Lumi 9 News

Château de la Hulpe & the Fondation Folon

2011-07-17T16:08:00.000-05:00

On the 10th we had a friend who lives in Brussels suggest that we visit the Château de la Hulpe where the Fondation Folon existed. This is something that was not in the guidebook we had, so we were excited about the tip.

Jean-Michel Folon was a watercolorist, sculptor, engraver, and illustrator. I had never heard of him, so it was a treat to see how well done the museum set up in the farm of the castle of La Hulpe (see the castle below). The day was perfect, so we had a great time to wonder the grounds of the château, which was full of lush fields, gardens, forest, while dotted by sculptures by Folon (if you're partial to plein air painting - GO, GO, GO). Unfortunately, you can't take any photos inside of the museum (I only snapped a few outside, like the fountain seen below).

Go to Ghent

2011-07-14T04:47:00.001-05:00

On the 8th we took a train west to Ghent, a beautiful, medieval town with old churches, art, and architecture. It's biggest drawing power is St. Bavo, seen below, where it houses the Ghent Altarpiece, or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. This is the sole reason why we took the trip because I was taken aback by The Annunciation when I visited Washington D.C. and I felt it was important to see this masterwork.

It didn't disappoint. We were so glad we went, because this polyptic (the one above was a replica held within the church for tourists who didn't want to pay the 4 € to see the original) was gorgeous and ripe for devouring, despite having been completed in 1432 by Jan and Hubert van Eyck.

The Conversion of St. Bavo, by Rubens was also displayed there.

There was a lot of construction going on all over the town, so there was a bit of noise added to the din and chatter of the townies and tourists, but it didn't damper our strolls to any extent.

St. Nicholas Church

The churches were beautiful, to say the least; though St. Bavo took the cake. The window above was taken at St. Nicholas Church, where you were allowed to take photos. St. Bavo clearly had rules posted photography of any kind was forbidden, but as far as I could see, pictures were being snapped everywhere with no ramification. So I slyly snapped off few (many) myself from under my arm doing my best to get as many reference images as I could.

The Guild Houses

Castle Gravensteen

Castle Gravensteen (8€ a person) was worth seeing for "torture rooms", dungeons, collections of ancient weaponry and the view of the entire city of Ghent when the tour reached the top of the walls.

De Man van Smarten

1532

by Maarten Van Heemskerck

detail

The Museum of Fine Arts was the final attraction of the day. Although the collection was not the most exciting I had ever seen, it did provide some good hunting grounds for artists of second tier value that you would otherwise not get to see. The medieval section was very good. And I thought there were some good finds in the expressionist to modernist rooms (though my photos might not be the best representatives - not a fan of my cheap 8 megapixel Olympus FE-310). The main attractions at this museum are the two Heironymus Bosch works Christ Carrying the Cross and St. Jerome at Prayer, which were wonderful. I'm downplaying how excited I was to see these works (top: always, always take more than one photo of works, such as these).

Jong meisje op een rood tapijt

1912

by Felice Casorati

detail

title: I apologize, my photo of the plate is too blurry to be able to tell you

by Frits Van Den Berghe

De val der heiligen

1933

by Frits Van Den Berghe

Current Artwork (# 522, 528)

2011-07-12T09:28:00.023-05:00

I am definitely still working while here in Belgium. In our unusually large apartment (for Europe), we have a patio with a quiet, bubbling koi pond that's very peaceful to work beside and I try to take advantage of it whenever I can. I prepared myself for the trip by making sure that whatever art supplies I brought could fit along with my other necessaries in my travel backpack. This meant that all of my surfaces had to be quite small. This was a major reason why after the "The Other Folk" show, in May, I immediately began working on smaller Ampersand surfaces, because I knew this trip was coming up [see Untitled (516), Untitled (520), & Untitled (519)].

earlier version of #522

As in #s 516, 520, and 519, the reference photos I was and am now using have all come from the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum in Alabama (if you're paying attention, you'll note how mentioning this small fact is in slight contradiction of values discussed earlier on June 25th). The reason for this is a very classical one: the effect of creating my earlier work was not totally about replicating what I saw in my mind, per se, so using a reference from life (like my photos from the museum) fills in so many details that takes sooo much time to draw - more like tear - from my mind. The earlier process was making my work a bit unwieldy to instill a believable sense of pneuma, or breath of life, without, well.... life. So the dedication to a type of non-objectivity wasn't making my job easier. I found that it was keeping me from fulfilling larger and more immediate goals (like creating lots of work to help my learning curve). I knew the simple addition of using references could help speed up my creativity if I could find a similar type of relief-like spacing in the image that is rampant in a lot of my earlier pieces (like #498, or Samhain). It would also breed a vein of familiarity (technically, I'm supposed to say I'm a "classically trained" artist, so this is something I'm much more used to) without interfering with my hopes of discovering "the new" in my process(es).

But below you can see the two new pieces that I've taken to about 90-95% of completion.

#522

ink on clayboard

6 x 6"

#528

ink on clayboard

5 x 5"

I still have no idea which side is up or down for #522, 528... so don't get attatched. Actually don't ever get attached to any image I show you of my work. I'm always likely to go back and change (ruin, fix, improve, throw out my window, break over my leg, use as a coaster) it.

There is a reason why I say 90-95%. It's because I expect a certain amount of damage to be incurred on the way back to the states, and expecting to be finished touching work, only to find that you have to mend corners in the end seems to add time to the process. But if you have to do some touch-ups anyway, it makes the mending fold into the workflow a lot better.

I'll do what I can to avoid damage by wrapping everything in plastic (like above) and put the finished work into pre-made boxes fit for every size of surface (I brought over about 35 pieces).

Graffiti/Steet Art

2011-07-11T03:04:00.000-05:00

Seeing as I consider myself a bit of a student of "the mark" of artists and because I'm currently living in a city that has a higher concentration of this type of public art than I've ever had the opportunity to occupy (aaaaaand keeping in context with the recent passing of the first graffiti artist himself, Cy Twombly) I need to show you the samples that I've been able to capture, here in and around the Ixelles area of Brussels. I haven't really been able to riff explicitly on this type of art making, yet, but I think I began to give my attention to it (in small amounts) when I began using the airbrush about 8 years ago.

These are actual pieces of the Berlin Wall.

Places to See in Belgium

2011-07-10T15:02:00.004-05:00

We left the States on the 29th, but it has taken my wife and I a bit of time to get this whole tourism thing on the ball. But once we did, of course, it becomes immediately difficult staying abreast of all of the visual material I have to share. So I have to move quickly.

So here's the dealio on what you can't miss if you visit Brussels, where we're staying (particularly if you're an artist that tends to draw on anything and everything visual, as well as huge chunks of other sensory experience):

Natural Science Museum

Brussels, Belgium

Musical Instrument Museum

Brussels, Belgium

Weirtz Museum

Brussels, Belgium

(1)

(2)

(3,4)

On the 1st Wednesday of every month in Brussels, you can catch a lot of museums for free between one and five pm. The three museums above are some of that you could see during those times.

The Natural Science Museum: This was well worth the visit for the skeletons, dinosaur bones, and the primate floors. Be aware though, only the dinosaur level has translations in English. But it's still worth a view.

Musical Instrument Museum: This museum had an interesting setup. You had headphones that would play samplings of each musical instrument when you stood in front of them. But my advice is if you happen to not be happy with your headphones (any slight technical problems), you should be sure to switch those out at the front desk before you head on; I dealt with a lot more static than I probably needed to. Some might have trouble with the non-western instrument sections where the tones might ring a bit tinny in your ear after a while. Normally I'd of been into it, but combined with the second-rate headphones, it became a bit difficult to concentrate on what I was seeing/hearing. But the upper floors became much easier to digest and cut through my technical difficulties; probably due to familiarity with the sounds, matched with the tremendous amount of detailing and art that went into all of the inlays, woodwork, metalwork... I enjoyed myself a lot more. There was a lot of art in the upper floors.

The Weirtz Museum: This has to be one of the weirdest museums I've been to. I had no knowledge of this artist before hand. But there were some unique things that you might find alluring: It housed the largest canvases I've ever seen (see #1 above). There was a painting/mural that the artist chose to put in a corner of the building taking advantage of the rough texture of the concrete of the wall for inspiration (see #3, 4). It also contained some of the strangest pictures I've ever seen. One made me laugh aloud when viewing it (partially due to a terse, well-timed, off-colored comment from my companion - see #2). I had heard that Weirtz was known for his violence, but seeing a painting of a woman preparing a small child's leg with which she cut off to eat in a soup, I suppose, took me by surprise. Don't worry; she still held the bloodied body in her arms for comfort (NOT PICTURED - you didn't want me spoiling all the fun, did you?).

