With Arms Folded – And a Study

Just a traditional collage using found papers, gesso, graphite, and acrylic. I seem to like turning figures upside down. It seems to change your reaction to the piece.

Hughie O’Donoghue Inspiration

Hughie is a huge inspiration for me right now. I’m drawn to the seriousness of his work. He seems dissatisfied with pure formalism and requires a subject for his work. He uses photographs embedded in his paintings to evoke a dream or memory. Yellow Man III is actually his version of a van Gogh painting that was lost in WWII. Francis Bacon also did a small series based on this work that is only now recorded in photos from that time period. He sees Vincent as yet another type of Everyman. Hughie is known for his strong abstract expressionist brushwork that he juxtaposes with old photos and gestural scrawls and writing.

Alive Again

I Love You, Rickie Lee

I’ve been listening to Rickie since High School. We go way back, over 20 years you know. I think I heard Chuck E’s in Love first, before all of her other music. I’m not especially drawn to upbeat pop but for some reason I gave her album a chance. I remember when she won Best New Artist of the Year with her beret on. That’s been a long time.

I’ve been downloading songs by Rickie this week, music I lost touch with when cassettes disappeared. Some of her recordings just fell by the wayside for a while. I love her rendition of My Funny Valentine. Awesome! Awesome! She did an EP years ago called Girl at Her Volcano that I cherished. There was also this song called Rainbow Sleeves about a drunk hanging onto the promises of drink. I think the thing that most connected me to her music is her humanity. She sang about people on the bottom; people who had fallen on hard times. Rickie was like me, someone hoping for a better tomorrow, wanting that true love to come true, wanting that break, that chance to make it. She was an underdog. She sang a lot about loneliness which was a constant state for me in high school.  So, for me Rickie was a friend while I didn’t have friends. I sang her songs with her sharing those beliefs and sentiments and meaning every word of it. And sing I did. I knew her pieces backwards and forwards. I sang every inflection as she did. I loved her marbled-mouth pronunciations.

I’m very partial to her sad songs like Skeletons, Night Train, Coolsville, Rainbow Sleeves, Hey Bub, Coming Back to Me, and Company. They were a balm for me. I rooted for her while I believed she understood me. Her songs bring specific times and images back to me that I connected with each song. They make me think of people I have not seen in years. They also bring back a lot of memories of sadness, but that’s ok. I can handle it a little better now. High school was definitely Hell for me.

If you didn’t know this, Rickie is the most amazing lyric writer. Amazing poetry! Almost every song she has done will make you stop and ponder her wordcraft. You’ll just have to check her out if you are into that.

Rickie also made some great celebratory songs that only she can make. She had this great inner city skat stuff she’d do and songs with horn sections. It really made you want to dance. She sang about all kinds of issues and opened up new worlds for me. Her album Pop Pop has great Jazz standards that are still a joy to listen to. No one can sing Bye Bye Blackbird like Rickie. Ghosty Head is also still a favorite I’d highly recommend. Lots of weirded out lyrics that mix with paranoia, nostalgia, and hip hop to make for an amazing creative treat. Her originality on that album just blew me away. And the music is great!

All this to say…… Rickie, I love you! And I’ll keep singing right along beside you. You sang about a truth I knew. Thanks for making sweet music that still touches me today. The beauty of your music gave me hope for many a day.

So long lonely Avenue!

I will miss your Company.

A few crap days this week

no need for sympathy, it’s just where I am.

1904, Cadet Harold Mason

Looking for supplies for my class today, I unearthed this Cadet pic from 1904. I like the kid in his face. He is still just a boy.

Some of my favorite things

and in the photo is Me in the 3rd grade and my brother Marc (on the left), back in 1974. We are holding a string of fish we caught that day. We started our first mixed-media project today with a still life. I’ll begin with this one since it is already set up.

I miss my brother Marc who ran off to California to live away from his family.

Buttonhole Stitch Book – Image Shift

The Buttonhole Stitch book is easier than it looks to sew. The stitch helps make a beautiful impression if all the knots line up well on the spine. This particular book takes a lot of imagery or content if you plan to fill the book. You need enough pages/signatures to show off all of the knots. I made 40+ individual collages for the book then piled them on top of each other in either a vertical or horizontal stack. I liked how alternating  the images on top of each other made for a more complex image. I still think the book needs more variety. It just seems too repetitive. I’m not very good with photoshop, otherwise I would have played around with placement more. You learn a lot about future books by critiquing your current ones. Here’s to better books!

Girls Who Would Be Mermaids

There’s a bit of  savage in this little girl’s looks that always made me think she dreamed of being a mermaid. She’s like a Victorian-era Pippi Longstocking. I keep wanting to do a collage with this as the main image. There will be mermaids involved.

I Will Sing In the Spirit- Acrylic on canvas

One of my favorite abstract artists is Brice Marden. I like his use of rhythmic  and calligraphic lines. With this smaller piece I tried to use line somewhat like he does. While this piece has a strong focal point in the center of the painting which I don’t necessarily like, I’ve tried to pull your eye out by using strong colored lines away from the center. This was an early attempt at half gessoing out an earlier painting and using the transparent under-painting as complexity and history. I especially like some of the red overlaps in the bottom center. The lines in the piece make me think of the voice going out. I sometimes use an elongated oval as a type of figure or soul. I like how the colors seem bright and clear like a  hymn.

