Thank you, WordPress for deleting my original version of this post by logging me out inexplicably for no reason. That was really awesome of you and if you were in front of me in personified form I totally wouldn’t brain you with my 3 hole punch.
Anyways, as I already mentioned at length to nobody but the electrons in my monitor, it’s hard for me to come with names for most of my abstract work. If there is a clear defining trait to describe it, then I’m good, but in cases like this, where the shape I’m using doesn’t have a technical name (as far as I know, and I’ve looked), so anything I come up with is pretty unwieldy. So far its stuck at “Nested Double Semi-Circle Squares,” which is just a smidge better than the latin “Duo Semi-Orbis Quadrangle”. If anybody else has a suggestion, I’m all ears.
“Nested Double Semi-Circle Squares,” 18″ x 18″ Paint on Paper, Collaged. (This is for sale if anybody’s interested.)
Detail and explanation of the process after the jump
August 7 to 28 is Meth and Hotdogs: A Collection of Unscrupulous Characters at Cranky Yellow in St. Louis. This one is about 30 different artists work in “a group show celebrating character art. Characters that are unscrupulous, misfits, down and dirty, lowbrow, uncivilized, junkies, screw-ups and bums.”
I sent out my paintings for this show last week. Here’s a few of them:
Of course you do. So, draw a giraffe and send it here because this gentleman is trying to get a million giraffes and so far he has only 5500. The only catch is it cannot be digital, which is a prejudice that I know will break some of your hearts, but he says he has a good reason. Worth a look even if you aren’t going to send a drawing because some of them are surprisingly lovely.
“Snowy Egret”, Shot with Canon Powershot Digital Elph SD870 IS (manual settings).
Surprisingly, this one let me creep in close enough to snap this with my digital point-and-shoot. It turns out that the birds we have been talking about are in fact, Egrets. This one is the smaller of the two found in Forest Park; the other, the Great Egret, is a bit more finicky, so I’ll update you when I finally get a good shot of him.
Best-
Jason
P.S. Today, the heat index was up around a blazing 105f, and the humidity was god-awful. To top it off, I was wearing dress shoes, a dress shirt, dress pants and a tie (on my way to work). This is the kind of love Darteboard has for its loyal readers…
Mixed media exercises. I throw down pantone ink and add water, which repels and creates some interesting reactions. pencil, gouache, and indai ink are also in the mix. Better than cursing my neighbors.
17 x 11 1/2″ sketch
acrylic, oil and dry pastel on all rag board
A while back, I included some sketches in a post which some of you seemed to appreciate seeing. Since I tend to accumulate these quick little works, I thought I’d post a few more today. So here’s another look at some of the stuff that hangs out in the background of my studio.
3 more after the jump Read more »
I accidentally discovered this while looking up the song “Call Me” by Skyy for a friend. I have since watched it around 1,050 times. It is my favorite video ever made and still makes me laugh to the point of tears whenever I look at it.
Simply put, I cannot believe I’ve lived my whole life without this. When they finally invent video tattoos, this will be immortalized on my body somewhere.
I have had a video ready to post here since Tuesday or Wednesday and damnit I’m going to post that sucker, but it feels like I am somehow obligated to post a Michael Jackson video just because. Even though I covered this weeks ago.
Anyways, this is to the freaks camping out holding vigils and such:
I’m sorry, I am a huge fan of the man’s music, and have plenty of evidence to attest to that, but these people wailing today, and the shocked weepy news reports are kind of absurd. I’m with Jason in wishing that he’d return to form, but if you’ve followed him at all the last decade you knew this wasn’t going to end well. Frankly, this was better than I thought. The man was surgery addicted and emotionally stunted, without even going into the whole sleeping with children thing (taking that as you will either in the sense he admitted to or in the sense he was accused of it). The guy was the perfect storm amalgam of your typical insane child star and the Howard Hughes model of eccentric billionaire.
And frankly, there is no surprise in that. I’m linking to a Jackson 5 song here because that’s really the key to understanding him. From the age of 5 he was a superstar, singing songs about adult love while constantly on the road touring and sharing rooms with his brothers as they slept with groupies- all while under the strict influence of his devout Jehovah’s Witness mother and an abusive father. Those who consider Off the Wall his first real album have to understand he made like 10 before that with the J5 and Jacksons. The man literally had no childhood.
By the time he went off on his own to become a billionaire in the 80s his psyche was already in ruins. He just finally had the freedom and cash to express that ruptured psyche. By the time he’d treated his nose like a sheet of sketch paper you’ve erased through one too many times, that was just the visual manifestation. I knew it was over the first time I saw the infamous Martin Bashir interview.
