about 20 x 30 inches
oil and pastel on gessoed paper
More old work from long, long ago or about the same time as these.
about 30 x 20 inches
oil, nails and eggshells on gessoed paper
I’m still never quite sure where to put anything. And so, it just keeps piling up.
From a long way under,
-Steph
Fuck you,
-Steph
p.s. These are made with various combinations of water color crayon, graphite, pen, colored pencil and stickers. They are all on beautiful museum board.
“Unwritten”
10 x 8 inches
acrylic and soft pastel on archival mat board
I may have mentioned earlier that I haven’t been in the best frame of mind lately. Well, yeah, that’s the way it is. And then it isn’t. And then it is again. A very smart, very kind friend of mine once compared living life to swinging on a pendulum. I’m paraphrasing, but he said something like, sometimes it’s hard to tell if your on an upswing or a down. It always stuck with me because it really is just like that. And some days, you just feel flat no matter what–like that Arp poem–the one in the first sketch below. Here are two sketches I did back in 1994. Both are about 30 x 20 inches They’re from the same series as these. These old works were kind of a jumping off point for some I’m doing now like the one above.
Anyway, I figure looking back and comparing past with present is appropriate enough right now what with the new year about to come in. Happy New Year, everyone.
-Steph
Here’s a bit of progress on this one. Remember what it looked like before? Well, here it is now. It’s not a big change, but what with the holidays and feeling as if I’d rather hide in a dungeon than open my eyes most days lately, I figure any progress is good.
Hope you’re all enjoying your days more than a sharp stick in the eye and fingers crossed for a positive start to this next year!
Love and MOREFRACKINGDAYLIGHTPLEASE!
-Steph
Oh you know… “the holidays” are happening and all that so it’s time for wailing traditional songs about out of wedlock conception and excessive consumption. Time to kill trees and dress them up like two dollar hookers. Time to over-indulge in foods we pride ourselves on avoiding during the rest of the year and then resolve to quit them again once the calendar resets. GOD I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS!!! No I don’t. Well, sort of. I like the tree genocide part a bunch anyway. OK, not the genocide part, but the two dollar hooker bit. I like that part alot. I also like yowling off key with my more talented friends beside me to help make my voice sound passable because you know, auto-tune only does so much.
And so that’s what I did. I gussied up some dead wood and my friends allowed me once again to be dead wood on our yearly Christmas album. To be fair, making the album WAS my idea in the first place. Oh, and I design the album cover ever, too. It’s just that I am musically retarded, can play no instruments, and when singing require special attention in order to sound close enough to on key. Although one year I played the tambourine and that was OK. This is our sixth year making an album of four songs which we send out to torture a long list of friends and family. Would you like to hear it? It’s actually quite good despite me! Go ahead, give a listen! My pal Bodart does an amazing job recording, mixing, and making everything sound great.
Confession: I actually do like eating like a little piggie, too. So in fact, I suppose i do sort of love the holidays. Hope your days are happy regardless of what you believe and how you celebrate or don’t.
-Steph
Ever see the Bloom County Christmas special A Wish For Wings That Work? It’s a pretty good one. Not the most festive scene, but this is one of my favorites.
Well, happy holidays and try not to give anyone rabies!
-Steph
I’ve had this piece sitting around, waiting for paint for months. This week, I started painting on it. There will be much, much more paint before it’s finished. It will likely end up with little resemblance to what you see here. But I thought it might be fun to share progress shots of this one along the way. You can see a photo of it at an earlier stage after the jump.
In the mood for something cute and creepy and weirdly amusing? This Japanese cartoon from 1947 fits the bill nyo! PLease excuse me now. I’m off to dress my cats up in doll clothes and watch them play ring toss in all their bipedal splendor. Maybe i will even bottle feed them instead of making them struggle with their mini canteens nyo!
-A very amused Steph
“Excess”
mixed media
dimensions variable
Last night’s reception for the seventh annual Jane Lund invitational exhibit was, as always, loads of fun! The show features the work of fifty local artists. The art, all based on the theme “Sweets,” which is also the title of the show, is very diverse. Seeing how different artists interpret the theme is always entertaining.
Due to thick paint and it’s stubborn refusal to dry in a reasonable amount of time, I ended up showing one of my icky, hanging sculptures (pic above) instead of the tiny pieces I previewed here a few weeks back. It was a fine substitute though since the work is very influenced by food–desserts in particular. One of my goals with these pieces has been to make work that causes both feelings of attraction and revulsion, and if I am to judge by the feedback I’m getting from this one piece, I’ve succeeded. Yay!