Potato Puberty?

My wife discovered these very exotic potato flowers growing in a bag on top of our dryer tonight.  I’ve never seen the stems so colorful and exotic. They remind me of exotic plumed birds doing a mating dance. Potato puberty is a little more interesting. Anyway, I had to get a picture and share them with you guys. God makes some pretty amazingly beautiful things. These are great inspiration for jewelry. I think you could just slice off an end and wear them for awhile.

Have a great weekend.

Run, Charlotte!

Another great picture that captures a gem of an event in this little girl’s life. It brings old memories to the surface and starts writing stories in your head. One of those rare little finds in the junk photo boxes of life.

I have been so incredibly busy in the last week. I’m not finding as much free time to blog as I’d like.  School has started and preparing for classes is taking up more time this year than I remember in previous semesters. My grad class starts on the first of February and I can’t imagine fitting one more major thing in each week. I also started playing racquetball 2 mornings a week. I’ve never played before now, so learning a new game and dealing with all my sore muscles has been challenging. It feels good to get up at 5:00 on Tuesdays and Thursdays to head to the gym by 6:00. Not because it really “feels good” physically, but it feels good to be doing something physical to keep my body from turning to mush. I stopped going to the gym about 2 years ago when I started grad school, so my life has been very sedentary as a teacher. I feel like I sit or stand at work all day then come home while I sit and stand to paint all evening for my class. Not healthy. So… it feels good to be moving in the right direction with that at least.

Looks Like A Sorceress

There’s something quite wonderful about this old photo. She looks like some old Sorceress. I love the cape and hat, and her staring eyes behind glasses. Would make a great photo reference for an illustration.

A Collection of Yarns- A Handmade Book

Another  “book” from my Book Arts class last summer. We were to make a book from non-traditional materials. My idea was that the yarn became the lines of writing on a page. Each spool becomes a story or “yarn” as they are sometimes called. Each story has its own feeling based on the emotional qualities of the combined colors. All of the spools make up a collection of stories.Finding a way to bind them was the most challenging part. I’m still not completely satisfied with the fabric tie. Seems a bit homespun for my taste, but I guess the idea is kind of homey anyway. I enjoyed working through the project, but was definitely ready to move on. It kind of made me feel like a granny. No offense Granny!

Cleve Gray

I was so glad we had a local exhibit of Cleve Gray’s paintings last year. Unfortunately my camera was on its last leg after being dropped so many times. I was able to get a good enough picture for a memory of the show. I had not seen this grouping of small paintings in his books. It really pares down what a painting can be. I think they are quite nice together.

If you are not familiar with Cleve’s works, I’d say he has been a major inspiration to me, especially in how he abstracts the figure as well as his wonderful use of calligraphic brushwork. He has definite ties to the Abstract Expressionist traditions in America. His works are full of symbolic color and body language. Check him out!

My Studio Wall

Along with the Mexican Devil mask my sister-in-law gave me, I have this great reproduction of a naked kid playing the piano. I found it at a local Thrift store last summer. I thought it was great. I love the carefree feeling it evokes. That sense of innocence and joy of being young. This is over my drawing board which I rarely use when I paint. I love to keep things around that inspire me. To the right are little abstracted houses painted on tar-paper by Julie Steiner that I bought on Etsy. And always an open book on Diebenkorn.

Against Willful Rebellion

Another early collage painting from ‘05. I used a page of my oldest daughter’s scribbles along with copies of an engraving from the 1700’s. Maps were a favorite at the time too. I forget what the Chinese fortune said. Something about a good reputation. Acrylic/collage/mixed-media on panel.

South Georgia

A few years back I attended a family reunion in Valdosta, Georgia. The ride down was beautiful. The landscape had a rough beauty that I am not used to seeing in SC.  There was a raggedness to the trees and the sky was so large above the fields and swamps. On Sunday morning before I headed out, I stopped in Statenville to take pictures. Happily most people were in church, so I felt easier about stopping and exploring. The blue house especially was beautiful with the colors of the rusted tin roof. The sky was an exquisite blue. The trees with Spanish Moss were both haggard and majestic. My Grandmother was always very fond of how the landscape looked in southern Georgia, since she grew up there. I remember as a kid visiting there with her and her exclaiming how she loved the way it looked. I thought at the time it seemed pretty dismal, but those shapes and structures echoed “home” to her. They were imprinted on her heart from a young age. I know that sounds very silly, but I know I see it in my love for the fields and tree-lines of where I’m from. I’m not sure I can properly explain it, but I know it calls to us when we see it again.

My Daughters are Growing Up So Fast

My youngest turned 11 today and my oldest, at 15, just got her drivers permit. Yikes. They will be gone before I know it. My oldest likes to play with photos in iphoto, so that’s how they got so light.

