What's more playful than frivilous nightmarish creatures?

i thought it would be fitting just before christmas to make a nativity.

I call this A MICROSCOPIC SURVEY OF DESTRUCTION

In progress Figure in Exterior Space

painting. LIGHT AND SHADOW LIGHT AND SHADOW

this paiting is the first completed figure painting i have EVER done. i have done a good many hour long studies but this is the product of a progression of studies done with a specific focus on the figure in an indoor setting. it was expected that while working on these paintings we do a master study of sorts. Euan Uglow was my inspiration artist. his work is incredible. there are parts of this painting that i hate (the anatomy is off a bit i know) but there is something wonderful that i have discovered on my journey: connection with this wonderful medium. I used palet knives to achieve much of the texture. mostly i just kept fearlessly adding layer after layer of thick oil paint and then i got to play with this putty of color. it was pretty much amazing. below is a detail of the shoulder area (maybe the best example of the texture)

Oh Deer, (in progress photos)

it's been a while since i posted i know. this semester thus far has been the hardest, most enlightening yet. I am taking a carving and construction sculpture class that i absolutely love! 'Oh Deer,' was the first of our projects. The assignment here was to synthesize three inspirations into one in-the-round sculptural form using carving techniques with wood. So my inspirations were: taxedermy, Dennis Oppenhiem's work, and inscription work. This is what I have come up with so far and for critique i finished to a resolved degree the head of the deer with the bottom portion still in progress. I am hoping to have the final piece finished in the next month or so. There are several defferent materials here including wood (both walnut and what seems to be pine?), the marble inscription, ceramic ears, and real deer antlers and eventually it will have wax on it. The peice as a whole is about 4 feet tall.
Working on this deer here has been quite an experience. I've used a chainsaw for shaping out the primary form and then a four inch angle grinder for better defining the planes as well as a series of hand carving tools including a ads which is like an axe but with a scoopy blade. That's about all this is to say about this here deer.

... Next on the course sylabus for this class is a metal fabrication project using both oxyacetylene and TIG welding processes creating a 'play' inspired object and then doing a 'round about' where we trade off objects and continue working to a new end with the object. Collaboration is fun as is welding! Should be interesting.

cardboard cutouts

i made this self portrait in too short an amount of time as a final for drawing 3. there are some definite juicy spots in it that i dig but in other areas of the drawing i wish it was more sensitively rendered. also, i had some difficulties with the materials i was using in this peice which is likely evident to the audience as well on some level.

this here drawing deals with the self/community dynamic. from strangers to life long friends, the people we interact with in our lives often confront us with a degree of disconnect which can be off putting, even jarring. i dont consider myself to be greatly isolated from others but in those instances where we just cant make the connection with the rest of the universe a statement is being made; it imprints itself on us psychologically posing the question of origin, and possibily prompting resolution if it is that we can skrew our heads back on straight. the bottom third of the drawing is a powerdered graphite/wax mixture just so you know.

mmm bod.

alright. this summer i took drawing iii. these are a few figure studies i did of the lovely miss lily. alright.

development of yogi piece

in contemplating my practice on the mat (and off the mat) i have found myself coming back time and again to the concept of honoring my teachers. there really aren't words to accurately discribe what i want to say about this. mostly it's, well hmm...simply and humbly, i give thanks for the people in my life who have directly impacted me allowing thier life's experiences to wash over me. i want to say that this is the material which binds the separate parts of me into one semi-wholeness. in this drawing, i have explored this concept, attempting to address even the teachers whose impact has been passed on, aging and growing more sacred as it contributes to the greater wealth of knowledge.
so, i drew 8 or so of these faces, some yogi's and some not. they were darling little things each drawn in blue ball point pen on tracing paper. the materials used in this drawing are important as they are meant to reinforce this sense of humility in the face of the greater source.. and, one night at late o'clock i got playing with materials in the first production of this piece and at the time it represented my feelings towards all this, but the next morning i got a look at it and it was something so different to me. so we struggled together. how do i illustrate a relationship i have with something that i dont even fullly understand? something that i was reminded of with this drawing was that much like the relationships in our lives, sometimes the dynamic we have with our work is effortless and sometimes it takes a great deal of attention and purposeful care. i rode that line with this drawing. anyhow. after that night i sat with it and played with different options and all i could do was sort of tear it up break it into managable portions, there's not a picture of it here but i needed it to be more quiet and lighter. so i made this little tactile juicy drawing below to clear my head and then i started over from a new angle. multiples. multiples. then i came to an understanding and i knew where it needed to go. check it out.

materials- watercolor, oil pastel, chalk pastel, xeroxes, grafite, wax, wood
size wise its about 2 ' by 4'
the inclass critique- didn't get a whole lot of feed back on this piece although we all sort of agreed that there needs to be another layer of information behind the back drawing maybe another layer of wood.

final for drawing...these are my father.

this drawing was the final for my drawing 2 class with tim ford. we were supposed to do a redo of another project we had done from earlier in the semester. contrary to the previous drawing i had done of my father, i wanted to really develop the image purely as apart from any sort of loaded meaning. i wanted it to be playful and yet i wanted it to still seem related to the other peices i have made this semester in this class. unfortunately what you can't tell form this image is that there is some bee's wax which coats the central image, sort of setting it apart from the rest of the piece. i am really satisfied with how it came out; its dreamy, just the way i like.

