leveling out

Blue Blur I

Been playing around with some out of focus photographs lately. Don't know where it might lead, but so far it's an interesting experiment.

I feel like I'm back on track in the studio. What helped, I think, was the pressure-release valve of a friend's house-warming party this weekend. I hadn't realized that it had been almost two months since I'd last spent any real time with some friends and acquaintances. Between seeing them and indulging in a nicely spiked punch, life seemed sudenly better all of a sudden *heh*

That's a long-winded way of saying that I'm over the hump. This morning's session went very well and with none of the 'what the fuck is happening?' of last week. These cycles come and go, but the work always gets done somehow.

My new art reading is Pictures Of Nothing, by the late Kirk Varnedoe. It's a collection of Varnedoe's last six lectures given at the National Gallery of Art, the last of which was delivered just three months before his death in 2003. From what I've read about the book so far, it's looking to be an interesting read and argument for abstract art. In we go...

The door fairy

Went to the studio the next day after the door fell off and it was fixed! I don't have a clue as to who did it. The guy I lease my space from didn't do it, since he was away and didn't return until Thursday. It's possible that my studio-mate's husband might have done it or one of the guys who works downstairs.

It's a mystery I don't mind having unsolved...

blockage

Quite honestly, it's been a bitch moving ahead with the new work. Seriously, nothing has felt like it's clicking. There's just too much going on right now that I have to concentrate on. I don't really have a choice except to see everything through. I thought the day trip to New York yesterday would loosen things up in my head, but that didn't really happen. The day itself was good and the time with E. was great, but as I went through the morning after a much-needed rest I found that I felt worse than before. I was feeling depressed, edgy and a bit deflated. I felt like my creative tap had been shut off and the excitement I usually feel was nowhere to be found.

I had to dig a little deeper and the only way to get to that point was to just paint. I had to get myself over the mental hump by throwing myself into the work. That's what I resolved to do while walking to the studio during the afternoon downpour this afternoon. I got there and painted for a few hours. I managed to get somewhere with a couple of larger paintings, though they still have a ways to go, which is fine. As I worked, I found myself moving into a much better place, mentally. It was still a struggle, but at least I have a path towards something now...

New sidebar-'music in the studio'

I've added a new sidebar called 'music in the studio', just below 'art and artists'. It's self-explanatory and new links will be added as I go along.

Serra, pt. II

Video walkthrough of Richard Serra's sculptures Torqued Torus Inversion (2006) and Sequence (2006), on display at MoMA as part of the exhibition Richard Serra Sculpture: Forty Years. The exhibition is on view through September 10, 2007.

E and I went to see the exhibition for the second time yesterday ((first time was here)) and are still buzzing about the work. One thing that came up in conversation about the work is the difference in effect it would have if the pieces on the 2nd floor (Band 2006, Torqued Torus Inversion 2006 and Sequence 2006) were located in an outdoor setting. One of the major effects of walking thorugh the works is that of directional disorientation.

The tops and bottoms of the steel panels curve inward and out, while you follow seemingly endless curves along the horizonal plane which can cause you to feel like you might lose balance when you look up. We figured that if there were open sky above instead of MoMa's ceiling, the sensation of being unbalanced would be enhanced, perhaps. That these large works are indoors and in a cavernous space, they feel even more imposing and threatening due to the enclosed space. If they were ourside, I think the sense of expansiveness and open space outside of the sculptues could make them a little less imposing if there is enough distance away from them. Maybe. It doesn't really matter since the power of Serra's large works seem to translate well outdoors and in.

art:21 new season

The new season of art21 on pbs is discussed on Tyler Green's blog (with Todd Gibson sitting in).

Art21 blog

ooops!

Engrossed

Nothing ends off a short, before-work studio session like a door falling off it's hinges. Not just any door, but the right side of a double door that opens out to the fire escape. Luckily, I was closing up shop and had a good grip on it. If I wasn't holding it, my day, and possibly some unfortunate pedestrian four floors below, just might have been a touch above shitty.

The funny thing is, the same thing happened last week but I was able to at least temporarily fix things by replacing some old screws with new ones. The problem as I saw it this morning, was that the wall side of the hinge is attached to metal, but beneath the metal is concrete, which is loose from the first screw holes that were in it.

