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.