32Fold Book- A One Page Wonder

Another book from my Bookmaking course last summer. This was made from one standard letter-sized sheet of paper cut and folded. It is  a variation on a standard accordian folded book. The imagery and words are basically collaged nonsense. I covered the book-board in a turquoise washi paper.

David Yaghjian’s Man Paintings

A friend of mine, David Yaghjian, from Columbia, SC, has created a wonderful body of work over the last 4 or 5 years dealing with  middle-age men. Many seem to be lost in thought or performing in some type of circus act. The paintings offer much food for thought, especially as I get to that age myself. There seems to be more and more introspection about the roles we play as men. The reality of what is happening to our once youthful bodies also hits home about this time. There is both a looking forward and a looking back; a questioning of all the things we have been taught or believed to be so.

I think his paintings are powerful in their ability to communicate a down-to-earth reality in a humorous yet reverent way. To me, they don’t seem to poke fun at aging as much as they seem to face it with a quirky bare-knuckled bravery.

For more on David’s art, visit his blog.

http://davidyaghjian.blogspot.com/

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Seven Swans: Another Favorite Album

This album was the first Sufjan album I owned  before I almost bought them all. If you haven’t heard his music, trip on over to emusic with this link to listen to samples. He is amazing. Funny how he can be so upbeat and melancholy at the same time. I love his sensitivity and poetry.

http://www.emusic.com/album/Sufjan-Stevens-Seven-Swans-MP3-Download/10948272.html

Take a Walk in the City

Winter Woods

Abstracted Landscape- McLoughlin’s Garage

In one of my Abstraction classes we had to do an abstracted landscape painting and show our inspiration for the piece in a photo. I used a picture taken from my van as we drove through Zanesville, Ohio. I tried to maintain the structure of the place without using the true colors or sticking too closely to realism. Of course Diebenkorn is a major inspiration for my work, so I tried to keep the brushwork loose and the under-layers showing through in places. This was a lot of work. There were so many revisions. It is sometimes difficult to know when you are overdoing it with detail or when you are just too sloppy. After a while you get into the reality of your piece and decisions become easier. Well, at least sometimes. I like how it turned out generally. There is a lot of interest and movement. I like the idea of taking something that has very little beauty and making into something that is more interesting and even beautiful.

And You Know I Miss Wendy Boy

Not sure why, but I liked his annoying in-your-face attitude.

A Happy Family- Vintage Photo

I found this picture recently at a local flea market. It left me with the question “can family life be this happy?” I hate to be cynical, but I just don’t see it happening. We can all put on a smiling face for the camera: and looks can be deceiving. One reason I collect old photos is this sense of hope they often convey. We need more peace and hope and family today. People have become so isolated.

One thing I especially enjoyed this Christmas was seeing a large group of family members at a get together on Christmas Eve. (I’m rarely around that anymore since we live hours away from family.) There was a sense of acceptance and love that you can’t easily get with the people who don’t know you as well. My family has had it’s share of broken marriages, addictions, sibling problems, bitterness, and the general trials most families go through. But this year there was peace. And for a short while there was love and acceptance. It’s nice when they all come together for at least a short visit. How quickly and easily we can forget family if we don’t nurture those ties. Unfortunately, we are the big losers if we let go of our families. I know not all families are happy, but at least its something we can work toward.

Charcoal Drawings from Class

My first semester in grad school, a seven week summer session, required a course in realistic charcoal drawing. My original degree in art was an Art Education degree which required fewer studio classes than Studio majors were required to complete. Believe it or not, I had not done any charcoal drawings in my undergrad work, and had only used charcoal for a few weeks the time I took a local figure drawing class. I had a lot to learn in a seven weeks for this class. I never completely learned to use the chamois very well, so I relied on crosshatching to build up my values. These drawings took a lot more time than any drawings I’d ever done. It really taught me how important it is to work long enough to finish a drawing. I never knew I could do drawings as finished as these. True, I have not done charcoal drawings since the class, but I’ve wanted to. My degree is in non-figurative painting, so I don’t get much opportunity to do realistic work these days. At least I know I can if I want to.

Sea Bear- The Ghost That Carried Us Away

This is one of my most favorite music finds in years. I bought it through emusic. Very acoustic, poetic, easy, and laid back. So put on some socks and dance across the linoleum with your babies. Follow the link below to listen to samples from the album. Fun stuff!

http://www.emusic.com/album/Seabear-The-Ghost-That-Carried-Us-Away-MP3-Download/11086677.html

Pig

Only when she felt

The savage knife in her throat

Did the red veil

Explain the game

And she was sorry

She had torn herself

From the mud’s embrace

And had hurried so joyfully

From the field that evening

Hurried to the yellow gate.

__________________

by Serbian poet Vasko Popa

I love this poem. It seems perfectly crafted to me. I really like how it unfolds as you read it into something quite horrifying, just like the truth of our situations do at times. Since Vasko is Serbian, I would think this might be a political poem describing the situation of his people. He died in 1991.

Two Old Friends- Paintings on Panel

I did a series of these little paintings about a year ago and these are a couple of my favorite ones. A few made nice little Christmas gifts this year. I like it when they really take on a personality.