So I have to leave the door propped up against the inside of the frame and left side door with rope tied around it and the other door's handle. At least I have a window to open right next to it that can be opened to let air in. Now, all I need is for it not to rain over the next few days until things are fixed. I'd best get some plastic handy just in case...

workable day

Big City Sky

Wow, what a difference a day makes. The cooler temperatures this afternoon made my time in the studio sweat-free for the first time in weeks. It made assembling and stretching two large canvases that much easier. I thought I was going to have some trouble keeping the corners square because the tongue and groove construction on almost all of the sets of stretchers weren't as tight as they could have been.

Seeing how much the actual stretchers skewed into trapezoidal shapes when I handled them made my heart sink because I knew the trouble I was going to have during the actual stretching process. However, the addition of cross braces seemed to keep everything in it's place, which made my day after spending four hours cutting wood, drilling, screwing, stretching and stapling.
......
I was in center city this afternoon and took a little time to stop by the Works on Paper Gallery to see the Amze Emmons show. Emmon's works depict desolate looking, spare cityscapes with more than a hint of human inhabitants, but with no trace of a figure anywhere. Instead, there are bits of a broken society strewn with debris and make shift living quarters throughout Emmon's image.

Bits of trash blowing the wind right next to near-empty grocery store shelves half-encircled by concrete traffic barriers as seen in Eating Position Papers in an unidentifiable, seemingly outdoor space was one piece that especially pulled my in. The sense of isolation and desolation is palpable in these pieces, but that's off-set by the opposing cheerful and almost garish candy-colored pinks, greens and oranges sprinkled throughout Emmons works.

This seems suggestive of the isolation of individuals living desperately day-to-day and immersed in the technicolor dreamland of television and the internet as an escape. That's my semi-academic take, anyway. On a more aesthetic level, Emmons makes great use of space and strategically spare use of color, making the bleak cityscapes in his worlds burst with life where there seems to not be any.

photo published online

One of my photos was published on the Schmaps Philadelphia Guide. Scroll down to 'Washington Square' to see my photo of the park that was taken this past winter. Clicking the photo takes you to it's Flickr page.

the hot art days of August

Oh, yeah, the dog days are amongst us and it's gonna get worse. So find a pool, jump in the ocean, or park yourself under the nearest air-conditioner 'cause it's not going anywhere any time soon...


South 17th, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 60" x 50"

In other news, busy is the word of the...well, my life, it seems. The photo above shows the commissioned painting mentioned here installed in the lobby of the Lofts at Logan View, located at 17th and Callowhill Sts.
The project includes works by myself and four other artists from the Bridgette Mayer Gallery: Allen Bently, Clark Gibson, Rebecca Rutstein, and Dierdre Murphy.

Click here to see images of the works installed.


Work continues on new paintings for the show at the Art Alliance this fall. I've completed a couple of smaller pieces and one large painting, but there's still a lot of work to be done. The next few weeks will be reserved for the other large works I have planned.

Oh, and did I mention that I'm getting married during all of this, too? Yep, first week of September. I'm working to get most of the work completed by then, but realistically, I'll be painting until a couple of days before I have to deliver the works. It just works out that way.

No worries, life is good...

gone fishin'...sort of...

Playing hooky from the studio today. It's just too damed hot...

Jeremy Blake missing

Artist Jeremy Blake missing

EDIT:
Jeremy Blake's death confirmed

Logan View project complete

Two views of south 17th Street from Callowhill. These were a couple of the photographic studies I did for the painting which is seen in the bottom photo. The painting is titled South 17th and measures 60" x 50". My part of the overall project was the 'cityscape' aspect. The other artists involved each had a general theme to work with that had something to do with the building itself or some aspect of the city.

The challenge of this project was ending up with something of a recognizable image of the view outside the front doors of the building. As seen in the photos above, I took a lot of liberties with the original scene while leaving in some of the forms that hint at the real buildings. I left out much of the detail to focus more on a general sense of the view. The view is above the horizon as if someone looking south on 17th Street was in the midst of looking up or returning their gaze to a lower perspective.

