so i says to mabel i says

rather large painting

2008-08-11T19:52:28Z

"archipelago" oil on canvas, five by seven feet
(I'm afraid the image doesn't do it justice)

the dreaded meme

2008-08-07T15:54:45Z

boredom has coerced me into taking part of this thing called "meme." This comes from bedlover, and I'm not tagging anyone, because even if I wanted to, I honestly can't imagine who.

if you want to read my answers to some random questions, don't feel obligated but, .

01. What are five things you can't live without?
in no particular order:
a)art (and the act of creating art)
b)laughter
c)companionship
d)music
e)books

02. What do you do before bedtime?
I often read. I almost always brush my teeth. And I always toss and turn and think about random pointless things for at least half an hour.

03. What are you going to have for dinner tonight?
Quite possibly ziti, tossed with yellow squash, lima beans, olive oil, and red pepper flakes, since we didn't have that last night.

04. What is the ONE place you want to go before you die if you had the money and the time?
There are a lot of places I'd like to go, and I'm not sure that there's one that stands out above others. Maybe Tuscany or Machu Picchu.

05. What scares you?
Hopelessness. More specifically: the feeling that people aren't fundamentally good and that the world is not going to get any better.

06. What do you do in your free time?
My ideal free time would be spent painting or reading.

07. If you could speak another language (meaning one you currently don't know), what would it be?
Italian so that I could read Italo Calvino in its original form.

08. What personal belonging do you have with you everywhere you go?
Does my wedding ring count? I usually have a 1943 silver dollar with me in my wallet for some reason. For luck I guess, even though, if you asked me, I'd tell you that I don't believe in that.

09. What was your favorite song or musical group when you were young?
I think that depends on your definition of young. Early teens: U2, late teens: Soul Coughing, then The Clash going into the early twenties. I would still call myself young, but maybe not young enough to have a favorite band anymore.

11. Is being tagged fun?
This is my first time, and while it's occupying a fair amount of time here at work, I'd have to say no.

12. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
"I also dream of an old fixer-upper house in the countryside of a big city (like outside of Chicago or in upstate New York) to work on and build furniture for. Hopefully there will be a few acres for us to get a goat or two, and some chickens."

That sounds good to me. But I'd also like some small amount of success as a painter, a barn converted into a studio and a large patch of land where we can grow ninety percent of the food we eat.

13. If you could be anyone for one day, who would you be?
I think any person would be as good as the next. I would just be interested in experiencing how another person thinks and sees differently.

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is?
She's pretty cool. I think I like her. She's probably my favorite.

15. Would you rather be single & rich or married but poor?
I don't think I really want to be rich regardless, but I'm enjoying married and poor.

16. How many children do you want to have, if any?
One or two.

17. Is reality objective or subjective?
Reality is probably objective, but we only experience it subjectively so there's no way to know for sure.

18. If you fall in love with two people simultaneously, who would you pick?
The one on the left! Wait, does one of them have a bull terrier puppy? because I'd pick that one.

19. Would you have 100% safe sex with a stranger for £10,000,000?
I'd be afraid the person would be dreadfully disappointed and want her money back. I mean, I'm ok, but I'm certainly not that good.

20. What is your favorite color?
I think I like them all equally.

installation

2008-04-19T16:35:52Z

"the environmentalists"

an open letter from my wounded back

2008-04-19T15:51:18Z

Dearest brain,

If you should decide at some point in the future, to again install an art project partially composed of a dozen fairly large bricks, please consider taking two trips with said bricks rather than moving them all at once across the parking lot, up a flight of stairs, fifty yards across the building and then back again. If you feel you must do this again, please try lifting some weights once and a while in the mean time. The arms and I would greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Your Aching and Spasming Back.

help me choose

2008-04-12T16:14:58Z

here are six 16x20 inch abstract paintings. I need to choose one of them to translate into a five by seven foot painting. which one do you think will work best?

1

2

3

4

5

6

woodcut

2008-03-19T17:59:01Z

woodcut 22x23 inches

sawdust

2008-02-29T17:38:22Z

painting

2008-02-29T17:30:18Z

this is the start of a 4 by 5 foot painting which is actually rather farther along at the moment.

vanished children

2008-02-12T22:14:27Z

3 color lithograph; 10x10 inches

crossing

2008-02-07T20:22:41Z

woodcut

wood

2008-02-03T00:27:02Z

Possible Painting #1

2008-01-26T20:50:07Z

Make a painting of Dennis Hopper. Take a photograph of the painting. Make a painting of the photograph. Make a painting of the painting of the photograph of the painting of Dennis Hopper. Take a photograph of the painting. Have it printed on coffee mugs to be sold in museum gift shops. Buy a coffee mug and make a painting of it. Sell the painting. Make a painting of the check you've received (minus your dealer's 40% commission). Take a photograph of the painting. Make a painting of the photograph.

Write an epic poem about the painting of the photograph of the painting of the check received in exchange for the painting of the mug on which was printed a photograph of the painting of the painting of the photograph of the painting of Dennis Hopper. Hire a Dennis Hopper look-alike to recite the poem in a public space or center of commerce. Make a film of the performance. Create a multimedia installation in which the film is projected on many screens, running simultaneously in continuous loops at various speeds. Take a photograph of the installation.