Travelling

2011-07-05T13:49:00.001-05:00

Visiting foreign lands becomes a ritual of discovery that focuses on the new while at the same time reiterating the similarities and differences between the little worlds we encounter and home. I find things I want to take back with me, while others are best left behind (Red Light District, anyone?). Traveling is one of many paths towards self discovery which, when wrung of all it's benefits, becomes an indispensable calibrator of self-identity. And to help give adrenaline rushes of weighty import, I prefer to merge my travels with looking at art.

So when I travel abroad (as in across the states) the act of looking is paramount for me. But when faced with the constraints of time and the sheer amount and variety of cultural experiences in the menu of many metropolitan center (as in Brussels, where I am now), the importance of brevity of selection cannot be ignored. Normally, in such situations, the web is indispensable in lending a hand at cutting the fat and narrowing my preferences... but I have not, as of yet, found a useful travelers site geared for the contemporary artist. Maybe I'm asking too much. Of course it's easy to find the museums in the guide books and searching for the top listing of galleries isn't difficult. But surely someone's realized that aesthetes of every stripe don't feed solely on museums (and those of us that do, don't know everything about the collection - I miss things all the time!); and sifting through galleries, reviews, and artists' websites can take a lot of time. There has to be something that cuts search time without sacrificing variety, while also providing novel suggestions, avoiding the trap of just being another guidebook online.

I'm imagining "Travepedia for Artists"... so far, I haven't found it.

Until I find it, I hope to dedicate some time sharing what I experience while in Europe, in case you ever decide to cover the same trails.

No, my blog is not about to turn into a travelogue. Everything will remain centered around the subject of my art and it's process. I apologize, but it's time to get back to more immediate concerns....

(my last gratuitous photograph)

"Untitled (519)" & The Issue of Titles

2011-06-26T13:26:00.006-05:00

Untitled (519)

ink, graphite on clayboard

5x7"

"...unless you want to make your art as obscure (and many artists do), the title of an abstract image is particularly important. Often the title is the only key to the art other than the piece itself..."

- I was floating around the internet, looking for people's thoughts on titling abstract works "Untitled" and I found the above quote from about.com, by Helen South.

You may have noticed the #s I place in the title section of the labels under my art on this blog and on my website [see Untitled (498), or Untitled (504-12)]. These numbers are assigned in order of what pieces I start. I have to keep track of all of the different bits of information relative to each work in a file on my computer and I would have a hard time remembering hundreds of "Untitled"s individuality (much less, what medium I used) without some sort of title distinction. Once I felt the pressure to start rushing my art naming, I thought it was better to take a cue from musical composers and just number each piece.

Those of you who have been following me since 2010, will notice I used to title all of my paintings and drawings. I've increasingly begun to lean on my numbering system for more and more works. This is, in part, because I think I'm starting to understand more about what I'm doing and therefore the art takes less time [from hundreds of hours for Delta to about eight for Untitled (516)]. But, it is also because when I look at other's art I don't like to keep a title in my minds "menu" - so to speak - while looking (much less, the entire label). I think it's very distracting and helps feed the habitual need to answer the "What is it?" question, as opposed to the "What is it doing?" kind of thinking that I prefer while experiencing works of art.

Of course, I acquiesce to the necessity of putting labels near a work of art. I obviously do it myself. People need that information. And it would be terrible to not know the names of who made your favorite paintings. But I, personally, make a conscious effort to not let the label be a part of my experience of other's work unless the artist has chosen to make that label a subject of their art (I can't think of any examples).

On a certain level this is an impossible task: to keep the information on labels out of your mind while that creamy white sticker, or matted, calligraphic font appears so repeatedly, so perfectly - so unconsciously - following the literary habit of top to bottom, left to right, waiting for your finished eyes to end with the finality of the experience as: "Johnny Paintsalot, Design in Blue, oil on canvas, gift of Dorothy McMoneybags".

Blech.

And I suppose, in a way, every artist makes the label a part of the work when they give their art a title (now I've thought of thousands of examples). So there's a certain inescapability of the thing that I would like to shirk, but feel like I have to accept to a certain extent.

What I accept is that artwork, when displayed, needs labels. What I don't accept is that abstract art requires, or for that matter, needs a title. Leaving an abstract work of art "Untitled" gives the viewer a chance to see it for the first time again and again, keeping the experience away from a certain measure of cataloguing temptation where the art is brought to mind, but finishes as quickly when a breath of "The Scream", "Broken Obelisk", or "The Dream" leaves your lips. This is where my contention with the quote above arises. It presents the problem of titling works of art as a task likened to presenting knowledge of a treasure, while reminding you of the importance of leaving the map so that you can actually find that treasure (therein, removing obscurity). I prefer to look at the situation a little differently. I consider untitled, abstract work to be both the treasure and the map, while the things on the labels are just what they actually are: information used to differentiate treasures. If a title is to be chosen for the work, it means that something has been added, even gifted to the completed work; a lens through which the tone, mood, color, space, subject, object or anything the artist desires may be made maleable or rarified in the physical artwork standing (or hanging) before you.

My choice to keep works untitled, is meant to remind the viewer that my art is not intended to be seen as abstracted flowers, or potential faces or masks, or whatever one may be seeing in any of my pieces that have correlations in the outside world. This is not putting obscurity on a pedestal. It is the conscious decision to keep the action of the work between the retina and the surface, leaving labels for their better purposes.

"Untitled (520)"

2011-06-25T15:17:00.001-05:00

Untitled (520)

ink, graphite on clayboard

6x6"

This was the 2nd or 3rd drawing that I started after Untitled (516). I can't remember which was first because I started one when the other was still in process. I tend to do 4-5 works at a time, with some pieces finishing much quicker than others. Right now, I have 5-6 surfaces stoking in the fire and I hope to have another 4-5 begun (maybe 3 finished) in the next week.

But this small scale group of work is very different than anything I've done before (considering my beginning point as Threshold Apprehension - the 1st piece I dedicated towards exploration of the mark last year in 2010). I think the most immediate thing that separates this new work from previous is the newly injected fantastical science-fiction-like nature of these pictures. The objects in the piece above have an obvious mechanical root in life. Combined with the superficially observed lack of gravity amongst the objects - the floating "confetti", the "tubing", the "panels" - one might walk away thinking I'm showing an image of jettisoned waste from the recently retired space shuttle. The second difference is the sizable expanses of color that seem to bubble amongst the detritus (using "sizable" to refer to the percentage of the surface the shape takes up - not how big the shape actually is).

This may be a bad way of starting a conversation where I don't want you consistently thinking of actual objects littering the images, but it at least gets your attention directed towards the correct objects in a more or less abstract picture. Yes, I may have used a reference image to jump off of like a diving board, but I clearly didn't describe it in all of it's literal glory for a reason. My art is not in competition with your phones and digital cameras.

But what I am seeking to capture and abuse by using pin-pointed techniques of drawing from life on micro and macro levels in my paintings is your mind's capacity for pattern recognition. This serves as the entry point for your eyes. The "look for what you know" tendency is intended to keep you searching, scanning for spaces of familiarity. As an artist, I make it my business to take this tendency and lead you to places you've never seen before.

Fore example...

(detail 1)

...when you're drawn in towards a little section, like Detail 1, you can see how the dark protuberance leading out of the red shape, followed by a flurry of calligraphic marks and colors, are arranged in a believable, three-dimensional, object-like manner (darks are where the shadows belong, lights are where the fullest light has been exposed, etc.). For all intents and purposes, your brain is legitimized in asking the question, "What is it?" It may not be clear, but the above image definitely describes a thing.

(detail 2)

Now let's turn our attention to Detail 2 (and let's ignore the swooping blue and purple shapes in the lower portion of the picture). One might have difficulty making heads or tails of the "What is it?" question. The color areas seem to have no relation to each other (other than their unity in a "coolness" of temperature), and there are three very prominent curving lines, slicing through blues, greens, and purples as if their shape indicated no mass. So what are we looking at?

If you "stand back" and look at the full picture of Untitled (520), you can see Detail 2's original area. Even though the 3 "poles" do have have a steep value contrast (like looking at a window through the spokes of a staircase) you can't activate them as a layer superimposed on the color shapes behind them creating two distinct spacial planes because of the (1) former color's natural buoyancy by the lightness of their hue, bringing them to the surface of the drawing and (2) the obvious fact that the 3 lines were made after the color splotches were laid down, leaving them on the surface as well. This creates a tension in spacing that denies the viewer the traditional three-dimensional experience in which one enters a painting and "walks around." From my perspective, the desire to move behind the three lines to see the floating greens and purples unobstructed should be disappointed to find that no such space exists. You have just been confronted by a space that lives to emphasize its own surface; the actual clayboard along with the actual media used to draw on it.

