This piece is related to last week’s piece. The same method of submarining one layer of woven strands beneath another made this possible.
In this piece it’s clearer where this happens though (at the “corners” of the red part).
I keep meaning to revisit this form for other pieces in less dramatic colors. But haven’t.
Hearts and kisses,
JD
I’m tired of being conflicted about working on character illustrations. I like it and I’m going to concentrate on it. I think I gained a snobby attitude about illustration back in college, where it seemed really important to differentiate art, design, and illustration with very clear lines. I think I’ve been a bit self conscious about not making ‘serious art’. I think you can make really interesting art using more populist themes. lowbrow, pop-surealism, reduced figuration, or whatever ya call it…
This painting was a little experiment in reusing a segment cut from and old painting in a new way. I think the characters are a bit stiff and the composition stinks, and it could use more dry brushing and washes in the background, but the colors work and I see potential. I’m calling it a first pancake and moving on.
It was a warm, beautiful, sunny March day so I drew a happy umbrella boy on the sidewalk.
Happy Sunday!
-Steph
KDHX (the best radio station on this side of the Mississippi) has asked me to be a primary photographer for some of their big events, so I will be photographing Midwest Mayhem at the City Museum, Twangfest and more, which should be a lot of fun! Check out their blog by clicking on the icon below:
Videos of past Midwest Mayhems and Twangfests, after the jump! Read more »
8.5 x 11″
gouache, acrylic, soot and wax paper on all rag matboard
Here’s a quick sketch from this week. I like working on this matboard. It has a great almost spongey density and a fine toothy texture. I think this particular board is 4-ply Alpharag which is made by Bainbridge. I made those vertical strips by incising parallel lines in the matboard with a knife, tearing out a layer or two of paper from between them and then rubbing soot into the fuzzy texture of the torn board with the backside of a spoon. The soot I collected by holding the spoon over a candle flame. Isn’t that how they used to collect the pigment to make Lamp Black paint? So romantic. I mention these things because they interest me, aka I’m a materials and process whore. I was considering just how true that is last night while leafing through an art supply catalog fantasizing aloud about finding exciting new materials that would inevitably lead my work in fabulous, new directions. My friend told me I had “Gear Acquisition Syndrome” or GAS, a condition from which he himself suffers. I think a more accurate term in my case would be “Supply Acquisition Syndrome” or SAS. Anyone else in the same boat? I’m not alone here, am I?
-Steph
Cuz you know, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
Breakfast by LeLe
I finally finished the Identity Project that I had been working on since last August. I ended up with a solid twenty subjects. Now, I am moving on to the second phase, which is going to be quite less difficult to complete. So, I need 1 East Asian, 1 Caucasian, 1 African-American, 1 Middle Eastern, 1 Indian, and 1 person of Latin-American descent, ages 25-35 and male for a simple portrait. Help me out here peeps!
I’m really sick. Some virus thing or food poisoning. Here’s a small work on paper. I call t homage to Harry, because I think there’s something about the stylization of the figure. Ok, I’m going back to sleep.
I’d be lucky if I made it 10 feet. And how do you resist the urge to scrape the bottom of your shoe off? These are designed by the artist INSA and are an homage to both Chris Ofili and Alexander McQueen. They can be seen in the upcoming exhibit at Tate Britain.
While I was looking into those I found these too. Is our friend Terry Border branching out into footwear?
It would seem so at first glance but it is really the work of artist Polly Verity. She uses paper and wire to creat art and wearable garments, check her out.
This piece is from a few years ago and represents the biggest single advancement I’ve ever made in my method. The basic concept came to me when I was making “Holes” as something of a joke. What if I took 2 of those and interlocked them like a chain?
As happens when I make jokes like that, I had to figure out a way to do it. Everything else I’d done with these safety pinned pieces may have been a pain to accomplish but was pretty straightforward once I knew what I wanted to accomplish. This piece, by contrast felt like math homework. How do you fit 2 pieces that are fully complete in their own rights onto 1 frame (which is essentially what’s going on here)? Somehow, when one piece got the middle of the work, it had to get out of the other piece’s way.
It took me a month of trial and error before I realized that the safety pins themselves presented the solution. Where the pins present a break in the strand of canvas being woven, there is room to stuff another strand through it. Doing this across the piece allowed for one piece to submarine below the other as needed. So everytime the purple meets the white, the purple submarines below the white and continues to the edge of the piece out of sight (And vice versa).
I doubt that made sense to anyone but me. And frankly, every time I do a new version of these I have to re-learn the exact process. But this is the first time I ever imagined something I didn’t know how to do and found a way to accomplish it, so I hold more pride in it than a lot of other stuff I’ve done. Visually I don’t think most people actually make sense of what’s going on when they see these. Oh well.