Make a painting of the photograph.

Allow a photograph of the painting to be published on the cover of newest issue of Art Forum. Make a painting of the magazine bearing the image of the painting of the photograph of the multimedia installation centered around the film of a Dennis Hopper look-alike reciting the epic poem about the painting of the photograph of the painting of the check received in exchange for the painting of the mug on which was printed a photograph of the painting of the painting of the photograph of the painting of Dennis Hopper.

Give the painting an ornate gold frame and hang it in a museum on a pristine white wall so that future generations might weep openly at the profound beauty of paint clinging to canvas.

Make a painting of their tears.

Life painting

2008-01-22T01:02:40Z

Two hour figure study

Four(ish) hour figure study

Hung Liu

2008-01-12T21:56:08Z

One of my very favorite paintiers, Hung Liu, has an exhibition here in town and I went to her lecture Thursday night. I can't say that I learned much of anything new, but it was nice to hear her speak about her artwork. The highlight of her slides was a drawing she made at the age of five showing Chairman Mao towering over a mob of saluting stick figures. The low point was a student asking her if the dripping paint in her work is intentional.

this being she:

this being one of her paintings:

and a great video about her:
http://www.kqed.org/arts/people/spark/profile.jsp?id=4455

testosterone (she'll be back)

2008-01-12T19:39:50Z

So the other day I was outside putting pinup-girl sillhouette mud-flaps on my pick up truck. I was kicking it in my usual masculine style, you know: drinking a budweiser, smoking marlboroughs, my radio blasting ... REO Speedwagon? .. ZZ Top? ..no.. we'll say Judas Priest (that's pretty manly, right?). So "Hell Bent for Leather" was playing and this chick walks by, and man is she ever a hottie; I mean, her boobs were as big as my head. So, being the manly man that I am, I started objectifying her like crazy. I whistled and waved my trucker's cap at her, and I was like "Hey baby, I'd like to have some french-fried-potatoes with the way that your posterior moves when you walk by me." And she called me a pig and kept walking, but I could tell that she was secretly really digging my handlebar mustache and that sexy tuft of chest hair peeking out of the front of my denim Harley Davidson vest with cut-off sleeves.

Yeah, she'll be back.

year of books

2008-01-07T15:02:47Z

There seems to be a rash of "books of 2007" lists going around, so here's me jumping on the bandwagon.

The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith
Tooth and Claw, TC Boyle
The Ground Beneath her Feet, Salman Rushdie (again)
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami (again)
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Black Angel, John Connolly
The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susannah Clark
Turtle Moon, Alice Hoffman
Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino (again)
After the Quake, Haruki Murakami
Horns and Wrinkles, Joseph Helgerson
Fall on Your Knees, Ann Marie MacDonald
The Book of Lost Things, John Connolly
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Johnathan Safran Foer
One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susannah Clark
The Annotated Hunting of the Snark, Lewis Carroll

I think that's all, assuming that art history text books don't count.

dogs with glasses

2007-12-18T21:20:35Z

Ink drawings of dogs wearing glasses for a veterinary eye clinic.

burial series

2007-12-11T19:23:25Z

"soliloquy" oil on canvas, 38x36

"lovers" oil and aluminum on canvas, 36x40

"the living" oil on canvas, 30x32

"chorus" oil on canvas, 32x36

moo

2007-12-06T14:09:26Z

Sacred Cow
(oil on plastic)

Johnny on the spot with an arrow in the butt

2007-12-05T14:46:18Z

who's that? oh, my little friend cupid,
wearin a shirt that says 'I'm with stupid.'

senses

2007-12-04T15:53:13Z

walking to work today, there was a cacophony of black birds clustered in a tree. it was a symphony of rusted swingset chains and clarinets with broken reeds all playing different phrases of the same song. it was a sound that I wished I could make somehow, loud and raucous, almost jubilant, without reason or restraint.

yesterday I passed through a heap of fallen red leaves. it's something that doesn't happen much here in Savannah. we didn't seem to have autumn at all last year, so it was strange and familiar, and the thick, earthy smell of decay overwhelmed me. it triggered my memory, but not memory of anything in particular. it reminded me, I suppose, of all the fallen leaves I've ever smelled in all the autumns of the past.

thanking

2007-11-22T21:30:51Z

Today I am immensely thankful that I saw an old man with a long white beard bouncing down the sidewalk on a pogo stick. Oh, and also for love and family and that sort of thing, but mostly it's the guy on the pogo stick.

portrait

2007-11-21T13:53:58Z

This is my final project for my portrait painting class. 24 x 32" oil on canvas

underpainting

2007-11-04T23:39:49Z

This is an underpainting for a portrait that I spent the past four hours working on. My shoulder hurts.

overwhelmed

2007-11-03T20:31:15Z

Two weeks left of Fall quarter. I have two paintings to due, one barely started, another not so much as sketched; a six page paper on Hung Liu and a presentation on the same; and 20 slides to shoot mount and label. I'm not stressed yet. Maybe I should be?