Even though this piece is tighter-looking than most of my work these days, I liked that I had the freedom to interpret the scene as I saw fit; if there was any hint that what was wanted was a more 'realistic' depiction, I wouldn't have taken this on. Not that I couldn 't do it, but anyone who is familiar with my work knows that I have no interest in depicting what is already there.

The painting was delivered and installed yesterday and I've been told that it's gotten good responses from the building's owner and others there. That's good to know. My own response has been that it's ok. I'll have to see it installed, which will happen next week sometime.

fall ahead

Recently completed a commissioned painting for a project at the Lofts at Logan View condominiums, a project facilitated by Bridgette and featuring not only my work, but that of Rebecca Rutstein, Clark Gibson, Allen Bently, and Deirdre Murphy. I'm quite happy to have it out of the way so I can concentrate on the works I'll be showing at the Art Alliance in the fall.

The title of that show will be called Stratum and will continue some of the ideas I was working with in some of the paintings I showed in June at Bridgette Mayer. I'm looking forward to having the large walls of the first floor gallery to hang work on. I think I'll have some works on paper for the smaller space. I have several ideas I'm working on, so anything is possible.

done for now

The show is over and there's no time to dwell on the 'post exhibition blues' that usually accompanies these times. There are a couple of projects to jump into that will keep me busy from summer through fall.

By all accounts, 'When is Now' was a very successful show and I'm proud of the work I produced. I spent a lot of time visiting the gallery during the past three weeks just to look at and think about the paintings. Between that and talking about them, I've gained some good insight and general ideas about what I want to do next. What comes next is never clear, but it's nice to have a general direction to focus on...

Richard Serra at MoMA

I've been waiting for a long time to see some of Ricahrd Serra's larger works in person and I finally got the chance a couple of weeks ago. I was in New York with my fianceé to meet up with a friend of hers, along with visiting a couple of jewelry supply places for her and to see the Serra retrospective at MoMA.

We hit the sixth floor first, where the earlier works are shown. Some of the works up there hadn't been shown in years and most I hadn't seen in person. It's always kind of surreal to view artworks by iconic artists whose only contact I'd had was as reproductions in books and magazines. Incidentally, the first time I even found out about Richard Serra's work was toatlly by mistake. It was back in '90 and I was in New York for the first time with a former girlfriend. MoMA was on the agenda and I don't even know if it was a special exhibition, but I remember turning a corner, walking into a room and finding myself in the center of a piece I later came to know as Circuit, four steel plates situated in the corners of the space, bisecting the room diagonally with an open space in the center.

There were other works of his there that time, but Circuit II really made a lasting impression with it's sense of danger (collapse) and reassertion of how the space was navigated by the viewer(s), something that has been integral to Serra's work for years.

The earlier work took up the entire sixth floor and includes a good representation of the early 'prop' pieces, like Prop(1968) and One Ton Prop(House of Cards)(1969) in lead as well as works in rubber such as Belts(1966-67) and To Lift(1967).

The newer pieces in the cavernous space on the second floor, Sequend, Band, and Torqued Torus Inversion, all made in 2006 are amazing to behold. Band, is particualirly beautiful with it's 70-something feet of twisting curves with no interior space. It's like walking along a piece of ribbon standing on edge, except Band, like most of Serra's works, weighs tons. That these three huge works were even able to be put in the space together and not feel crowded seems like a miracle. It still messes with my mind to know how much tonnage is sitting there, looking much lighter than it is. Some of that also has to do with the oxidation that takes place. These works have a beautiful orange patina that can make you forget that you're standing next to and touching a material that is used in much more utilitarian ways, as in steel girders and other architectural substructures.

Photography isn't allowed inside, but if you're unfamiliar with Serra's work, the exhibition pages on MoMA's site will give a good overview (Flash 8 required). The two pieces in the sculpture garden, Intersection IV and Torqued Ellipse II were fair game and I tried to take as much advantage as I could (click images for larger views):

Intersection II







Torqued Ellipse IV

Exhibition review

Review of my exhibition at Bridgette Mayer by Edith Newhall.
Philadelphia Inquirer Weekend section
Friday, June 15, 2007
p. W29

Loosening up

Since his last solo show at Bridgette Mayer Gallery two years ago, Tim McFarlane has abandoned the open, three-dimensional grid forms that inhabited that last body of work for a looser, all-over lyrical abstraction that looks vaguely like strands of chains or fishing nets over a gestural abstract painting. He has also jettisoned the square canvas for the rectangular one, which suits his style of painting better. The action seemed to stop short on the square.