It would be sensible to be comforted by entrance of Detail 1, but by the time one came to Detail 2, you should realize the inconsistency of spacing and been confronted with a "different" type of visual experience that holds both types of phenomena in the same hand.

Getting Ready for Europe

2011-06-24T12:46:00.003-05:00

View Europe 2011 in a larger map

(zoom back if you can't see all the cities)

Next Wednesday, my wife and I are headed to Europe for the month because she is involved with a study abroad program at the university here. We're both treating it more like a work abroad opportunity and less like a vacation (though we're fully aware of how most of our days are going to look more like a vacation). With a short stop in Chicago for the day, we should arrive in Brussels, Belgium by 6:00pm on Wednesday night. Over four weeks we should make our way into the likes of Paris and London and whatever cultural beacons attract our fancy. Pray I stay organized to have a heap of relevant material spilling out onto this blog about what kinds of museums, art, or music I see while we wonder their streets and hotspots.

At the very least (because I know this is going to be an uphill battle) I have some pretty important things I do want to walk away with on August 2nd, whenever we finally make our voyage back to familiar shores:

Loads of new photographs of artwork and architecture to organize for studying later
Have the majority of the surfaces I take over completed, or at the very least, taken as far as they can for finishing when I reach home.

I purchased about 40 of these small Ampersand Claybord's a couple weeks ago, specifically because I knew I was going to Europe and didn't have a way to transport large pictures over there. So instead I picked up anything that could fit in a backpack.

This would obviously mean that my work was going to change quite a bit. I saw it as an opportunity and implimented some changes on a couple pieces, including one that I discussed June 21st on this blog [See Untitled (516)]. One of the effects of the changes implemented resulted in a loss of deep time for building large streams of data in thousands of tiny dots or slashes [see Snakesong, and Snakesong - detail], for a return to life drawing which quickens my square inch coverage time. This affords immediate benefits to the work. I only know how to successfully work from life at a speed higher than that of my imaginal works, meaning my marks come out faster and less refined for capturing an image in an impressionistic manner, imbuing a liveliness that I normally have to carve out of space over inflexible hours of tenacious "adjustment" through repetitive marks [Snakesong-detail]. My more patient techniques show aptitude and patience, but they sacrifice a breath of mark and require ever-so-slow build-ups to make the pockets of spacing that become reminiscent of looser media and materials like stains, and brush trails and watercolor [see Adrift-detail]. Only obstinate lookers and critical devils sense the wavering of my hand in most of my pieces and I consider that a loss at most times. Drawing from life switches the strengths of the mark from highlighting the higher, but sparse and calibrated decisions of my pictures to the lower, relational aspects of ground-level effects occurring on the surface. I hope to bring both to a newer table in the future.

"Untitled (516)" Purchase Information

2011-06-23T15:15:00.004-05:00

Untitled (516) © 2011 Lumi 9
ink, graphite on clayboard
6x6" (7 7/8 x 7 7/8 x 2 1/8" framed)
$200 (+shipping)

Skateboard

2011-06-23T13:02:00.000-05:00

Untitled (517)

ink on skateboard

This has been one of my little projects this past month. I've finished the image, itself. But there might be some tweaks that I'll apply a month or two down the road.

Untitled (516)

2011-06-21T11:36:00.003-05:00

Untitled (516)

ink, graphite on clayboard

6x6"

I've been waiting to blog about this piece because it represents a mild, but important, departure from some of my more recently developed artistic habits (I finished it about two weeks ago). The major differences are: (1) the loss of symmetry (though it's truer to say that it has just been embedded deeper than before), and (2) I'm working from a reference for the first time in a long time.

The reasons for these changes are simple (and yet, not so): (1) though the obsessive symmetry employed in most of my pictures is a sort of "edge acknowledgement" of the object upon which I am focusing my attention [see Untitled (498), and Samhain], it can be a bit restrictive visually. I hopefully have done the best that I can to avoid this entrapment; but it must be admitted that the time required to breath life in a frontal, completely symmetrical, figural apparition requires a vastly larger amount of time than if I were to loosen my belt and release my forms from the grid. But with this newly applied "attitude" (more explanation to follow), I have completed similar works of similar size in 2 days, a piece - as opposed to the months required for works like Snakesong. But have no doubt, symmetry will return in my work again and again. (2) the choice to use reference material has more to do with not requiring the non-use of them in my methods of picture making. In other words, I've been interested in exploring the limitations (if there are any) of solitary, unfettered imagination for a long time and I think with the past year to year-and-a-half of painting has given me the confidence to let my guard down and say that I don't need reference material to make a work of art (notice I haven't said anything about good or bad).

It was more of a challenge to myself to not rely on what my artistic education and experience has tried many times to convince me of what the backbone my practice should be: life drawing. I know I can draw from life. But for reasons that are felt as both idiosyncratic and necessary, I found it distasteful to heavily lean on the generously flowing streams of information that would pour from me in life drawing classes. It just seemed to come a bit too easy for me to be comfortable with the minor accomplishments of that setting. Honestly, I can't tell you exactly why I felt this way. But with hesitant approximation, I'll say I think I set my resolve to try to avoid the figure drawing tradition about 6-7 years ago when I was at the Kansas City Art Institute. I was (naively, I say now) trying to uphold another tradition: the avante-garde. Though my drawing skills have been intermittently abused in the intervening years in some pieces and art projects (see Emma, Box Watching), it has remained on the far periphery of my artistic output.

The fact that I am now inserting observational data does not insinuate that I'm finished with purely imaginal, symmetrical works. It is better to say it is the beginnings of feeling a bit more comfortable in my own skin and personal history. Obviously from Untitled (516), I have no interest in keeping the integrity of the original objects intact in the final work. I will continue to focus on the potential distortions and the plasticity of unbridled vision in a sufficiently loosened, yet composed pictorial environment. But the days of stubborn, obstinate refusal to use the basic tools at my disposal because doing so might make me feel like an artist with fewer limitations are finally beginning to wane (I remember a time when digital technologies like Photoshop were anathema for me... actually, also around 6-7 years ago).

I'd like to say that it's my newfound sense of humility... but it's more likely been the consistent hammering of practical concerns over the past two years. Either way, this new found artistic attitude is very welcome and I look forward to its output.

There's many things I can say about this work, but I think I've typed at your eyes long enough. But the short ending I want to leave you with is that works like Untitled (516) are going to be coming out of my studio much faster than the pieces made for The Other Folk show, so I expect to be working from this blog a lot more often in the future. So stay posted and you'll get to see the process unfold!

Art Catchup

2011-06-19T17:48:00.004-05:00

I'm starting a new batch of work and they're finishing much faster than my other work. Despite my wishes to keep up with all of the blogging I need to do on the work coming out of my studio, I'm too behind. So this needs to be a catchup post of the rest of the work that I displayed at The Other Folk Show because I need to start blogging about the newer paintings. But they're some of my favorite pieces so I'm happy to be sharing them with you.

Snakesong

ink on clayboard

30x30"

The Pad 1B & A2

ink, acrylic on clayboard

2 24x36" panels

Untitled (504-512)

ink on top of digital drawing printed on canvas

9 12x12" canvases

ERHM

ink on top of a digitally manipulated drawing printed on canvas

31x31"

Untitled (515)

(Limited edition of 10)

giclee print of digital drawing

18x24"

Untitled (513)
ink on clayboard
12x12"
© 2011 Lumi 9

Framed and hung artwork...

2011-06-18T15:16:00.003-05:00

Instill

2011-06-07T11:47:00.001-05:00

Instill

ink on top of digital drawing printed on canvas

36x48"

As a painter, I tend to synthesize my influences in art, sometimes more directly than others. This piece is dedicated towards exorcizing at least one of the ideas that I have gleaned from Clyfford Still. His tendency toward applying paint in a décollage sort of manner has always been very striking. You may see that portions of the white in Instill have an appearance of being torn to reveal a helical pattern underneath (composed of 4 color strips combining to make that overall, fleshy color). Which layer was on top didn't matter. What did matter to me, was the edge in which the "colors" meet and how that edge affected the shapes and the color of those shapes. I don't believe I made the original conception of the piece a major component of the final outcome, but it was an interesting jumping off point that I hope to revisit again in the future.

