and ate various holiday cookies. The most interesting thing to me however was how I did not see one person that I knew. This is very interesting in a town of 20,000 where I usually can't check the mail without waving at someone. Anyway, here is a picture of Teresa's cluster:
There are some new paintings that will go on sale Monday on her blog but she has confided in me that she may take a little break for a couple weeks. I kinda feel sorry for her but, "Live and learn" I said. "Look at me," I confided, "I rarely sell paintings and that hasn't stopped me. This just isn't the right audience. Don't let it get you down." To which she shot me that famous all-knowing role of her eyes and went over to look at the booth with the tiny food made out of Fimo.