A few of these paintings are just perfect, in particular Plume, with its exposed lower corner of a muscular, vividly colorful underpainting, drips and all, which made me think of the painter Melissa Meyer. His small paintings, Mute and Green Whispers, which have thicker, lusher surfaces than some of the large ones, hint at a depth and mystery that are too obscured in other works.

But I'd also like to see an enormous McFarlane. He seems to be stretching out.

Ice, Ice, Baby!!

British "bad boy artist", Damien Hirst, is at it again...

From the New York Times:
Alas, Poor Art Market: A Multimillion-Dollar Head Case
By ALAN RIDING
Published: June 13, 2007
It is no secret that the art market has become drunk with money lately, but $100 million for a diamond skull by the artist Damien Hirst? Even Russian oligarchs and hedge-fund billionaires might think twice.

Related story here

More photos here

There was a time when I would toss all sorts of f-bombs around when I read a story about Damien Hirst and others like him getting whatever astronomical amount of money/attention for their work. Not anymore. I'm more likely to just get a laugh out of it and just keep doing what I'm doing. He's into spectacle and shock, people literally buy into it and he laughs all the way to the bank. End of story.

I have liked some of his work, most notably "The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living" (1991), better known as the 'dead shark in a tank' piece. I like that piece mainly because it's conceptual idea holds some weight. There might be other works by Hirst that have some idealogical weight to them, but I've not paid much attention to his stuff because of all the mountains of hype and excess that accompanies everything he does...

A Reluctant Fraternity

Here's an interesting article about a goup of African-American artists in L.A. from the New York Times.

When is where?

The paintings were hung last Tuesday night and I saw them up for the first time on Wednesday. I hadn't seen some of them for a couple of weeks and was happy with the final installation. Originally, I wanted to be there to at least place the works, but scheduling prevented that. I trusted Bridgette to do a good job and she did great. I was mostly concerned with the paintings having a certain amount of space around them since there is a lot going on in them visually. I'd mentioned to Bridgette early on that I didn't want to have too many paintings hanging, like the last show I had there.

So, yeah, I'm happy with how things went.





Finally, Friday rolled around and the opening went on without a hitch, with the exception of the heat that accompanied lots of bodies in the small space that is the Bridgette Mayer Gallery. I love working with Bridgette, but the gallery gets hot easily with little help in the warmer months of the year. Nonetheless, the opening reception was very well attended and there was a lot of good feedback about the work. It was also to see and talk, albeit briefly, with a bunch of my friends and acquaintences that I hadn't seen in a good while.

There's a mention of the show by Libby Rosof on artblog and over on Rob Matthews' blog

*Don't worry, Rob, my shots aren't the best, either, lol...


photo originally uploaded by Libby Rosof

In the vault room, Bridgette is showing the work of sculptor, Paul Oberst. I met Paul last year through a mutual friend of mine and Bridgette's, so it was interesting to learn that he was going to have work there at the same time. Bridgette usually has special projects, like the works of artists that are not affiliated with the gallery, shown in the smallish but interesting vault room in the rear of the gallery.

With the opening now over, I've begun the process of switching my attention to the paintings I want to do for the Art Alliance show. So far, I'm planning on working on three larger paintings for one room and works on paper for the smaller one. I'm not absolutely sure about the works on paper, but I'll have to see what I come up with. I could put three or four small paintings in there, also...we'll see how things go.

In the meantime, it's back to the studio for another round...

Ready for more

Delivered the last of the paintings for my exhibition to the gallery today with the help of Bridgette and Lance. Their help made it a much easier task. It's interesting to see the looks on people's faces when you're rolling a large canvas along the sidewalk.

Taking a couple of breaths before diving into new work for the Art Alliance show in the fall...

Next week!!