Two weeks until I.C.E.

2011-05-25T14:20:00.000-05:00

2011-05-23T18:57:00.006-05:00

Voom

ink on top of digitally manipulated drawing that is printed on canvas

31x32"

This is "Voom". The title and concept of the work came after I started working on the patterning that you can see in the small phone pic that you see below.

I had planned, all along, that I was going to experiment working on top of giclée prints of images, for some pieces for the Kentuck Show (One week left! Check it out before it comes down!). Like Male, I had to create a pattern or field that I wanted to print out. But I thought this piece would look better if I drew a small portion of the symmetrical motifs by hand, and then scan that into the computer and see what kind of manipulation I could do to it afterwards. I originally had planned to let the squarish pattern that formed after connecting the tiles (seen below) keep in the final look of the painting... but I decided to experiment.

I overlaid one of my "masks" and when I flipped on the white color.... it just became clear that the piece had asserted it's overall "look".

I immediately saw Pollocks "The Deep" in my mind when I saw the image above. So I started working from there... while also thinking it was a good time to start running titles around in my mind.

About this time, I was on a kick of watching documentaries about famous artists and I had just seen The Universe of Keith Haring, and there was a short clip of a video work that Haring did where he was saying "Daa-da-da-Daa-da-da-Daaa-Daa-Da-Da" directly into the camera. He went on to explain that this was related to when his Dad had taught him morse code when he was a kit. I thought I would reverse the sex and use inspiration from that to make my painting about "woman".

We often hear the phrase - or maybe not often, but we've all heard before, "Va-va-voom!"

I heard the phrase in my mind because I drew this odd "flame" right in the center of my painting... like a wondering vagabond of black smoke amongst a snowstorm... but I've been keen to get some motor sports references in my work for my brother (he does autobody) and this flame reminded me of the fire on the side of any race car to skateboard. It didn't happen immediately, but at some point the associational machinery led me to "Va-va-voom!". A phase full of testosterone filled wonder.

And that was it. I knew what I was going to do. I had my title and I knew that I was going to apply the first part of the phrase literally on the canvas in a reorganized sort of morse code, just like Keith did. And that's where I want you to be with this work: thinking about the sound of the phrase, repeating it over and over in your mind as a kind of meditational invitation, while the swirling color and shapes blows it's wind about the stationary black figure confronting your countenance like a goddess.

Untitled (513)

2011-05-20T18:05:00.002-05:00

Untitled (513)

12x12"

ink on clayboard

Because I make most of my pictures at the same time while I prepare for a show, this piece was an interruption to that flow in a collection of work that I am now showing at the Kentuck Museum this month. This is why the energy released in the picture itself is so much more complete in it's cycle of dissolving itself than in most of my other pictures. The size of the board was small and I didn't interrupt with any symmetrical forms, which helped relieve a lot of the front end preparation time.

Inspiration for the actual subject of the piece came from the chapter "Mushrooms and Evolution" in The Archaic Revival, by Terence McKenna. He ruminates over the events that brought such levels of consciousness to proto-humans, arguing for a position that states hallucinogenic plants bootstrapped themselves onto an evolving primate insuring an ecstatic, hallucinogenic experience accessing "...the transcendent Other..." for the primate; domestication of previously wild cattle creating a specialized environment perfect for the dung-loving mushroom.

"Interspecies pheromones or exopheromones"

Where "...pheromones are chemical compounds exuded by an organism for the purpose of carrying messages between organisms of the same species...", exopheromones would relay information between species. This is played out in the article as a mystery of unwinding romance between Man and Mushroom.

No need to let the truth of the matter darken a discussion of what thoughts arise amongst what kind of pictures of lurid fantasies or bitter hells... What I'd hoped to illuminate with this piece are the spaces between conscious recognition of any polarities. A place that is neither heaven, nor hell, but contented to have no concern with which is which.

My picture Untitled (513), is a picture from my mind of such a space.

Druid City Arts Poster Draw Winner

2011-05-20T17:47:00.005-05:00

Male

2011-05-17T18:18:00.005-05:00

Male

34x48"

ink on top of a digital drawing printed on canvas

I had always wanted to work on top of a giclée print. I thought it would be nerve-racking building imagery on top of something that wasn't as retrievable as hard clayboard. It gave way toward an understanding that my work isn't about choking flow of energy over mania of material; mistakes even within this range of experience are amicable toward creativity and forgiveness. It always points to time. When in doubt, slow down and find the rhythm that your content with. Rushing work of such necessary cleanliness never makes for a comfortable finish.

Homegrown Alabama

2011-05-09T11:42:00.000-05:00

Homegrown Alabama, the farmers market that operates on the University of Alabama campus on Thursdays from May through October, has just added an artistic component this year. Once a month (on the 3rd Thursday), they will showcase 4 crafters/artists and they just asked me to show in the first round in May. So mark your calendars for next Thursday to see me and my art in poster, postcard, and fine art print form (along with a few originals).

Date: May 19, 2011

Time: 3pm-6pm

Location: The market is located at Canterbury Chapel on Hackberry Lane between Bryant Drive and University Blvd

Website: www.homegrownalabama.org

Indie Craft Experience

2011-04-10T09:59:00.000-05:00

Indie Craft Experience » ICE Vendors

I am taking part in the Indie Craft Experience in Atlanta, GA on June 11 + 12 and I will be sharing a booth with Kelly McKernan. You should stop by her website and check out her fine art and illustration work, or find her page on facebook, and send her some digi-love.

What I plan on bringing to the table (probably and literally), are prints, postcards, and original artworks. Anyway who stops by to say hello and signs up for my mailing list, will be submitted for a drawing to win a free poster print of one of my paintings!

See you there.

Untitled (498)

2011-04-06T12:19:00.001-05:00

Untitled (498)

16x16"

ink on clayboard

This painting will be on display May 5th at the Kentuck Museum, during a solo exhibition of new work, entitled The Other Folk.

It was a piece that arose out of a section from another painting that will also be showing at the Kentuck in May (currently titled: Snakesong). On that work I had transitioned on to a black ground and applying white ink to delineate form. This was a bit different from normal because I was using white ink, predominantly, and that ink didn't have a good, opaque flow out of my habitual Rapidographs. I now had to rely on quill dip pens, which give off a completely different feel to the rhythm of the work. I liked this and decided to dedicate an entirely new work to this difference.

Therein lies the idea behind Untitled (498). Because the major foundation of the method deployed here was going to have a built-in, increased level of retinal buzz, because of the stark black and white, I stuck with minimally ordering a group of spheres over the 16x16", like there was an evenly applied Cymatic Experiment rippling over the clayboard.

From there I just let the pattern grow and grow.

Adrift

2011-03-30T09:58:00.003-05:00

Adrift

24x24"

ink, acrylic, gouache on clayboard

So this work took me a long-ass time. I never had a real plan with it, other than inserting a figure, reminiscent of works like Hathor or Ossoluta into an environment like Willow in a more natural (asymmetrical) fashion.

As the piece developed over the months, I was particularly pleased with the buzz between the relatively complimentarily relation of colors, in conjunction with the similarly valued foreground (with a majority of the ink applied), doubling the retinal tension.

The funny thing is that up throughout this time, I still had not yet thought to apply white ink (or gouache). Every white region on the piece was going to be carved out by remaining, naked clayboard. I'll tell you now, it's just a whole lot simpler and smarter to keep some white Rapidograph ink or gouache handy. I literally built up the background "growth" that you can see in the final work as the really dark forms spindling out from the central, lighter figure with teeny, tiny mechanical pen. I brought it all to a near black over a course of months... only to be frustrated by how fairly underdrawn the forms were.

My final moves were to frisket out all of the color and the frontal figure/mask and airbrush more black over these "growth" forms and then go over that with white ink. It really gave a strange, wet, Saran-wrap look to these portions of the picture which can be seen a bit more clearly in the detail below.

The strangest thing is the work ended up pretty close to some o f the earliest thoughts of what I would want a work, such as this, to end up appearing like. The surprise element that normally arise in making artwork, which I feed off of in steering the creative boat towards completion, was tamed a more than usual... but that's pleasing once in a while. It feels like a I've earned myself a bigger bull to ride.

Samhain: Final Picture, Final Thoughts

2011-03-29T09:42:00.001-05:00

Samhain

12x12

ink, acrylic on clayboard

The last time that I thought this work was finished was on Halloween of last year. Seems like yesterday to me, since it feels like I've been concerning myself with this piece up until last month. But this work needed some sophistication of color to help make it pop and I really didn't like how the black graphics just "sat there" on the surface of the picture, obscuring the eye's transition into color.