And here are a handful of other photos of works from the show. Follow the jump to see more.
pastel by Hilary Zaloom
oil painting by Robert Markey Read more »
oil, spraypaint, and enamel on gessoed paper
about 30 x 20 inches
1994
For a while now, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about some art I made a long time ago. It’s been moldering in a portfolio (some of it folded in half) in a corner of my studio for years. Lately, art making has me feeling antsy, as it does sometimes, and my mind is searching for ways around it. What I used to do when I hit a stage like this was gesso a bunch of papers, tape them to the wall or the floor and just fucking work without giving a fuck, make a mess, play with whatever was around until I’d worked out whatever was itching up my britches.
Well today, I dug out a handful of the rumpled old works that were on my mind. Above and below are two from the vault circa 1994. It’s fun to look back at this stuff. There are things I still like about them and things I’d do differently now, but I’m thinking the approach is something I need to revisit. Specifically, I want to be careless and make a mess. No, I want to make a bunch of really big messes and see what comes of it. Wish me luck. No… wish me fun.
oil, spraypaint, and charcoal on gessoed paper
about 30 x 20 inches
1994
Thanks for accompanying me on this little time warp.
-Steph
Sweetjeezlouise, I tried not to post this song, but really, how could i not? Sorry.
Alongside my sculpture, I’m also making making these quick word paintings on strips of really nice scrap mat board. Some are bits of conversations taken out of context. Some are text I made up based on awkward interactions or silent insecurities or the sort of internal dialog that begins when the external dialog wanders into that confusing realm of “Whatever the fuck is going on here I will never understand.” These are sort of like what you might see if you opened one of my journals and I didn’t bust your head open before you had a chance to read a bit. I was inspired, in part, to turn them into paintings by my friend Daniel Allyn Lee who has a real knack for word art. So far, it’s been a fun project for me.
Quietly,
-Steph
acrylic on foam insulation
tiny
Think bonbons. Think icing. Think sugar. Think of that awful sick feeling you get when you eat too much, because that’s what I’m thinking while making these. Provided all things fall into place in such a way that I end up satisfied with the end result, these will be displayed in a group show in December at The Northampton Center For The Arts. The show is a yearly invitational exhibit curated by the lovely and talented Jane Lund. This year’s theme is “desserts.” I threw around the idea of a more literal approach since I do actually enjoy switching gears to representational painting every now and then. But in the end, I decided that since the work I’m currently making already fits the bill in a slightly off-beat way that I should just roll with it. Might as well appreciate serendipity when it lands in your lap like a warm cat on a cold night, right?
Three more images and a link to more after the jump.
Read more »
More effective than a caffeine IV:
8 x 10 inches
ballpoint pen, acrylic and soft pastel on all rag matboard
You may remember that I default to circles. Here I am doing it again. If you think of the outline of a circle as a route that ends where it begins (and you are me) you may also be able to see the circle as a metaphor for acceptance, and a reflection of a recurring pattern of existence. This helps explain (to me, at least) why I return to the shape again and again.
Again and again,
-Steph
digital collage
Because of things and stuff, I spent far too much time this week. I spent it and now it’s gone. If time were money, I’d be broke. I have no idea what it means in this context that I AM broke. Anyway, as you can see,I fucked around with pixels instead of paint.
That’s it.
-Steph
p.s. I love Crooked Fingers. Mine are, too, crooked I mean.
8 x 10 inches
acrylic and bits of collage on all rag board
Accepting that it’s impossible to always feel grounded might be a good idea.
With lightness,
-Steph
p.s. detail shot:
collage
10 x 8 inches or so
Sometimes I make stuff like this.
-Steph the Primate
Here’s a closeup of another sculpture. Again, I’m being stingy with my art. I would apologize, but it won’t change anything. I still feel a need to keep this mostly to myself. But the detail pic is kinda pretty at least, isn’t it? It’s pretty or gross I suppose, depending on your perspective. In the interest of pretending to be generous, I will post a couple more photos after the jump. Read more »
14 x 11 inches
acrylic on 4 ply all rag mat board
Seeing as this is Columbus Day weekend, I am probably off being very busy picking apples, finding my way through corn mazes and searching out Columbus. In the spirit of the holiday, take a look at this sketch and let me know what you discover. Apparently, it is harboring such delights as a heart, a hematoma, porn, mammal meat, aquatic life, extreme weather, and unholy nods to the birds and the bees. What do you see? Say dead people and I’ll squish you like a bug.
Love, Autumnal air, and inexplicable fascinations,
-Steph
Watch and learn.
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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