The postcards for my upcoming solo exhibition arrived today. I was delivering a couple of small paintings of mine to Bridgette that were being picked up and sent to the Marcia Wood Gallery for a group exhibition in Atlanta.

It was cool to walk in to a nice stack of postcards on the desk just waiting for me :)

This is my third solo exhibition at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery and will consist of works done in the past few months and a couple from last year that have never been shown.

The exhibition, titled, When is Now, runs from May 29th-June 23rd at the Bridgette Mayer Gallery.

Opening Reception
First Friday, June 1, 2007
6-8:30pm

Vault Room
Paul Oberst |Temples for Philadelphia

Bridgette Mayer Gallery
709 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA, 19106
215.413.8893
www.mayerartconsultants.com

catalogue essay by Philadelphia artist and writer, Roberta Fallon

Almost there

Detail of new painting

I'm in the home-stretch with preparations for my next exhibition. Most of the work is done. I'm just trying to finish up a couple of final pieces before next weekend. As usual, I'm seeing the light at the end of a long tunnel of wrestling with paint, ideas and deadlines. Just a few weeks ago, I was seriously wondering if I'd be able to pull it all together and have enough work to show that I was happy with.

So far, so good. I'm still scrutinizing what I've been working on but for the most part, I'm satisfied with what I'm seeing. I still need some time to take in what I've done; I'm way too close to it all. I think that once I see the work outside of the studio and have a chance to reflect, I'll start having a clearer view of what I've been doing.

One of the things about having shows is being able to look at the paintings out of the studio context. Putting them in a new context that's outside of my own internal world, where they sprange from, gives me the chance to look at them with new eyes. Most of the paintings have already been out of the studio for the past week and-a-half. They had to be photographed and were then delivered to the gallery so my only contact with them have been through photos and memory.

It'll be interesting to see what I think in a couple of weeks...

Richard Serra at MoMA

A short time-lapse video showing the installation of two of Ricard Serra'ssculptures in MoMA's sculpture garden.

MoMA will be mounting a 40 year retrospective of his work beginning in June. I'm really looking forward to seeing this show. I've been a fan of Serra's work for a long time, but I've never seen much of his work in person. Back in the early 90's, I actually discovered his work accidentally during my first trip to New York. The show was at MoMA. I only remember walking into this one room and being surrounded with these huge steel plates (I think the piece was Circuit) that were coming from each corner of the room. I didn't know who Serra was at the time, but I liked his work.

A year or so later, I returned to Temple University after a five year hiatus. I discovered the third floor section of art books in Paley Library on the main campus and found a number of books about Serra that were published in Germany. I made the connection with the work I saw in New York previously and was hooked. I mainly responded to his use of a basic construction material in the making of his works. I also admired his thought processes and dedication to continually experimenting with perceptions of space, weight, and balance. I also like that he has continued to push his work and ideas to new places over the years while maintaining a sense of freshness while using the same materials he has for years, as well as continuing to work on a scale that not many would attempt...or who have the means to do so...

line in sight

Got a bunch of paintings out of the studio this morning to be photographed. From there, they'll go to the gallery. The best thing was being able to get a 60" x 72" piece down the stairs and out of the door. Had it been any wider than 72", I would have had to deal with lowering it out of the window, like I did for "All That Could Be", which is 60" x 84". I don't think I'll be working on anything much larger.

Speaking of canvas sizes, every now and then I'll try out new combinations of stretcher bars to see how that size feels when worked on. For a while, it was 36"x36". Lately, for some reason, 28"x32" has been a favorite.

For the most part, what's going to be in the show is done, but I'm still working on a couple of more canvases which should be done in the coming two weeks. Now that this is wrapping up, I'm turning my attention towards work that I'll do for the show at the Philadelphia Art Alliance in the fall.

......