You, my audience, probably can't see any of the details in the spiraling helixes laid into the background (yes, they are there), camouflaged by the varied movements above them. But I went over them a second time with the same colors and filled in the white areas interspersing the pattern with a lemon yellow ink to help heighten the light of the piece. At that time, I thought, for only using the warmest colors, I really didn't have enough light shooting out from the square.

To vary it a bit, I applied some olive greens in specific locales on the picture to intersperse a subtle foreground/background tension amongst the yellow and give the central figure a bit more (keeping it subtle, now) depth.

I also did a little Ben-Day action on the edges of the black graphics to help them fade just a touch, like those Massimo t-shirts I used to wear in 6th grade.

Finally, I was needing a pinch of something to just give the eye a moment to forget about the yellow and I realized that hiding my tendrils so delicately was not helping me make this picture pop... and their wispiness asked a bit more energy out of the viewer than I really thought was appropriate, so I took some quinacridone red and highlighted the tips like a scorpion (do scorpions have red stingers).

Druid City: My 1st Festival

2011-03-27T10:52:00.002-05:00

The setting: A relatively new festival in it's second year had found a nice, plushly green government plaza in which to hold a very necessary cultural event in Tuscaloosa, AL. Artists and musicians and were asked to take part and being green on the festival circuit, I welcomed the opportunity. But spirits were damped over the forecast of rain for the early morning and afternoon. I must say, the thought of my original art getting damaged by water was something I really didn't enjoy thinking about, especially when my mind was all abuzz with concerns over what I needed to accomplish for my first festival.

The day moved on sluggishly, without many people wondering the paths frightened away from the grey skies overhead I suppose.

So we waited.

And then, I heard a rumble in the clouds.

Luckily, the moment I heard thunder I and with the help of a dispatched helper (my sweet wife, who toiled with me, yesterday) to cover all the artwork in plastic. As the last piece of tape was applied, Ker-splash! For the whole of about 2 minutes the rain came down without much mercy... but I was prepared. Except for some droplets on some mattes and backing paper on frames, all of the original artwork and prints I brought for the day came out unscathed. Whew!

But was that the end?

Turns out, yes. And soon the people came and the festival really got underway. It actually turned into a typical, sunny, hot afternoon.

It was a lot of fun, I met a lot of people, networked a bit and listened to a lot of music (some was good: check out The Bandar-Log, from Auburn). We moved a few poster prints and a lot of postcards (thanks for the suggestion, Kelly!), gained a lot of friends for my mailing list, and found a few leads on stores that might want to sell my work.

Overall: good day.

I thought the handling of the festival by the organizers was very enthusiastic and pretty well done. Everyone was nice, helpful and I felt very accommodated for; and more importantly, the fees were very affordable and made it encouraging to take part. Talking with one of their volunteers, it seems like that they've grown since last year retaining all of the artists who had participated and hope to do so again, for 2012, hopefully growing more. Except for the fact that I had to walk a really long way to load up my car at the end of the day (I don't know how this wasn't thought of), put a slight, sour note on top of what was a pretty nice day disappointed me a bit. Watching all of the tired artists lug their materials and tables on a winding path around to the parking lot was a bit sad. But it didn't ruin anything for me and I look forward to seeing what they do to improve next year.

Liveidea (Bug)

2011-03-18T08:40:00.000-05:00

Liveidea (Bug)

16x16

ink on clayboard

I blogged about this piece on December 12th, but I ended up not being completely satisfied with the color scheme, so I had to go in and make changes. I think it's a bit livelier now. Anyway, I already spent money in getting the work photographed, so there's no going back now, which helps my mind stop looking, critiquing -- wait, I see a spot that needs to be filled in!

... Get ahold of yourself, D. She's done. Let her rest in piece.

Now on Flickr

2011-03-17T10:49:00.000-05:00

Hoping to expand my viewing audience, I just uploaded up a few of my pieces, including a couple new pieces. Check it.

www.flickr.com

Lumi 9's Portfolio photoset

Druid City Arts Festival

2011-03-16T09:15:00.001-05:00

I have been selected to be a part of this year’s Druid City Arts Festival, by Creative Campus.

Hopefully, I’ll see y’all there during the day’s activities and festivities, or maybe at the pub crawl.

Information about the when and where can be found below, taken from www.uacreativecampus.org:

Druid City Arts Festival is a celebration of regional original arts with a focus on music. This multi-genre, two day festival culminating on Saturday, March 26 in a free, all-day, all-ages festival from 11am to 7pm in Government Plaza in downtown Tuscaloosa, Al. The day-long celebration will be preceded by an evening pub crawl on Friday, March 25, 2011. The 19 and up night time portion is a partnership between DCAF and selected venues across town which are showcasing adjudicated musical acts. To show support for the local arts community, proceeds from pub crawl wristband sales, which act as admission/cover charge, will be donated to the Tuscaloosa Arts Council’s small grants program – to fund arts education initiatives.

Now in its second year, The Druid City Arts Festival has had rich success in introducing new music and visual artists to the Tuscaloosa community. All ages of the community came out to support the sights and sounds. Attendance for the festival’s first year reached 3,000 for the combined day time and night-time portions. This year we are buzzing with energy, creativity and the joy of collaborating with the community, artists, storytellers, local merchants, and thousands of visitors converging on downtown Tuscaloosa in March 2011.

DCAF aims to highlight artists within Tuscaloosa and the surrounding area through a large, interactive community event. The festival seeks to encourage community members to embrace diversity within Tuscaloosa by finding the common bonds that inherently exist within the enjoyment of the arts.

Contact:

If you have any questions about the Druid City Arts Festival or are interested in becoming a sponsor, please email druidcityartsfestival@gmail.com.

Address:

2122 6th St, Tuscaloosa, AL 35401, USA

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Insomniala at the Green Bar

2011-03-10T00:17:00.001-06:00

Insomniala is going to be exhibited for the remainder of this month at the Green Bar (formerly Little Willie's), here in Tuscaloosa.

So if you want to catch some tunes and see some art, come on by!

Location: 2202 4th St., Tuscaloosa, AL 35401
Hours: Mon-Sat: 7pm-2am
Email: greenbaralabama@gmail.com

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New Business Cards

2011-02-09T13:20:00.002-06:00

Group Show Thursday

2011-02-02T10:42:00.007-06:00

My piece, Insomniala, just got selected to the upcoming group show, "Love", at the Alabama Art Kitchen. The show will be Thursday on February 3rd, from 6-9pm.

The Alabama Art Kitchen
2626 University Blvd. Tuscaloosa, AL 35401
alabamaartkitchen@gmail.com

Support your local arts!

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New Creature

2010-12-12T13:07:00.001-06:00

Untitled

16x16"

ink on claybord

This piece has been in the works for a while now. I didn't know what it was going to end up looking like when I started it. The main detail that motivated the work was the vertical band running down the middle to highlight the bifurcation I seem to be obsessed with.

This is what she looked like after I laid down all of the initial ink (pretty sure this took up at least a month of my time). I knew I really wanted to give attention to the "being" in the foreground, so my first (or second, I suppose) dive into the drawing was laying in the colored outlines, knowing that there was nothing to be left alone or cut apart by more and more information. Having laid those outer lines down, I realized my background was just to overpowering. Working on another piece and having just discovered one of my new favorite tools - white Rapidograph Universal ink - I pushed back the 'background' (notice how the swirling helixes flow perfectly with the inner recesses of the creature).

I don't have a title, yet, and I won't push for one until it's time to start getting all of my work finalized for my show at the Kentuck Museum in May. Until then it will remain a temptation on my wall, begging me to make changes.

Be a friend: tell me I'm done.

Show at the Kentuck Museum

2010-11-27T17:34:00.001-06:00

I have just been asked to have an exhibit at the Kentuck Art Center in Northport, Alabama.

“The Kentuck Art Center...It's the place between tradition and tomorrow, nurturing our Southern folk art roots while showcasing emerging American craft artists....”

May 5th - 28th, 2011 (opening reception 5-9pm, on the 5th)

503 Main Ave, Northport, Alabama 35476

www.kentuck.org

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Sketch

2010-11-22T18:26:00.000-06:00

Along with the website makeover, I went ahead and included about 6 "new" sketchbooks that I never had time to upload to the older version of my homepage. Check 'em!

Website Makeover

2010-11-21T12:40:00.002-06:00

Just finished my website makeover. I think it looks pretty.

