Finally Pictures

What I've been up to, lately

I'm trying to work on wrapping up my grant project, but recognizing that over the course of this project I have developed sustaining interests that will be part of my practice after the project is over. Already I have seen crossover between grant and class work, and I am learning things about myself and what works for me that-- I hope-- are making me a better artist.

I have photos today but they were taken in fairly poor lighting conditions and I apologize for the loss of information and untrue colors.

I made this painting based on the glowstick wench photo, and for a long time I really hated it.

I just hated it. I stayed up nights hating it. I lost sleep hating it. So I had to change it, and I wasn't afraid to change it a lot, because at this point I'd rather murder it than let it continue living its stupid life.

I decided the figure was mostly what I hated so I just painted her out except for some edges and planes. I let what remained of her act like the neon squiggles, like she's made of the same plasma that she's selling.

It's been worked more since this photo was taken, and I think it's in much better shape right now. At least I'm not constantly stressing out about it.

The other dramatic move I made recently was to send my painting of the gypsy dancer through the table saw!

I wanted it to be misaligned, like the painted mural in the background of the guitarist picture. So I cut it and put it back together wrong. This time it's the more believeable character whose appearance is interrupted by a “seam”. He's the observer and she's the performer but he's still part of the performance so he's still susceptible to the cracks in reality. The fact that the crack is going through his head is maybe indicative of the conflict that an audience member experiences while they try to reconcile what they're seeing with the world they know to be fact.

Still plugging away on the other paintings but not much to say about them at the moment.