



And I think that’s the end of the violence today. Thanks for looking!
-Steph




And I think that’s the end of the violence today. Thanks for looking!
-Steph









-Steph

acrylic on panel
24 x 24 inches
Well, I flipped it upside down, and it might be done. The jury is still out. Do I want to leave it soft and chewy? Or do I want a crunchy cookie? Depends on the mood, and I am nothing if not moody. Whaddaya think, Fini or get back to work?
In a timeout,
-Steph

Above is a closeup of what’s happening with one of the pieces I posted last weekend. Below is another work in progress. It’s another of the two foot square panels.
Yep. That’s what I’ve got going on.
-Steph

just primed panels drying in the sun
Don’t let the title of this post mislead you. I’m no math geek. I mean, I do think math is great. I love math geeks. It’s just that there is a ton of math I haven’t actually used since high school. As a result, there is much that I have forgotten. I’m still good at measuring and fractions because that’s handy for building things. But honestly, in the interest of creating a convoluted post title, I looked up the square root of eight today in lieu of even trying to figure it out.
Back to art! My very special pal built for me this week, eight fabulously-crafted two foot square panels. That’s him above alongside the panels with his blue ball and his blue yoga mat. Thank you, handsome, beardy Bodart! Each panel is cradled with one by twos which leaves a little room in the back for things like squishy foam and velvet or whatever else strikes my fancy once I start cutting into these suckers. I haven’t started any subtractive work yet, just additive. See a couple of works in progress below.

acrylic, spray paint and flocking fiber

acrylic
Happy painting, bitches!
-happy painting bitch Steph

I feel a bit guilty for not sharing much of what I’m making here on the blog for a while now, but let’s see if I can avoid sinking into an apologetic tone today. The thing is, sometimes I find it difficult not to just keep everything to myself. It’s like I have to wait until I fall into a more solid state of mind when working out vague ideas that are still forming and changing and reforming before I reach a point where the ideas and objects feel worked out enough to share. Otherwise, I risk losing interest and wanting to completely abandon the work right after. If you can forgive the lame metaphor, it’s like there’s a germination period during which I have to be especially careful or what I’m growing withers up. I’m fickle I guess… fickle and moody and I have fragile, slowly evolving ideas.
I feel good about what I’m making now, but even after several months, it’s all a bit less than solid. So I’m mostly keeping it to myself and the few visitors who happen to stop by in the hope that I can work out something more realized and satisfying. Man, I kinda feel self-conscious talking about this. Am I the only one it happens to? Have you ever just lost interest in something you were doing as soon as you shared it with others?
Well anyway, above is a tiny peek into my studio right now. I know it’s not very telling–sorry. But it’s something, right?
Slightly Uneasily,
-Steph
Here’s a new view of one of my works in progress. What’s weird is that watching this gives me motion sickness. Editing nearly made me upchuck. Who says upchuck anymore? …me, I guess. I also can’t watch those amusement park rides that spin and the bottom falls out and leaves people stuck to the wall. I shot this in HD so you can watch it full screen if you like. Doing that makes me even sicker.
And for those of you with s-l-o-w internet, here are a couple of still photos.


Easily queasy,
-Steph

detail shot of a work in progress
How’s that for a contrast to Jason’s lovely black and white photo series? This stuff I’m working on now I’m really having fun with, but it won’t be done for some time. I may finish other things sooner which I’ll show you, but I’ll be uploading details like these in the meantime. I think they’re kinda fun to look at.
alrighty,
-essSteph
As so often is the case, today’s cartoon is not a cartoon. It is, however, art and eye-candy! This video of artist Holton Rower’s process has been circulating around the interwebs for a while now. If you haven’t seen it, take a look. If you’ve watched it but haven’t checked out his website, get clicking! He has a number of interesting projects to see there.
I may have finished something. Maybe. It’s not dry though so I can’t show you yet. I’m working on a few paintings that are functioning as sketches to try and find footing in a newish direction. The more I think about it and the longer I work on this new stuff, the more I find direct and not so direct references to the rest of my work. These links are starting to make more sense to me now which makes me feel more confident in what I’m doing. That translates to me feeling more excited about working. I like this part of the process–the part where I’m still figuring out what the big problems I’m setting up for myself are and what possible ways there are to solve them. As fun as this is for me, I realize it’s prolly pretty damn boring for you. Images are generally the most interesting part of a personal art blog. With that in mind, I’m posting a bunch of photos of details of my studio for you to look at. These are things I look at everyday that stay with me because there is something about them I find interesting.
I’ve had the old paint sign above since the mid nineties when I worked in a gem of an old art store that also sold paint and wallpaper. The store was located in a historic old theater building in Western Massachusetts. The art store has since moved and the theater has been restored. It took years for the restoration to gain enough support to get underway. When I worked there, Hilary Clinton came and gave a speech as part of her campaign to preserve America’s historic architectural treasures. I should dig out the funny photo of me and the rest of the staff posing with Hilary. That was a fun day! In person, Hilary was friendly, engaging, very pretty and VERY short. I remember thinking she was a great public speaker–better than her husband.
the beginnings of some 3D art