Let me know if you have any suggestions and I'll try to include them. Email me here.

Bat Cat

2010-11-18T19:07:00.003-06:00

Bat Cat

india ink on paper

5x8"

Samhain

2010-10-31T15:17:00.004-05:00

Samhain

india ink, acrylic on claybord

12x12"

So, I think I finished this one.

Figuring, since I completed the work on this special holiday - and it is a fitting 'Summer's End" - I thought I'd title it the same as this blog post (which, by the way, is also my B-day - so I have a minor emotional attachment, as well).

Doesn't my wife have lovely hands?

Building That I Don't Know

2010-10-28T17:52:00.002-05:00

Pavilion
ink on paper, digitally enhanced in Painter XI

Tuscaloosa, AL

from "Little Guy" Sketchbook

Cemetery Obelisk

2010-10-27T18:26:00.000-05:00

Cemetery Obelisk

from "Little Guy" Sketchbook

Self-Portrait

2010-10-24T21:35:00.001-05:00

Self Portrait

Adobe Illustrator

What have I been doing?

2010-10-21T16:25:00.000-05:00

These are two details of two pieces I've been working on for a while. I've actually got two others hidden away somewhere. The bottom has been in process since April. Neither are 100%, yet. It might be time to assess my "style" and see if I can ramp up my speed a bit?

Prints for Sale!

2010-10-21T15:53:00.000-05:00

Museum quality prints of my artworks are now being offered through the Fine Art Marketplace, an online showcase of emerging and established artists. The Marketplace and a direct link to my personal profile and prints are found below.

F.A.M. - Darick Ritter

Fine Art Marketplace

Museum quality, limited edition prints of 100 are offered on fine art watercolor paper and canvas (either standard-wrapped or gallery-wrapped), starting for $75.

Posters, for $40 can be purchased as well.

Our new home, Tuscaloosa

2010-10-21T13:23:00.000-05:00

We love all of the new light that we get to enjoy. The house faces the southwest which seems to heat the house a bit in the summer. But sunset is a gorgeous time of day in our home.

It is also great because we have some really nice gallery space for all of my new work.

Taina: The Hunter Bloodline

2010-09-28T16:00:00.000-05:00

I rooted through some of my old work and I just uploaded a comic that I illustrated in 2008 that I've always intended to post, but haven't had the time to do.

This was a commission to help illustrate someone else's previously written script for a story in an Underworld-esque comic book.

Due to contract discrepancies (i.e. I never got paid), the comic was never printed and the story never went beyond issue #1. It was a bittersweet moment in my life. I was really proud to be able to pump out this book in two months. All I wanted to do was to make my stake as a real comic artist... but when I finished the last note of the final page I didn't realize it would never come to be.

Well, I simply do not think that that is a good enough reason to keep the art hidden, so I posted the full comic on my website in the comic section of my gallery.

Below are some samples.

cover

page 4

page 14

But I just want to clarify: I did NOT write this story.

"Insomniala" - The Process

2010-05-05T19:44:00.000-05:00

Insomniala

india ink, acrylic on claybord

16x16"

Now for one of my favorite pieces...

The funny thing about this is I didn't even realize how mandalic it was until it was completely finished. Didn't even cross my mind. It was built upon a cold configuration of circles.

This was the last piece created for the show at Apache and the title was born out of the fact that during that last week before making the show, I would nap for 2 hour increments in between each 12 hour block.... utter torture. I've always been a night owl, but this piece has put me over the edge of the remaining romanticism I might have held about the creative process brightening as the moon comes out.

No more.

Give me sun.

Give me sleep.

"A Biogenesis" - Some Process Pics

2010-05-05T19:31:00.000-05:00

A Biogenesis

india ink, acrylic on claybord

12x12"

This piece was a real pleasure to work on. It's the only work of my recent paintings that I actually wanted to bring life-related colors into the process. Part of the reason why my palette has brightened so much is because I've had such an aversion/discomfort with bright, inviting colors throughout my life. It's mostly related to my deep roots in black and white drawing and little success with color experiments outside of painting from life.

Making "Delta"

2010-05-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

And drumroll, please...

Delta

india ink, acrylic, marker on claybord

24x30"

"Alpha" - The Process

2010-04-29T20:17:00.000-05:00

Anyone remember this piece?

I talked about it in the post, "New Untitled Work".

Well, I wasn't finished with it then and I continued to work on it after that post for my show at the Apache Cafe.

I liked the way it looked, in and of itself. But it wasn't focused in the direction I was trying to head with my work and I needed a way to resolve the piece. So, what I first needed to do, was level the disjointedness of the colors and made the overall look way more subtle, but still very strong and bright.

Perhaps you're not surprised, but it took a lot of work to keep the differences between to two major variants of 'stripe' read through as I 'leveled' off the overall color. The image above is with two separate occasions of cutting frisket around one type of stripe (either the original lighter yellow-orange, or the darker orange red in the first image above) and spraying with a mixture of red. On top of that, I masked off a heavy portion of the background behind the stripe and created a single color for the far background (notice the bloody red splotch in the 1st image and then see how most of it is gone in the lower version).

This is where things get fun.

I started to insert one of my bio-mechanical forms into the embedded explosion of movement. It was really difficult to overpower that red and find an acceptable white to build upon. I could never actually get a complete white, which is what led me to decide to continue the marker stripes into the bio-mechanical form.

Alpha

india ink, acrylic, permanent marker

16x20"

This is the final image that resulted: a sort of peeking-through-the-clouds effect, exploding onto the landscape with weighted rays of blackness I don't believe anyone would be too excited to run into.

Wrap Party

2010-04-27T14:29:00.000-05:00

The Wrap Party for my show, Ephemateria, was last night at the Apache Cafe. I thought it went really well. There was lots of people having a good time, listening to some good music, figure drawing, having a few drinks, and looking at some art.

The best way to describe it?

Extravaganza.

I want to extend a thanks to Karen and the rest of the Apache Cafe for putting on the show and allowing me the opportunity to share my work. Thank You!

The one unfortunate thing is that I didn't bring any extra batteries for my camera... so it died a couple blurry pictures into my photographing the event. I'm very sorry that I can't share any of the visuals with you. I was really bummed.

The work is going to remain up at the Cafe for one more week, so if you missed your chance to see me at the opening or the wrap party, you can still skip on over to the Apache and see one of many different, fun things that they have going on there during the week and see the art work before it comes down on Monday.

I'll be following up, once the show comes down, with posting the rest of the work on this blog and commenting and showing process pictures of about 5 more pieces in the coming days. Stay tuned!

Make it to the Wrap Party!

2010-04-14T12:57:00.000-05:00

Threshold Apprehension

2010-04-07T19:39:00.000-05:00

Finally got a really good image of this difficult-to-photograph work:

Threshold Apprehension

graphite and permanent marker on paper

14x22"

Here are some details at an earlier stage that I hope can help appreciate some of the work I put into 'negating the positivity' of the subject in the image. This was an image of destruction. I truly loved the process. I could have kept working on it for years... I tried to make it like a fractal... every time you would move closer, there was a fully developed world from which to 'peer over the edge'.

Pics from the show opening...

2010-04-07T14:39:00.000-05:00

"Ephemateria"

Ossoluta

2010-04-07T11:38:00.000-05:00

This work was finished on the 28th of March (I'm staggering my image updates because I am having a show at the Apache Cafe and I want to encourage people to foot over there and see the work for themselves in person).

It's titled, "Ossoluta", a variation on the word assoluta, meaning, "absolute" or "supreme".

I really liked going through with leaving the background a warm gray. Perfect for bleeding in a fleshy pink into the forms into the center.

Ossoluta

india ink and acrylic on claybord

12x12"

Here are the only in-progress pics that I managed to capture before finish:

Poster I just made...

2010-03-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

Here's a band poster I just did for a band through a friend I have in Colorado. Had some interesting requests, as you can see. Wanted a Drive-By Truckers look with two songs being referenced in the poster (Song 1 being the dude on the light pole; Song 2 being the "roadster's" whirring past on a dirt track with the numbers 19 & 33 on their sides). I also had to do it really quickly, so this is what I came up with in a few hours. I hate rushing... but I have a lot on my plate and there's no other way for me to do it.

But I have to say - I need to force myself to do it more often. I am, for one, missing a large body of work that I declined to do because I "didn't have the time"; two, because I get to experience the uniqueness of tumultuous creativity that can only come with a compression of time frame. In other words: I learn a lot doing it.

Working through the stress...