Recent paintings by Rebecca Saylor Sack

Yesterday, Rebecca Saylor Sack stopped by for the second leg of our studio visits. We talked shop for a bit, trading comments about my recent works, art in general, and galleries. We went back and forth with comments about the latest paintings, always a good thing for me at times like this since my nose has been in them for the past few months. Along the way, she mentioned that she was chosen to receive a Fleisher Challenge exhibition for this year, so big congratulations to her on that accomplishment.

short day

I didn't get up to the studio as early as I wanted to this morning, but I did pretty good with the time I did spend there. I left by mid-afternoon because my studio mate was bringing a friend and his adult art class by to see the space. She asked me a while ago if I wanted to be involved and at first I agreed to, but then thought about the timing and declined. I'm just not in the right headspace at the moment to deal with hosting anyone at the studio just before a big show...especially strangers.

I also needed to leave early because I desperately needed to catch up on some cleaning around the apartment. I've had a pile of dishes in the sink for too long. I just washed what I needed at the moment and left everything there. Between my work and hectic studio schedule, dishes aren't on the daily priority list. I got through them this afternoon, though. It's kind of nice seeing the bottom of the sink again. There's also a good deal less cat fur and dust around, too, which is good.

I could really use a nap, but not much time for that. It's already after 6pm and I have to get cleaned up and head out to catch some First Friday openings. If it weren't for a couple of people I know having openings tonight, I'd be on the couch right now. It's ok, I'll just head back home early. I need to anyway, since I have to be back in the studio first thing in the morning. Need to finish up a couple of things and then some works are going to be picked up to be photographed tomorrow evening...

statements, pt. II

Here's the statement I wrote up earlier this week. This version is written in the third person because it's being used for an ad for my show in the Gallery Guide. I've written statements like this before, but it's always a little strange to write about one's self in the third person. I'm going to rework it in the singular voice and change a couple of small things, but overall, I think it works for where I am with my work at the moment....

"When is Now"

Inspired by the ambiguities created in the chaos and quiet of overlapping events that make up everyday life, from the macro to the micro, Tim McFarlane continues to challenge himself and the viewer with the exploration of painterly linear abstraction. At the same time, he is moving his paintings into new directions in this new body of work.

McFarlane employs a loosened, wet-on-wet technique to produce networks of sometimes dense, layered fields of color in his new compositions. This technique allows for a wide spectrum of color and brushstroke complexity from one layer to another, creating shifts in depth without the use of traditional perspective.

McFarlane also engages the viewer with a heightened sense of emotional content through the use of rectangular canvases. While relying on a mostly square format in past works, here McFarlane has shifted to the horizontal and vertical. The format allows for expansion of the forms across the painted field while also enabling the viewer the potential to connect with the works through his or her experiences in the world, thus creating an open-ended emotional space for the viewer to explore.

online curating

I was asked by artist, Timothy Buckwalter to curate a show of his drawings. Every week, Buckwalter has a different curator for his works. He posts the selected pieces online for about 6 days and moves to the next set of selected works on the following Tuesday.

The show I curated consists of about ten text drawings Buckwalter has done. The title of the show is 'Under The Skin'. The common threads I found running throughout the ones I chose resonated with me largely because of the times we live in. That, and the unversal emotional content they contain...

statements

Writing artist statements can be downright annoying sometimes. The problems are usually confined to the beginning of the process, especially after there has been a fairly significant change in my work, as there has been over the past year or so. It's difficult enough trying to figure out just what I'm doing with the work itself, adding trying to figure out how to translate and convey whatever meanings/feelings I have about it to the outside world can be headache-inducing.

I've just gone through this process again for my upcoming show and I think I've gotten it as concise as possible without sounding too bloated nor too vague. I try to keep my language in a place where there's obvioiusly some thought behind it, but at the same time, I don't want to alienate potential readers with art-speak and possibly put them to sleep in the process. Nor do I want to sound pretentious and put viewers off from the work entirely, which can be easy to do with contemporary abstraction.

The best writing from artists, in terms of statements, articulates their ideas and processes in an educated, concise manner without being intellectually condescending, deliberately obtuse, or plain lazy. As with other writing, the audience has to be considered. In the case of artist statements, the potential audience is going to be people from usually a wide range of experiences; from art students and peers to 'the man on the street' who may come into contact with one's work and wants to learn more about it and the artist.