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Above are some detail shots from a few of the things I’m working on right now. I’ve been spending a good deal of time looking at images of food and other stuff with physical properties that induce some sort of something in me that probably adds up to more than would make sense if I tried to explain it in words right now so I won’t try. I have a slideshow of mostly food related photos I play in a loop while I’m painting, and foodgawker.com is fast becoming a favorite destination. As an unexpected perk of this image sourcing, I’ve discovered a few wonderful recipes. This tomato sauce/soup is probably my favorite so far. It makes a perfect sauce for so many meals! Hope you’re all happy and well fed this weekend.
-Steph
Whenever I talk about this blog to people I always describe it as mostly a process based blog, where we all spend time talking about how and why we do things, as well as posting the end results, for better or worse. Once in awhile part of the process seems to be producing, well, nothing.
I could have gone into the archives for something to post, but instead I’m just going to be honest and say I just didn’t have time this week. There have been summer flu’s to indulge, guests to entertain, and in the biggest news of my week, a new member to the family. Everyone, meet LaLa, my new French Bulldog.

She’s been pretty much dominating my week with getting adjusted and doing that house training stuff (very important business). Don’t worry, I’m not going to lose my mind and start posting a thousand pictures of my dog in lieu of art, just this one, to introduce her and say hello.
Moving on, I have a small quandary. I got into an art swap situation with a twitter friend where we challenged each other to use certain materials. In this case he ended up with glitter and I took macaroni, which at first I thought I would do something sculptural with, but now I am not so sure. I started wondering if it would be possible to cook the pasta, pulp it down in the food processor, and roll it out into sheets that I could then dehydrate in the oven and either print or paint on. Does anyone have any experience with this? Do I need to add some sort of other binder? Should I just think of something else? Feel free to throw out ideas because I am a little stumped.
Naturally, in keeping with our process based theme, whatever I decide to go forward with I will document and show the results of.
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48 x 24 x 2 inches
acrylic on pine cradled masonite panel
and that’s a big hole cut through the panel
Here are two process shots from this week. Both can be clicked for a larger view. The stage on the right is where it stands now. There’s not a big difference between the two but you know, sometimes things slow down toward the end. At present, I’m holding off on adding more paint because I think that part may actually be finished or very close to finished. Now I’m working on getting the backing ready for the hole. Once that’s ready, I’ll decide if the panel needs more work. For comparison, here are the photos of what it looked like last week, and here are some photos of things that sparked the idea for the painting plus a look at the panel before it was even primed.
-Steph
This is not pretty, but not all sketches happen on paper. This is another post about process.
This is a physical, 8″ x 8″ sketch of the type of “Flower” pieces I’ve been posting lately.
Because I hadn’t made on of the Flowers in a couple years I needed to remind myself how to make them. Additionally, while its hard to tell, I figured out how to construct layers of these around each other for an effect like this, but with the different shape.
This one turned out ugly because I used whatever scraps I had laying around regardless of color and used too small of a frame to adequately house the thing. I will likely un-stretch it once I start working on bigger versions and use the pieces in something else. However, the lessons learned in making this turd make it far more valuable than it appears.
-JD
PS, this song is freaking hilarious:
Last night I tried to create a smaller version of the Red Flower piece I posted last week. If there are 2 ways to go about accomplishing a task:
A- detailed thought and preparation lead to the execution of the desired result or
B- making every mistake possible, sometimes repeatedly, until I have no other option but to do something correctly
I tend to accomplish things via route B. I try to go route A, but until you get your hands in something it can be difficult to visualize. Last night I made 2 separate mistakes that required me to undo an hour or more worth of work to fix then start over. At the end of the night I was pretty depressed about this, but I woke up today pissed, with the conviction that this stupid 8″ x 8″ proof of concept couldn’t beat me. And I’ll start rolling the boulder back up the hill today. I’m pretty sure I know exactly what I’m supposed to do now. In fact I dreamed about it in detail last night.
Here are some of my sketchbook diagrams for the original Red Flower piece:
The second one kept me occupied during a meeting at work. As of this morning I have an extra 5-6 pages of scribblings, but no scanner. You’ll see it some day…
(That’s spoken with an monotone eastern European accent.)
There has been talk of the individual approach to process and time management this week on the blog. It was addressed in a post from Tuesday.
Lately I’ve really been busted trying to manage my time in the studio. Its a drag with a capital g.
I work in a variety of ways. My monotypes, due to the nature of the medium, are produced rather quickly, in a matter of hours or less. Sometimes a painting will take but a relatively short time depending on the energy, the conceptual circumstances and how efficiently my subconscious is doing the thinking.
Other times, a piece or pieces will go through the whole “create and destroy and create” exercise and may take weeks or months to be realized. Here is an example of a painting I started a few weeks ago which has -and will – go through a metamorphosis as a dialogue of sorts. The conversation is all an adventure and will go through so many changes I may not quite know where it will end. The piece was started as a part of an ongoing series of paintings connected to the idea of the “purdah” and its related symbology and meanings.
I started it as a straight figure, but I unfortunately don’t have documentation from that first stage. Then I furiously worked into it.
a stage from a few weeks ago:
It wasn’t working for me; it was at a narrative and formal stage I wasn’t satisfied with. so I continued.
and another stage
Here it is staring at me now:
I wanted to push the form, the abstraction and the marks somewhere else. I’ll sit with this a little. it might be finished; I’ll keep you updated. Cause I know you care.