2010-03-25T13:22:00.000-05:00

Due to my upcoming show, I'm going to play my cards close to the chest and not show the newest work for that show until it comes down. But, in lieu of a belated process update, I thought I'd show some pics of me working on the interim stages of a piece that's going to be shown in 'Ephemateria' at Apache Cafe on the 5th of April at 7pm.

Upcoming solo show...

2010-03-18T23:33:00.000-05:00

If you live in Atlanta area, I'd love to see you April 5th, for my upcoming show, "Ephemateria".

My artist statement is as follows:

My work rationally explores the mysteries of subjective experience in human acts of prayer, meditation, art making, fasting, and entheogenic plant consumption. The paintings are metaphors for how these experiences play upon the liminality of consciousness itself, witnessed by the dynamic relationship between surface and depth, figure and ground. Reserving judgment for what might or might not be true about these states, I let the notions of the unknown play out as evolving organisms within the fields built upon the surfaces of my art. In practice, this begins by limiting my material and acceptance of my idées fixes to create a topography of repetitive marks facilitating a free-flowing consciousness. From within this domain, I conjure interruptions in fields of colored ribbons and repeated spiraling helixes; the personalities that arise are bio-mechanical abstractions that assert their beauty. As I attend with loving care to my garden of characters, the work absorbs my rays of energy, transforming my consciousness into something wholly Other.

The show will be at the Apache Cafe on 64 3rd St. NW, Atlanta GA. Doors open at 7 pm.

I've been preparing this whole month and some of the pieces you've seen in my blog will be on display, like Hathor, and Willow.

Come down, say hello, and let me know what you think!

Here's the poster I designed for the show.

Lumophage

2010-03-16T11:46:00.000-05:00

Lumophage

india ink and acrylic on claybord

12x12"

Just finished a new piece, yesterday. I had some toubles with it initially that were manageable. It added an extra 12 hours to the process, but overall, I think it turned out nice.

Rough Last Weekend... but a Goddess emerged.

2010-03-07T11:55:00.000-06:00

So last weekend was a troublesome time for me. Besides feeling feverish all weekend (luckily no temperature) and having UK and Mizzou both lose in basketball and the US losing in the final of the men's Olympic hockey tournament (such a nail biter), I had two distinct failures in my artwork as well that set me back a good weeks worth of work.

The goal I was aiming for for this piece was to get my background streams to move in front of a few of the arms of this bio-mechanical work. My plan was to build the 'star' to a completed stage and then once I made a few of the smoking spirals butted up against the arm, I would sand down the subject and then continue the stream once I remade a smooth surface.

Unfortunately, that plan was scrapped once I realized that the sanding just did too much damage to the surface when I tried to get rid of the deeply etched Xacto cuts filled with paint... I never could really do it... there was always a visible line from where I laid down my blade on the frisket to make my make-shift stencils for the airbrush. I tried paint to help cover it, but that just made a mess as you can see by the remaining white in the second picture below. Also, the sanding made the surface so bumpy, that there was an unavoidable shadow from where I cut too deeply as you can also see in the second picture where the wave moves in front of the arm of the 'star'.... you can actually see where the contours of the arm used to be because of the mirroring shadow left from the sanding. Failure. Delete.

... that was Saturday.

#1... wasted.

So... I resolved to start over on Sunday with a new piece.

For this failure, I just made the supremely stupid mistake of rushing to brush away some eraser particles with my Big Brush before I let a glob of paint completely dry. I just spread the ink all the way across a third of the picture, meaning I would have to use a combo of sanding/painting to save the image, and I just decided to let it go because I just wasn't far enough along.

So #2... scrapped.

You might ask about #3?

Happily, I can say I did complete an image. I was extremely careful... took my time... made preparatory sketch lines whenever possible.... I think my hand shook for a lot of the process and I probably annoyed my wife a lot with the tension in my voice whenever she tried to talk through my earphones (I love you, hon).

Hathor

india ink and acrylic on claybord

12x12"

This 3rd time was the charm and I'm very pleased with the results. I titled it Hathor because I wanted something to evoke a 'great horned goddess' to help insinuate a loving, sexual destruction that I think best fits with the character of the black markings of the piece.

New Piece, No Title, What's New

2010-02-15T12:59:00.000-06:00

So this work represents the small accumulation of what I've learned this year and what's been effective for developing my style (a word I'd prefer to use is habit). I think it's a nice forward step in seeking out that truer expression of the vision inside me. The associations and feelings that flow from viewing the work are fun and I look forward to taking it to another level.

It's strange to say, but I think I feel the flow coming on.

Have to get back to work...

Updated March 7, 2010:

Here are a couple of new developments for this work:

1) I have come up with a title for this work: Invitaris (meaning 'you are invited' in Latin)

2) I was given a chance to donate a work of art for a charity to help support a choir in L.A. called the Angeles Choir (http://www.angeleschorale.org/default.asp). I thought it was a great idea and obliged by donating this piece to help support their cause.

Invitaris

india ink, acrylic, on claybord

6x6"

Color Tests

2010-02-15T12:48:00.000-06:00

In processing my motifs, one of the hardest thing for me to predict is color relationships. So I spend a lot of time working on color experiments like the ones below to see what I can do to make the most effective decisions in my "backgrounds".

These are some samples of what I churned out last week:

"Phthalo Blue on Hensa Yellow"

india ink, acrylic, on claybord

5x5"

"Phthalo Blue on White"

india ink, acrylic, on claybord

5x5"

"Pink Watersketti"

india ink, acrylic, on claybord

5x5"

Snow Day in ATL

2010-02-12T16:33:00.000-06:00

Not exactly prescient to my artwork, but this is what I've been able to enjoy through my studio window all day. Lovely. Safe driving America.

Out of Darkness

2010-02-07T15:53:00.000-06:00

I've been really excited these past few days because I've been working on getting my airbrush equipment all set up and all the necessary items for me to use it in my recent work. While still excited, I'm disappointed in how hard it is to get either a scan or a photo of the work to translate properly onto the web. The subtle transitions make it very difficult to adjust the colors over my very repetitive markings. I refuse to go in and adjust every milimeter with my Wacom, since that would take longer than the artwork, itself did. But, since I can't resist sharing, here's a small 5x5" that I did yesterday and finished up today.

"Out of Darkness"

india ink, acrylic, on clayboard

5x5"

Watersketti

2010-02-03T12:26:00.000-06:00

Started this Monday night and finished on Tuesday afternoon. The thing that I wanted to see was what it would do to the overall design if I set two separate color families adjacent to one another. I really like the effect, as it polarizes the picture. All the cooler colors are designated as essentially coming from the right, as the warmer colors are coming from the left. I originally drew the work rotated 45 degrees clockwise. But I upended it on a corner because I liked the push-pull between the complementarity of the color to be drawn in a perfectly perpendicular direction to the "ground", as it balances perfectly on one corner, giving a sense of magnetization, as if the colors were fighting to push the drawing over in one fashion or another... but because of their evenly matched weights (though, this isn't quite true), the picture magically stands tall.

"Watersketti"

permanent marker on paper

7x7"

Shimmering Shoal

2010-01-31T11:50:00.000-06:00

This was my weekend project: to finish up a "quick" piece because I needed a break from my larger blue piece that I've been working on.

I changed the rules a little bit. Restricted them. Takes the piece back toward a stream of creativity that reminds me of an old favorite of mine, Bridget Riley. I loved her so much back in school (holy cow, four years ago!). I'm considering reading The Eye's Mind, again.

"Shimmering Shoal"
permanent marker on paper

10.5x11.5"

Blue Mapping

2010-01-30T12:03:00.000-06:00

This is a piece I've been working on for about a month, now. I'm drawing it on a 24x30" piece of mounted clayboard with marker. It's aimed to be an exercise in mapping a surface in a unique way, which can have a surprising depth-of-field. The two-color scheme is meant to help the viewer navigate spaces.

The idea came while working on the orange piece I posted on the 16th (still haven't thought of a name - though I have a few ideas) that uses the same technique for the "background", just a different color. I thought it would be interesting enough to just explore that area of the painting. I thought that the surface could provide an interesting enough experience without the "ink interruptions". I really want this style of mine to be developed into a satisfactory, repeatable environment in which to throw my ideas "against the wall" - so to speak. I like it so far, though I've had a strong urge to interrupt the space with a new color. But I've done well avoiding the temptation. I really want this to be a simple piece.

Venice Sketchbook

2010-01-18T12:39:00.000-06:00

M gave me this sketchbook from Venice about... 2 (could it be 3?) years ago. Last year in the fall I started filling it up. I don't think I'm going to be posting every page any time soon, because I'm kind of working on everything at once. Although there are a few pages I thought would be interesting to see now, even though none of them are finished.