-JD
I recently had the opportunity to photograph The Beautiful Kind for my Identity Project (which I just wrapped up, thank you), and had a very engaging discussion with her as we shot the pictures. She describes her blog as “smut for smart people”, and it is obvious from spending any time talking to her that she is absolutely an intellectual lady. Recently, her blog earned her a designation from the Riverfront Times as one of their “13 Favorite Bloggers” in St. Louis. With all of this attention swimming around her, I thought that it would be a good time to interview her for d’Arte Board.
More pics and the interview after the jump!
Read more »
Just a quick alien this week. That’s it.
-StephG
Hilarious and almost perfect. I love this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtPxlr6LDN0
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Two views of one painting, although now I’m looking at the pics side by side I’m thinking it might work better if there were two paintings.
just under 24 x 16″
acrylic on panel
Here’s an unfinished work in progress. I’m still working on it. It’s not finished. Wait, are we stuck in a tautology? Well, I’m starting to think I’m stuck in a never-ending painting hell. No no, I’m fine with pre-completion infinity. In fact, I’m starting to fancy myself a sort of neo Jay DeFeo. (Not.) Too romantic for words. I should shut up, huh?
The black circle is a hole through the panel. There’s nothing behind it yet. I’m considering several options. Two views because well, how to orient? I am currently undecided. Feel free to weigh in on the matter. I’ve been working on this for oh hell, I’ve lost track… a year maybe. My inability to finish art is most certainly a reflection of a deep seated fear of commitment. That short-lived marriage really messed me up! Just kidding. I’ve always been indecisive. It’s one of my more charming traits I’m sure. Anyway, I have DETAIL PICS! See them after the jump! Read more »
I admit it; I have a little cache of freaks that I refuse to delete from my life. What I mean, is that, when out shooting, whether for a client or myself, I sometimes capture an image that doesn’t quite “work” as a presentable photograph, but occasionally, these misfires possess a quality that I really enjoy looking at, over and over. That’s the power of camera vernacular I guess. Nonetheless, I decided to assemble a few of them here for you all to see, and decide whether or not I am crazy. Some of these are out-takes from client shoots (which they did not see), some are while testing new equipment, some are accidental trips of the shutter, and one is from selling a pair of my wife’s shoes on Craigslist. Enjoy…
Our fascination with all things bacon is well documented here on d’Arte Board but Joel from Rathergood takes it to a whole other level. He also proves that the internet is made of cats, something some of us have known all along, but it’s nice to see proven with charts and graphs and a catchy tune.
You know the drill. I go out and take photos while posting increasingly incomprehensible commentary as the night goes on over at my twitter page. Starting soonish.
I sometimes wonder what place my semi-dispassionate nature and the circumstances of my life have in the creation of my art. I had been lucky enough to have been born into a stable family with loads of support and, outside of the average run-of-the mill crisis, I haven’t spent a lot of time in an emotionally perilous state. No such stridently awful moments in adolescence that would see me trying to purge my demons as an adult, and so my psychological state has been in balance. How does this play out in my art-making? I do know that there is a lot of subconscious murk buried deep inside, I just don’t spend enough time consciously examining it; I make paintings instead. I’m thinking about this because I’ve known so my artists in my life who have struggled with psychological or emotional pain – real, imagined and self-inflicted, and I ask myself how this informs the art. Does it make that art more emotionally and intellectually valid than mine?
Oh christ, I apologize if this commentary is coming off a bit adolescent. Hey, I’m 10.
Oooookay… anyhoo, posted here are some drawings from the subway and one drawing I pulled out of my a– eh, my subconscious.
Subway, 3/01/10-A, pen and ink and benzyl
Subway, 3/02/10-A, pen and ink and benzl
Subway, 3/02/10-B, pen and ink, benzyl ink
Subconscious Image of a Figure, pencil, india ink, benzyl ink
So I’m still out in the desert and there isn’t a whole lot of time for making art. Grandma’s face healed up and besides we shot that last week anyway, so instead we looked at some old things and I found two little drawings my Grandfather made for my Grandmother back when he was in the service. My family tends towards the craftier side of art, building, sewing, quilling, and my Grandfather in particular was a person interested in solid tangible things (he built our house) so it was fun for me to find these more whimsical items.
I also decided to take part in one of our readers weekly photo challenges. Shutterboo has a fun thing going and a Flickr Pool if you want to have a look at other submissions, or better yet join in. This week’s theme was “Suitcase” so I made use of the old one my Mom had stuffed in her closet and the unparalleled background I had at my disposal. This is also the first thing I have done that is close to a self portrait in almost a year. Maybe one day I’ll get the guts back up to put in more than just my calves.
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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