I try to hold myself to a high standard when writing my statements. I fail a lot and have certainly missed the mark at times; at other times, I've nailed it. Just like the work itself, writing about it is an on-going process. It's also one that will define what you leave behind. Some people are perfectly happy to leave it to others to define what you made, which is going to happen, anyway. However, I believe it's important for the artist to have a voice in whatever future history there is about the work, in addition to those of critics, curators, gallery owners, museum boards, etc...At the very least, the artist's ideas at the time can be known.

The present is important to consider also. When I jot down notes which might lead to a formal statement, I'm also clarifying for myself what might be going on with my work. On top of that, it aids in allowing me to be clear when I'm talking to others about my work. There's a repository to look back on and gain insight from so that any future writings might be seen as part of a continuing thought process...

Moo

(*click photo for larger size*)

New business cards arrived in the mail today, courtesy of Moo. The front images are from recent paintings and the cards are small, but functional at 28mm x 70mm. The paper stock is nice and heavy, also. If you have a Flickr account, you can have cards printed from photo images you have online. You get 100 cards for $20 (plus shipping which brings it to around $24). You can choose the color of type and they give you about six fields that can be filled out with text.

I love the cards and they seem to be a hit with people I've given them to, also. This is the second set I'm working with; my fianceé surprised me with the first set when she came here in December...

behind the lids

Just over a month before the show and things are typically up and down. Mostly up, I have to admit. There's just a lot to attend to at this point in the process of getting ready for an exhibition. My grand plan was to be up at the studio by 9 or 9:30am today to get some painting done. Then, I would deliver a couple of paintings to be photographed for the exhibition card and Gallery Guide ad. The latter part was accomplished, but I didn't get up to the studio until nearly 12:30, which means going straight to the gallery, grabbing the paintings and a cab.

Got back to the studio, had lunch and promptly fell asleep on the couch. Didn't get a thing done while I was up there except some magazine reading after the nap. My studio mate came in and after relating how non-productive I'd been all afternoon she said something to the effect that "sometimes it's enough to just be in the space looking at what you've done and thinking". A good point. One that I don't think about often enough. When I'm in the midst of completing work for a show, I feel like I have to get something done in the way of either painting or prepping canvases in order to feel like I'm getting anything accomplished.

Art is as much about the looking as it is the doing. I do a fair amount of thinking about my work as I'm painting. There are times when I'll work on something for 30-45 minutes and spend another 10 or so looking at what I've just done; figuring out what is working and what isn't. It's rare that I'll spend whole afternoons or days, even being in there and not physically doing anything. Today I couldn't muster the mental nor physical energy to do much. I ate lunch, napped, read, and stared at paintings getting a feel for where I am with the finished ones and what I might do with the ones in progress.

The longer I sat there, the more comfortable I was with the thought of leaving without having laid paint to canvas. I just let it go and rode home looking forward to tomorrow...more rested and ready to go...

slipping from here to there

Today was supposed to happen this past Saturday. I had big plans to get in the studio for most of this long holiday weekend, but I wasn't feeling good and wound up losing out on two of those days. As I like to say, life happens...

It was a different story today altogether. I met up with Jessica Puma for art conversation in my studio. We talked about the new stuff I have in various stages of completion as well as some older works. It's always good to talk with someone about what's going on with the work. I live in my head with it all of the time and it's very difficult to have perspective sometimes.

She took off to meet a friend for lunch and I headed over to Utrecht to pick up a couple of things. I'd had a 20% off coupon from them sitting by my computer for over a month and today was the last day for it to be used. There have been quite a few of those things that I've just forgotten about. I usually find them a month or more past the expiration date under some god-forsaken pile of bills, exhibition invites, and whatever else... I was proud that I even remembered to take it with me. I bought a grinding stone to use with a stick of sumi ink Jessica gave me last week when I was at her studio. I also got a pack of four 'gesso panels' to experiment with, as well as a box of water-soluable paint sicks.



Back in the studio...after painting for a couple of hours, I had one of those moments that I don't notice always, but it happens. I realized that I'd slipped into my working groove for this project, this series of new paintings. Of course I'm worried about finishing everything and wondering if it will live up to my standards, but I'm feeling more in control of the process. The past few weeks I've been fueled more by panic than anything else, because of my late start. Now, though, I'm not panicing as much. Instead, I'm seeing several works begining to take shape, ideas flowing from one to the other and a real dialogue is starting to happen for me.