As a big fan of moleskins in general, this sketchbook has taken my heart with its really thick pages and nice leather-bound cover. It's rugged. And the fine - I'm assuming - watercolor paper, really increases the quality of the image, if I ever finish the thing.

When it is done (cross your fingers that it's sooner, rather than later), I'm going unbind it and frame the individual images.

Another piece that needs a title...

2010-01-16T13:57:00.000-06:00

This is another work that I've been working on for a while now, but have not (as yet) shown any pictures.

It's in the 90% finished range, I think. But I'm putting it aside to let my mind settle on it a bit, and evaluate if whether or not that last 10% is necessary or if just redundant. We'll see.

I don't have a title, yet. This piece is coming from the same place as the other "Untitled" work is with all the colored banding. But this work is pooling a biomechanical-like mess of ink fields and markings that coalesce into a picture that feels like the surface of a pool, with a backlog of spirits and elfs poking through the fields of ink marks and lines. I know it's hard to see at this size, but this piece is 24x24". It isn't about emphasizing recognizably apparent beings. It's more about sensing a subtle presence in the MESS. I treat every inch as if it's breathing. If this painting were a living thing, what would it be doing?

Update, March 19, 2010: I've decided to call this piece "Willow".

Threshold Apprehension

2010-01-16T13:37:00.000-06:00

I've come up with a title of this piece finally:

Threshold Apprehension

I thought of the name while listening to the same titled song by Black Francis. Here's a few of the lyrics that sort of apply:

Some people die, then they start to get old
But I don’t wanna die upon on the threshold
I got threshold apprehension

Though this song was written by another artist and it's meaning and purpose might be a yonder away from what I intend with my own Threshold Apprehension, I thought it was a succinct title for the purpose of MY painting.

Which is: the story of the FEAR OF EDGES. We groan and gnash our teeth over things that imply a disturbance of consciousness. Death, meditation, drugs, sitting silently long enough in darkness and examining the back of our eyes, fasting, even changing your mind sufficiently (like conversion experience) can bring the whole curtain down on us we think (fear) sometimes.

I am not a brave soul, myself. Quite chicken-shit, actually. I deal with anxieties over these road bumps way more than I like and this piece is about what the abyss of unknown looks like when it stares me down in darkness.

It's photographed on an angle because I don't have any reflection-reducing glass and the central portion is all done in graphite (graphite is very reflective, even if you're not using a flash). The only way I know how to show this piece without a lot of sheen is to just photograph it from an angle. Anyway, you get a pretty good idea, this way. I think I'm going to have it professionally scanned or photographed before I get it framed... I don't think I have a choice.

I'd say I'm about 85% done the way I like it.... but time runs out like a blade and I might have to make due with where it is.

The one thing about art I never like, is deciding when to be finished.

New Untitled Work

2010-01-16T13:17:00.000-06:00

So, you must have thought it was unfair to share the pics of me working on a new piece that you've never seen a decent picture of before...

I don't have a name for it, yet, because I can't seem to decide if I think it is done, yet. But I think it is really nice right where it is so I'm going to show you anyway, just because it's been too long since I've posted.

It's a sample of one of the new paintings that I've been working on for the past two months... the repetitive marker lines in the central portion (varying colors of orange) is a motif that I've begun to incorporate in all of my present work in some form or another to create a planar meshing from which to interrupt and interact.

I am one of those artists that are terrified of the blank whiteness of an untouched page, canvas, or paper. So, to alleviate my anxieties I've formulated a surface design, from which to react and interrogate in my process of artmaking and it serves as a way to "gather the noise" inside my head.

While drawing the ribbons of color I begin to find ways to pierce the SURFACE OF CONFUSION and penetration into a world that has never existed in material form before.

I suppose I see the surface of a painting as a two-sided mirror. The picture-part imbued with color and paint and line that we normally confront with our eyes is the reflection of our (or the artists) minds, while the BEYOND is a mystical world of shamanic possibility. I don't necessarily take a stance of belief about this statement. But it's a helpful way to view creativity to help coax out the images that are beyond my vision.

What I use is a literal barrier of markings. I recreate a gateway defined by movement and intensity of detail that when I decide to break the barrier it appears as a tear in the temple itself. Something holy is being breached and that's what I want to happen with my paintings... the feeling of seeing something truly special....

Right now, this work is leaking at the edges.

Working over Christmas

2010-01-10T09:35:00.000-06:00

So, this was a picture that I was working on doing a bit of my "wavy-line" thing, whenever there was a drop of water that got on it (probably due to the error of not having the pictured covered in the first place) and when I came to look at the picture I saw a subtle, but very visible, red streak right down the center. So I decided it wasn't a time to cry, just to "go with the flow" and add a little more water works to the piece by implementing some water color and solvent.

Thanks, Jeff for taking the pics and then sending them to me!

Here's some pics of the process:

New Sketchbook

2009-12-14T13:29:00.000-06:00

View in Gallery

This is a new Sketchbook gallery I added last week, but didn't get up on Lumi 9 News (whoops).

Here are some samples:

Gallery Update - Flight

2009-11-29T19:21:00.000-06:00

This is an older piece, but a new update to the PAINTINGS/DRAWINGS gallery on my website.

"Flight" oil on canvas, 36x50"

VIEW IN GALLERY

Forgot to Update These:

2009-11-11T10:23:00.000-06:00

I put these up last week in my PAINTINGS/DRAWINGS gallery and I just plum forgot to upload them to Blogger:

"Table Rock" oil on board, 12x12"

VIEW IN GALLERY

"After Dinner" oil on board, 12x12"

VIEW IN GALLERY

New Computer!

2009-11-05T19:08:00.000-06:00

After years of problems with my PC, I officially broke down Wednesday night and purchased an iMac.

As a signing off to my life with PCs, here's a list of my Top-5 favorite experiences with my previous computer:

#5

My HP liked to freeze in the middle of nowhere to leave my work stranded to die a digital death. I know you love that, too.

#4

My computer was comatose, because sometimes I would hit the sleep button on my keyboard and after my computer would go to sleep, it would never wake up (the "sometimes" in this sentence is only a reference to my actions - not the computer's).

#3

If I decided to shut my computer down (or if it decided to shut down for me) I couldn't turn it back on for over 24 hours. Imagine a "due tomorrow" on your desk and then.... wait.... why won't my mouse move anymore?

#2

Taking my computer back to factory settings about 7 or 8 times (twice, loosing massive amounts of work).

Yeah, this was fun.

#1

Spilling beer on my keyboard. Suddenly I had an excess of ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;........................jjjjjjjjjjjkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk........ OK STOP IT ALREADY!!! (the Mac isn't here, yet, folks)

Ok, maybe that last one wasn't totally my computer's fault.

New Gallery Post

2009-11-02T10:18:00.000-06:00

Older piece, but new upload to the PAINTINGS/DRAWINGS gallery.

"I Will Never Stand on Mars"

acrylic on wood

48x6x3.5

VIEW IN GALLERY

Emma

2009-11-02T09:41:00.000-06:00

New work, posted in my PAINTINGS/DRAWINGS GALLERY. This of my wife, called "Emma, Box Watching", while she stares at the tube. It looks like the temperature in our house is under 32, but I swear folks, she's not that cold.

"Emma, Box Watching"
gauche, charcoal pencil on wood panel
12x12"

VIEW IN GALLERY

Working

2009-10-27T19:53:00.001-05:00

New "Sketch" Gallery

2009-10-25T15:02:00.000-05:00

Added a new "Sketch" gallery where I'm going to be posting a few of my older and future sketchbooks and artworks within them. At the moment, this sketchbook from 2004 is the only one up, but it has about 18 images in it of preparatory sketches for larger works, random thoughts, etc.

View HERE.

Pic Update

2009-10-23T14:49:00.000-05:00

This is an 80% finished portion of an 18x24" drawing that I'm doing in pencil and marker. Getting close to done, though.

One thing's for sure though: I need to learn how to photograph graphite.

The shine makes it really difficult to prep in CS3.

Any suggestions, fellow artists or photographers?

Gallery Addition

2009-10-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

"Stall II" acrylic on masonite, 30x30"

New posting of artwork in the gallery section of my website.

2009-10-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

We went to Savannah, GA this weekend with my parents and sister. Had a good time. Always seduced by it's beauty. Here are some sketches from there that I did.

Sketchbook

2009-10-06T23:55:00.000-05:00