Turpentine in the winter...

Okay, so I very quickly realized, after starting my underpainting a few weeks ago, that I'm going to kill myself with fumes because i don't have ventilation.  It's winter and very cold outside, so open windows are just not going to happen.  I'm trying to figure out how to get painting, as I'm really itching to work, but in the meantime i've been playing around with some little tree/landscape paintings in ink.  Perhaps not incredibly original, but they are fun to do and keep me doing art even when I'm super busy with my two jobs.

On that note, I meant to run off to the east coast to pursue art, and ended up working for THE MAN 60 hours a week.  Whoops.

New Painting

Have a big ol' canvas stretched and gessoed and ready to go.  Got me a vat of turpentine and linseed oil, which I actually had to procure from my hardware store as the local art supply shop is a wee overpriced without the student discount and mostly carries terpenoid anyway.  I know it's full of terrible fumes, but in some ways, I'm a purist.  Besides, you can't really make a good medium without the real stuff.

Very eager to get going.

Forced hiatus

No art for a week!  Finally finished my road trip and will begin setting up my studio on Monday.  Very excited.

I love doodling.

Just for fun...

lovely ladies and dashing gentlemen.

Ceramics

Well, I'm certainly no great potter, but I'd like to share a couple of recent things I've done.  First off is a few porcelain plates with green and black engobe that actually came out fairly well.  I just love porcelain.  I was thinking about marbling paper and the icing on Napoleons when I came up with this design.

Next up is my favorite bowl, also in porcelain. One of the few times that I am satisfied with my glazing choices!  I worked the overlap of the clear glaze and toshiko black quite well, if I do say so myself.  The bowl has a nice solid feel to it, but it's not clunky.  Let me say one more time that i LOVE porcelain.

Finally, here's what happens when you use glazes on dark brown clay that have only been tested on aforementioned beloved porcelain.  It was supposed to be turquoise on top and clear on the bottom.  I was really hoping that the clear glaze would enhance the beautiful deep reddish brown color of the clay body, but instead it turned out to be a somewhat nauseating green!  The turquoise is...well... red!  I do like the form of these mugs, though, so at least I have that.  The overall effect is almost frightening, isn't it?

It was quite strange switching to Laguna Dark Brown clay body, which has a bit more grog and less plasticity than I was used to.  Throwing it was rougher on the hands and felt like it took more earth-moving power than porcelain, which is smooth and plastic.  While it leaves room for disaster, when you have the right amount of control over it, porcelain can do exactly what you want.  It's white color is also a good base for glazes, which tend to be a tad more predicable on it.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to continue on with this work after I move.  I'm certainly still learning a lot each time i throw, and tons more when I glaze.  I'd like to look into getting a glaze recipe book with information on glazing dark clay bodies.

The big move

Buying a home, packing, and coming down with a really debilitating case of the flu has left very little time for my art.  Still slowly plunking away at my circle series, although I must confess that I've barely worked on it.  I had been listening to an audiobook of the Odyssey while working on one of the pieces, and now that it's over I feel oddly unmotivated.  Something about the ancient adventure epic poem thing was very fitting during the process.  Maybe I'll just have to get the Iliad now.

The place that I'm moving into has an office space that will work wonderfully as a studio, and I greatly look forward to building some big canvases and getting my oil painting on.  I'm a little concerned about fumes, as the room is basically attached to my bedroom, but hopefully i'll figure something out.  Maybe I'll use the second bedroom in the meantime until I find a renter.

After I get somewhat settled and begin working more or less full time again, I'm going to investigate local galleries.  I'll certainly update on that front should anything good happen.

On a final note, I had been taking a life drawing and ceramics class for fun while I've been in LA, and am incredibly sad to end that.  I would very much like to continue working with clay, and will certainly investigate my options on the east coast.  I have always loved ceramics, although I think I tend to treat it more as a craft than art, which is fine by me.  Just because something isn't based on lofty ideals doesn't mean that it's not beautiful, useful, or worthwhile.  God, I love the feel of clay.

Gummy caves

Last week while disposing of some old gum i became fascinated with the way that it created long stalactite-like strings when it became stretched across space.  Since then, I've been exploring ways to draw it in an equally interesting way.  My first thoughts were of a small graphite drawing with high contrast that drew you into the space, but for some reason I was not satisfied.  Now I'm blowing it up to stretch across 14"x17" Bristol board to give a thicker, gummier feel to it.  I think that I'd like to try it on toned paper in white and black charcoal pencil.  I like the idea that I'm working with, I just am struggling slightly to get it right.

Sea Foam

My first circle drawing (aka "OCD drawings") is still unfinished, but constantly transforming.  Because it is ball point pen, not inky Micron like my Clouds, i've been able to play around with pressure.  I've come to another bit of an impasse with it, although hopefully i can work through it.  I've found that in the process of doing this first drawing, i've discovered ideas for variations to do in the future.  The inspiration for this was sea foam, which has subsequently been its working title, but while working on it i have since become excited about doing a mountains series.  I'd like to evoke a misty landscape and give a sense of depth by using two colors and varying the pen pressure or circle size to create atmospheric perspective.

Maybe the real value of Sea Foam is that it will never be finished or "good," but rather a window into future projects.

Series past, present, and future.

At this time I do not have any large studio space, so my large abstract oil paintings have been put on hold for a few months.  Here is an example of that series that I am looking forward to continuing to explore after my move in several months.

Oil on Canvas

3'x5'

2009

Currently I am working on a number of ink drawings based on the repetition of tiny circles.  This circular theme has recently captivated me, and I find myself searching for patterns everywhere.  Bubbles around the rim of my coffee cup, moon craters, riverbeds, stomata.  Clouds I is most representative of my current series of which it is one variation.  As my photography skills improve, I hope to include some nice crisp photographs from that upcoming body of work.

Moon Craters (Unfinished)

Charcoal, Colored Pencil on Mulberry Paper

23"x 23"

Detail -Clouds 1

Ink on Paper

18" x 24"