December 28, 2009
Hello all. I realize that I have not blogged all month but I do have some photographic excuses.
Since the show I have been debating on which direction to go with this work. It seems that after 25 paintings I start to get bored and the work runs the risk of getting stale. After completing the sketchbook for the sketchbook project I took a much needed break to read/think about painting. I came to the conclusion that the key element of all my work is color and I’m pretty obsessed with it. (For those of you who are also color obsessed check out color + design). So I suppose the question is: If color is the most important thing is there really a need for object specific subject matter? Red will read as red no matter what the object.
So in this set of paintings I was trying to address this issue. The subject reference was wisteria. I wanted to combine the simplified shapes of this pretty complex vine to make an image that was more decorative and pattern-like than still life-ish. I worked with colors that are more subtle than I am used to and found it to be just as interesting and challenging as working with louder colors. By force of habit I made a couple more flower paintings.
I think aside from my “hue-lust” I have the need to paint “stuff”. I’ve been bumbling towards abstraction but the commercial part of me likes ending up with recognizable imagery. For the hamsa project I played with both color and imagery. The result was very pleasing but the painting process was a bit long and I’m still deciding whether or not it was worth it. Don’t get me wrong I am not one to rush my work. It’s just that I know there is a more efficient way to get the same result (ie: use pastel instead lol).
These are hamsas that I painted for a type of peace project that I am participating in at Janice Charach Gallery. The upcoming exhibit is called Under The Watchful Eye: The Hamsa Project and will open January 10th and run until March 7th. In case anyone is wondering these are approximately 13″ x 9″ and are priced at $250 ea. I believe the next step will be to go back to making the large pastels. Not like the large “this is such and such a flower” ones. These will have lots more going on in terms of pattern. As always the color rules will be invented as I go 
. Until next time…or in this case probably next year…that’s all folks!
Actually that wasn’t all. I just got hired to teach 2 hour painting and pastel workshops at various Michael’s craft stores starting in march so…sign up and come paint with me! 
..ok now I’m done lol.
December 1, 2009
The show at the salon was excellent. I painted right until the last minute (because I decided I wanted to make another larger piece while I was finishing the other paintings lol). Thanks to everyone who came out, you guys made the night awesome I posted the pictures here.
After the show I had to get right back to work and finish my sketchbook for the sketchbook project. I also started some more poppy paintings :
Phew! I didn’t realize how many drawings that was until I had to upload them lol. 72 Hours of straight drawing..and inking…and coloring…lol
Now that that’s over I have one more project to do for the Jewish Community Center. The upcoming exhibit is called Under The Watchful Eye: The Hamsa Project and they are having artists from all walks of life create their art on hamsas cut from masonite.
“A hamsa is an upside down hand (sometimes right side up) that is an amulet symbolizing the hand of god, protection, etc. Sometimes you see them with a blue eye in the center. That is the evil eye that wards off evil spirits and such. The hamsa is prominent in Jewish, Arab, and Indian Cultures.” -info packet
So the hamsas are 13 x 16 (ish) and I got a couple of them last week. At the moment I’m doing some serious brainstorming but seeing as how they are due back on the 21st of December I guess I should start doing some serious painting lol.
Also, if anyone happens to be in the Detroit ares on thursday night, be sure to check out The Creators: Self Portraits exhibition at the WCCC Brown & Juanita C. Ford Gallery and see not only my self portrait, but portraits by all the artists I admire Check out the facebook invite here.
That’s all for now (and I think it was quite enough lol) stay tuned!
November 16, 2009
I decided to take flower requests/suggestions on facebook for the large painting and it turned out quite well. 4 people contributed ideas so this work is dedicated to them:
Samantha Z. – orchids
Heather H. – heather
Raymond H. – chrysanthemum
Amanda P. – white daisies
Thanks friends for your creative input
These are just cropped in details, you’ll just have to see it in its entirety at the show!
I have one painting left that needs flowers. The name of the game will be cherry blossoms.
Stay tuned folks!
November 15, 2009
Today I started actually finishing paintings. I’ve added vine work and gave them a generous coat of varnish. There are 13 hanging in the salon all ready and 5 left. I decided that this would be a good time to formulate some sort of statement about this work.
It seems that I’m having an identity crisis. Or at the very least a conflict of sorts. I am at a point in my life/career where I feel that I need to move some metropolis with bright lights and a crazy art scene to stay inspired and be a real fine artist. I know it’s not really necessary or practical for me to do this but I feel this way all the same. My day to day surroundings lack the fascinating visual chaos of Detroit, or any other large city. I call it visual chaos because in big cities, anything can be going on at any given time in any number of places that all have their own look and feel. One needs only to spin around a couple times to see all these happenings at once…Or they could get a bird’s eye view of all the random events from the top floor of a parking structure.
I remember looking out my 11th floor dorm room window for hours on end at cars zooming down john r, sometimes in the wrong direction, students rushing to class, and tall buildings as far as my eyes could see. What made it special was that ever so often there would be a gorgeous sunset, and suddenly the view out my window seemed magical.
I made the decision to start pouring my layers of paint to create my own little splash of visual chaos. As the drip layers built up, they started to form grids which in turn started to look like cityscapes and structures. I enjoy the idea of juxtaposing the flowers with the “grids”. They are like the random beautiful things that can sometimes be found in the midst of the chaos. Like a garden of wild flowers in a vacant lot next to an abandoned building.
November 13, 2009
Nothing is finished yet so they’re more like teasers than spoilers..and I think this one is kinda blurry anyway I didn’t paint last night due to a bad case of the blues because my kitty companion has been pretty sick. But a trip to the vet, antibiotics, and fancy canned food was the cure! This morning she was back to her normal spazzy self (at 6 am >.<) and I decided to try and paint and cheer myself up too. A 2 hour block of cartoons and a retro episode of sabrina the teenage witch (you know you secretly loved that show in the 90’s!) later, I was left with this little happy
This is a zoomed in view of the part that’s pretty much finished lol
I’ve been in a poppy mood lately…maybe I’ll do a series of them they’re so fun to paint!
Stay tuned folks!
