Nothing in Particular

Starting a new edition collab project with fellow artists on the topic of no-thing. Today, just a bit of studio inspiration from Francis Alys to begin my day:

from Bolero (DVD animation: 511 drawings, varies dims)

Making Amends

Making Amends. An act of mending as a metaphor for forgiving.

I have a lot of mending to attend to, starting with this little bird I found at a thrift store. It's taken me about 3 years to get around to it, . . . .finally.

BEFORE: Bird with the Broken Wing

AFTER: At the Precipice.

Interesting how a camera angle can affect mood.

Still(flight) from the imaginary film: (re)Learning to Fly

Random Paintbrushes

Just working on more paintbrushes for a show in Dec. Feel slightly on this side of asian factory worker. But enjoying the fact that I am making small progress in my painting technique.

How it all starts. . . .

with crapped out paintbrushes ready for the trash.

I'm starting to run out of my own stash, andhave started enlisting people to give metheir throwaways. Anyone?? Anyone??

Found Objects

Found in that jumbled up pile of books left in the hallway of my building (in that order). Couldn't resist bringing them back to studio.

My Sugar Doodles (Micro Drawings)

Just quickly grouped and scanned on the copier (not the nice scanner). Not color corrected. A little tired today. Insomnia last night. Limbering up with little 3x5" drawings (ink, graphite, and/or latex on paint chips). Made fresh daily. These will be sold at the Fire Sale to raise money for my artist residency this summer. I'm thinking $25 each. If you are interested at all. Leave me a contact point in the comment section.

This one is my favorite.

click to enlarge

Random Studio Projects (book bindings)

Another artist in the building thinned out his book collection and left some in the hall for the picking. I took some of the older hardbound books, removed the covers and started some rather sophomoric collages. Have to get mentally limber with it still.

In Progress

Gold Leaf and Rust Paintings series inspired by Chinese garden architecture and the philosophy behind it.

 

                                                                              (detail)

Safe Harbor

An installation I did this last summer 2009 during a mini-residency in Equinunk, Pennsylvania.

A Site specific installation at High WaterMark Salo(o)n in conjunction with the release of  Lori Anderson Moseman’s book of poems, Temporary Bunk, having to do with her experiences in the aftermath of Federal Disaster #1649, a 2006 flood along the Delaware River.

Aside from its narrative accounting of this poet and her dogs’ escape from the floodwaters by canoe, Safe harbor alludes to the safety of temporary realities set adrift, tethered solely by the belief of one’s convictions. Paper ships and sinking truths.

Mad Art Skills: Police Composite Sketches

When artist skills go wonky.

The Artist's Joke

The Pre-quel (Déjà Vu)

                         Stone's Throw                                             Scherzo

In reference to my last post, I just dredged up an old painting from circa 1999. Uncanny that there used to be a central figure in that painting too, and I also got rid of it.

Again with the dark lump at the bottom of the composition, implied gravity, and  a  hand (though the older ones look to be waiting for something).

What Makes a Successful Artwork

I was de-installing an ugly, be-laboured steel wool drawing I made last year, Scherzo (The Joke in Italian. Ref: the myth of the trickster, inspired by a chinoiserie jester on a swatch of fabric someone gave me.)

CONCEPT: that creativity -the art part- is elsewhere. It's not the artwork itself, which is a container/medium for the message, but something -the essence- which is less tangible. [the jester points the way]

I'd always loved the concept and the steely crumbs caught in the paper tray at the bottom much more than the actual drawing itself, which I found . . . so cloyingly literal, fussy and academic in its rendering.

The more I de-installed that drawing, 

the more a new drawing was emerging on its own.

Nearly all the pins came off and the jester began to sag {and seemed to exhale a sigh of relief}. . . .until he could no longer support his own weight (his own redundancy) and fell completely down. All that was left was the wrinkle of his simultaneous absence-presence and a telltale, pointing finger. Lovely performance-drawing, don't you think?

QUESTION: What makes a successful artwork?

ONE ANSWER: Chance and Gravity(Gravitas).