So while I understand that this is a convenient point to express that people liked him, the non-stop coverage, the bumping of Iran and Healthcare reform out of the news and the general loudness of the response is more than a little excessive. Like people are turning him into an absurd symbol of something I can’t begin to comprehend. Maybe if this happened in his prime I’d understand it- so much lost! so many songs left unwritten- but this is just the inevitable close of a tale of fate.
The man did good work. Let’s celebrate that without going overboard. This is a pebble in the ocean of universal entropy.
Otherwise I have an uncharacteristic lack of anything to say about this experiment. I do find it funny that it involved people ranking the art work of 9 year olds.
I’ve heard rumors that the New York Times had to cancel an article by a pigeon titled “Marc Chagal Overrated” this weekend after the author stood directly in the path of an oncoming bus.
-Sniff- I think that’s the same way Clement Greenberg met his end.
Despite all of the controversy and whatever you may think, he was an amazing artist who spanned generations (my first LP was “Thriller”) and he leaves behind an incredible body of work. Who didn’t secretly wish that someday he would’ve returned to form?
This series culminated in 2006, and was the result of an intense period of study (mostly of the Abstract Expressionists). My artist’s statement is after the jump… Read more »
Like David Hockney’s layered Polaroids? Want one of your own? Well, you’re in luck because you can get your own photos Hockneyized here.
I’d also like to thank Bryan Linden for puking in my bathtub 13 years ago so I could have this artistic opportunity now. Thanks Bry, for your unflagging dedication to the arts!
I’ve been invited to participate in a small show of printmakers in a gallery out in Oregon, where my father is well known and loved. So I’m making more images of him to be possibly included. Here’s another stab at the old prince, fresh off the press. The paint and ink is still wetter than an otter in the Saugatuck Reservoir.
Oil paint, etching ink, lithography ink, turpentine, pencil, razor, knife, rag, et al on rives bfk.
Tom Bennett
Portrait of Harry Bennett, Sr. 2009, monotype, 12″ x 18″
I was gonna post on Monday, but I got a bad back and my moms was in the hospital. She’s fine now and I got some pain pills. I think I’ll post some of my new monster paintings next week. Here is an abstract diptych of digitally altered digital photos. Just something I was futsing with. I peeled the dried paint out of a paint tray and took some shots of it. Then, I layered a few of them together. untitled, 15″ x 20″, digital photograph, 2009
Remember Wooly Willy, the magnetic toy where you picked up the metal shavings and used them to draw hair all over Willy’s face? Man, I loved that game! I actually found one a few years ago and still play with it sometimes. Well today I got wondering if there were a digital version of Wooly Willy, and lo and behold, of course there is! FreeLancerFox has a version in his Deviant Art gallery. I also found a Wooly Willy application at Paze Interactive that’s available for your iPhone or iPod Touch. This second one looks more like the original game.
Ok I didn’t have time to make art this week because I spent the majority of it building this enormous chandelier but I think I can sneak this in because not only did I help build it, but I did all the photographing too. So I think maybe it can almost pass as art, craft certainly, and in the end it came in at about 5 feet in height and around 100 man hours total. As far as day jobs go it really is a nice one I think. If you click on the picture it gets really big!
And I loves me some basketball. Specifically, having grown up in Los Angeles, I love the Lakers, so please excuse me while I indulge in cheesy Sport Art. Think of it as Pop Art if it makes you more comfortable.
“Fisher Game 4″ 9″ x 10″ Mixed Media
This is a representation of Derek Fisher’s game tying 3 pointer over Jameer Nelson with 6 seconds left in Game 4 of the 2009 NBA Finals. The Lakers went on to win in overtime, essentially ending the Magic’s chances of making the series competetive. One of the great moments of Lakers history. For those who enjoyed the Bloomsday discussion, Derek is made up of a page from Ullysses. Obviously.
“Kobe Game 6 Denver” 12″ x 16″ Acrylic on paper and canvas, collaged.
This was the first one I did. It’s based on a great photo by Doug Pensinger from Kobe’s epic game 6 to close out Denver and get the team to the finals. I’m a little disappointed in this one. While I’ve done some pieces in this style before I was kind of re-figuring out the process, but using Bezier Lines on the computer. I wish I could have used more textured materials, or recreated the background pattern throughout the whole. Make it less literal. But as it is, lessons were learned that will be important to future pieces I have planned.
After the jump I’ll have a few more related sketches and some source photos/video.
Agora Gallery - the proud sponsor of the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, which offers contemporary artists the opportunity to show their original art at one the most acclaimed juried art shows in Chelsea, New York’s art galleries district.
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