That wasn't there last week. I had no works that I considered finished, but that's changed this week. Several pieces are getting to the place where more minor changes in details are needed, while I've designated others 'finished'. I'll see how I feel about those in another week or two, but right now I'm ready to leave them be...

Studio visit with Jessica Puma

Went to a friend's studio for the first time today. I've known Jessica Puma for about a couple of years. We've been talking about trading studio visits for at least the past year. You know how life goes sometimes; you're busy, they're busy, you fall out of touch and back again. Anyway, we finally got our act together and hung out at her work space for a bit Friday afternoon...

*click photos for larger sizes*



Jessica is a painter but for some months now, she's been working on drawings with collage elements in them. Her formal concerns are architectural, but on top of that base she forms layer upon layer of emotional content. Part of her process involves using parts of old drawings and bringing them into the new work, forming new surface and emotional textures.

According to Jessica, her drawings evolve "organically", meaning there's no preplanning involved and resolution comes slowly. There's a lot of going back and forth between unfinished drawings, letting them sit for a bit then adding lines, forms, or glueing something down here or there until the drawing is completed.

Blanks

Blanks

It's true, a blank canvas is a little scary. The truth is I love having a bunch of blanks around to work on, especially with a couple of deadlines looming. Things are moving along for my upcoming show in June. I'm not as far along as I'd like to be, but I always feel like that before big shows.

I've stretched a couple of larger canvases over the past week. I'm figuring out ways to deal with bracing them in the rear and so far, it's working out. I have to improve my measuring so there's less waste and less time spent trimming. I'd rather have to trim the wood than have it be too short. I also found out that if you tighten the screws in the 'T' braces too much, the wood will tend to bow out after stretching. I wound up loosening the screws and left the canvas on the floor overnight. Today, everything was fine. I re-tightened the screws and everything was good to go.

I often don't like the process of prepping canvases, but now that I have a process down and materials at hand, it's not so bad. Next week I'll hate it again...

leaning straight

left: old and busted
right: new and shiny hotness

Really, it's the little things that count. I've used the leaning tower of a cart on the left for more than a year or so. I finally got around to replacing it today. The new one was actually a spontaneous purchase. I happened to be in Loews looking for some hardware when that lightbulb went off over my head (new flourescent one at that). I felt proud of myself because I'm so prone to forgetting that I need to replace certain things because I come from the school of, "eh, it's almost falling apart...BUT it's still standing...".

I'm slowly working my way out of that mindset...

stacks

Hanging Stack
grapihte, oil stick on paper


Floater Stack
grapihte, oil stick on paper

(click images for larger sizes)

These are images of two drawings from a couple of years ago that I mentioned in this post. Rebecca Crowell wondered what they looked like and I finally got around to photographing what I had in the studio.

I did a bunch of these in 2005 and I'm thinking about continuing with the series, called "Stacks". The idea grew out of observing floorboards in my studio. The building is probably nearly a century old and was once a factory of some sort. Consequently, what were once flat, even floorboards are now very worn and irregular in spacing and surface from years of use. The irregularities were what intrigued me the most. I also wanted the 'stacks' to more or less float in space as opposed to being anchored somehow to the edges of the drawing surface.

Commission complete

L: Float On II
R:Float On I
both are 60" x 50", acrylic on canvas
(click photo for larger size)

New paintings completed recently for a commission. Met with the client and Bridgette at the studio on Monday and the client chose the one on the left, Float On II.

Something new

Click To Play

I was done with painting last night and remembered that I have video capacities on my camera. I hadn't forgotten, really, but it's taken me a while to return to experimenting with it. Last October, I had a computer meltdown and had to have my old one replaced. At the same time, I had just barely begun to understand the processes involved with creating and posting videos online.

Last night, after I was done with painting for the day, I decided to turn the video function on and get back into the video habit I began last fall. I'm thinking about doing an ongoing series of video studio journals along with other ideas. As much as I like the creative possibilities, there's the inevitable time-suck that comes along with experimenting with new media (new to me, that is), but I'm looking forward to whatever may come next...