Stuff is happening...

Stuff is beginning to happen in the studio.  I'm not exactly sure what that stuff is but it's emerging.  I went to the FW Museum of Science and History's off-view animal specimen collection and took heaps of reference photos.  I went with a list in hand of all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays.  Of the 52 listed I found 27 of the birds.  Most were skins but there were several really nice mounted taxidermy specimens.  Here are some of my favorite photos from the visit (some of which have nothing to do with Shakespeare) as well as the work that is coming from the experience...

  oil on birch, 12"x15"

I'm realizing that the space around the panel is just as important as the panel itself.

Above is a 4ft.x4ft. wood panel and below is a 5ft.x6ft. canvas tacked to the wall.

On a side note I present to you - meteorites.  There just so happens to be a small meteorite museum on campus.  I went there and it was awesome.  What I loved most (besides the fact that these objects were once orbiting around in freaking outer space) was seeing these otherworldly masses displayed in front of earthly, familiar photographed landscapes.  

I brought that idea in closer by having a very foreign meteorite inhabiting a very personal and recognizable space…home.

oil on cardboard, 8"x10"

Week Three

This study is further exploring the release of Shakespeare's birds mentioned in the last post.  I found a wonderful book appropriately named The Birds of Shakespeare written by Archibald Geikie in 1916.  He lists the 52 species of birds found in Shakespeare's plays.  An ostrich, an owl, and a thrush are three on that list…only 49 more to go.

My three buddies above were painted on a birch panel scrap leftover after making this big daddy panel. It's the first large (4'x4') panel I've built.  It's so dang lovely in fact that I'm intimidated to throw paint on it.

This morning my guts told me that I needed to document what I've been surrounding myself with in the studio.  Doing this helps me understand what I'm most interested in and narrows my focus.  This is what my eyes have been seeing…

More Damn Birds

I'm two weeks deep into grad school and still alive, a bit overwhelmed but still kicking.  A routine is beginning to emerge and the first drop of paint has been spilled on the studio floor.  I feel like this is the perfect place to organize and document the work I will be doing so here goes…

More.  Damn.  Birds.  Seven years ago I began to paint birds.  Like non-stop all the time kinda paint birds and still to this day I don't understand their allure.  So instead of psychoanalyzing my brain, I'm just going to paint more because I want to.

That leads us to the starling painting above.  In 1890 the American Acclimatization Society released sixty starlings into Central Park.  This was their introduction to the US and by 1950 they could be found from coast to coast.  It is said that the Society planned to introduce every species of bird mentioned in Shakespeare's plays to America.  Some species thrived like the starling and others failed.

Next on the studio tour is this dude.  A mega field trip is in store for all of the MFA students next semester - we're going to NYC baby and I'm stoked!  A fund raising scheme has been masterminded which entails each of us to make 10 smaller works to be sold (I'll include details as they surface).  These 5"x7" canvases will soon bear the portrait of that badass owl.  

Above is the first painting I did in Painting I as an undergrad.  I think it's symbolically fitting to paint over it at this point.  At first I was going to work with the structures...

And then I said…hell no, I'm covering up the whole sha-bang!  It felt pretty great and it is still evolving.  These are sparrows and the painting follows along the same lines as the starling painting.  Sparrows were introduced to America in 1851.  They were released in Brooklyn.  To think that every sparrow and starling we see today are direct descendants of those original birds is an amazing thing.

Dining Table Landscape

Dining Table Landscape, oil, 48"x32", 2014

This is a re-work of a painting I did last year.  That painting was headed for the dumpster but then I thought, wait a second…I should just go apeshit on this thing - scatter some random things I find visually pleasing without over-analyzing why and if it totally sucks then it was headed to a landfill anyway.  And that's what I did and it turns out I don't want to throw it in the garbage anymore.  

Before (done in 2013) and After (completed Wednesday)

 Capercaillie, oil, 36"x24", 2014

The night after completing the Dining Table Landscape I thought, hey…I want to do that "re-working of an old painting that belongs in a trash heap" thing again.  And so I did.

Before (done in 2008) and After (completed last night)

Still Here

It's been a busy summer…I've still been making work…didn't want you to think I'd been slackin' off.

 The Acid City series is still chugging along.

I moved.  Yesterday was the first day I painted in the new place - two thumbs up on the digs.  Above is a re-work of a painting I did last year.  It used to look like this…

Moving means exploring new scenery and there's no need to go far.  This busy pole lives just beyond my roof.  It looked like this today at 7am, 12:30pm, and 7pm.  I consider looking at the sky part of working in the studio.  It's just as important as the painting part.

Hammock Time

So I'm sitting smack dab in the middle of my return from an artist residency and my upcoming grad school adventure.  I'm in the process of sorting all of the stellar experiences from Connecticut while at the same time preparing myself to be completely wide open to TCU.  It's an interesting place to be - I feel like the best thing to do is tie one end of a hammock to the rez and the other end to school and just relax in the middle for the time being.  And this is what it looks when I make work in that frame of mind...

 new york had an effect on me

 house factory

double double

And of course life wouldn't be complete without janky stop motions...

delish

dang.

Self-Port.

Self-portraits make me feel itchy and I think mine turn out ridiculous and un-me-like and look like I painted it with my left hand in the dark with a stick but for whatever reason every so often I have to puke one up and so I did.  I started it a couple of days before leaving for Weir Farm and finished it a couple of days upon my return.  The End.

Weir Farm: Day Thirteen

Lucky day #13, my last full day here at Weir Farm.  It's cold and wet but the rain held out long enough this morning to take one last walk through the woods.  The sweet girl above and I hung out for a bit.  She grazed, I stared, she stared, I took her photo…we kinda just shrugged our shoulders at each other like, "Hey."

This experience has truly been amazing-I feel full and like the other residencies I've done, I'll leave here changed in a unique way that I could have never planned.  What I take away from Weir Farm is a sense of quiet.  The plaque above the Weir Home entry says it best, "Here shall we rest and call content our home".

Here is the work I did during my stay...

Path Through Field, acrylic, 24.5"x51"

Weir Farm Guest Room, acrylic, 20.5"x50"

Livestock Pens, acrylic, 12"x18"

The Deer and the Little Girl Story, acrylic on cardboard, 9"x12"

Stones, acrylic on cardboard, 9"x12"

Sparrow on Stones, acrylic on cardboard, 9"x12"

8 Flavored Houses 1 Wall (above) 13 Flavored Houses 1 Wall (below), collage & acrylic on cardboard, 9"x12"

12 Wooden Houses, collage & acrylic on cardboard, 9"x12"

3 Wooden Houses 3 Tree Houses, collage & acrylic on cardboard, 9"x12"

5 Tree Houses, collage & acrylic on cardboard, 9"x12"

Weir Farm: Day Twelve

 Good morning baby ferns!

Moss, looking nice today as always.

 So good to see you Butterfly.

 (Made this.)

For walk #2 of the day I went peeking into spaces.  Above is a corn crib, which is a term new to me.  Below is looking inside of the Mahonri Young sculpture studio.