...this is my father.

after the human condition project, which i worked on earlier this semester my professor assigned us to do a contrast peice. the most logical contrast to me, since the previous project was regarding my relationship with my step dad, was to do one focusing on my relationship with my father. in this image i have me in the bottom poriton of the page represented as the same sparrow as in the human condition peice, and in the upper portion of the peice is my father (cute pic of him from grade school, looking pretty awesome i might add) the basic concept here is that dad can be highly analytical and is a very linear thinker, where as i am not. the marks are meant to convey and contrast of these mindsets and yet there he is on this sort of pedistle. i think of him in the highest regards for reasons which are both logical as well as purely instinctual and nonlinear.

Figure Studies

so i want you to know my process of developing an image. first i start with a gesture, which is meant to capture the movement of a pose. then i move on to develop these initial gestures building flesh to the frame work of the pose. i start mapping out points which relate to one another trying to maintain a critical eye because this is the point at which i am adjusting the the shapes which collectively make up the greater form as well as attempt to most accurately display each of the parts of the body to one another so that they seem to relate and work together to create a sense of unity and realistic weight on the page.

i've been trying to play with color lately to help ground the figure. this will be something i explore more, as well as color as value once i begin painting II in the fall; it's another figure study class.

this final peice is one that i completed in my painting class for the final. i used a figure study from my drawing class to reference for the pose. i am happy with how it turned out though i wish it still felt as gestural as the original.

been makin these little bites of cute.

so i've been making a lot of these the passed couple of days, pretty excited about them. 

just put 7th track from the playall books album and it spits these out of my head

the human condition as far as im concerned it's repitition

so the question is: what is the human condition? and my answer is, as are so many things in life, based on the convoluted expansion of a single concept which i will quickly walk you through, because this is how i came to find this image as the grand solution (in it's semi complete form). imediately the answer comes to me to be repitition. we live our lives along a path which is relatively congruent to the days before; eating, sleeping, interpersonal interactions, images which spark a thought dialogue we've likely explored in the past on some level, etc. this is a force which guides us all and of which many of us wish to escape. from here i think of the positive and negative associations to repitition which leads me to my step dad Steve who struggled with addiction- the particular repitition which lead him down a destructive path, away from the positive, normative associations to repitition...which in my eyes, in this situation comes down to family and the rituals therein. anyhow, here it is, this image is about me and steve and our relationship with one another as the condition has drenched us in a familial dynamic unique from any other in my life.
the process i followed was influenced by a process used by artist alex asher daniel. first i lay down the color allowing my sentiment towards steve to guide me (my first several preliminary drawings had colors different from the one above, they were less restful, the strokes more choatic and disjointed). the color is a combination of media including acrylic, watercolor, oil pastel, and a gel medium charcoal mixture. i would then follow with a grafite sketch which i tried to complete relatively quickly. the process is intintionally brief so as to maintain an honest quality, which isn't overthought, because that's a lot like how relationships work, sometimes they are just what they are no matter how hard you try. that just about sums it up except i want to say lastly that i know that there is a lot that is wrong with this image technically, but i love it because within the process of working i moved from a space anger to one of contentment.
the end.

in-class figure study-ing.

here is the beautiful lily, she would be my new favorite figure model. we had approximately 45 minutes to work on this piece, and for the first time in a while, i drew the face on my model! the drawing isn't quite life sized, probably closer to 4' in length. working big might be my big new thing.

another!

these sketches are an ode to the reborn yogi in me. i've been really pushing my practice on the mat recently, and these are a couple of poses i have practiced this passed month. the pose (eka pada sirsasana) with the splayed legs is a basic variation of the final pose in which the leg stays propped on the shoulder while hands are at the heart center...love this one in particular. anyhow, thats that.

from the sketchbook...

this is my face.

the final examination for my first drawing course in the appalachain state institution was to do a self portrait. mainly i wanted to portray myself in the most honest manner possibly, examining the relationships between the features of my face and neck and whatnot. but as my instructor, TIM FORD, suggested (and he's right) i could've taken this illustration further and really pushed the bounds of visual interest. he wants for me more than merely. so just wait, next semester i'm going to really push it find my boundaries until i'm at the edge of it all looking down

collaboration. enough said

this is a still-life collaboration that i did with several class mates in drawing. we each had 3 basic drawings which are arranged by student: left- jeff martin, center- mary crockette, right- sarah. through the initial drawings were done on an individual basis, we each worked on all of the panels in some way helping to blend the separate images into a more cohesive larger one. i'm satisfied with the illustrative quality of the piece, though i find the composition to be lacking and the color could be a bit more dynamic. anyhow, it was my first experience with collaborative art making, and i pretty much really enjoyed the experience.