11th Annual Spring Art Show @ AAW

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Hidden Currents of the Deep

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Hidden Currents of the Deep is my most recent painting. Below you can see the progression of this piece from start to finish, including various stages of sketches.

(click on images for a larger view)

Hidden Currents of the Deep, 24" x 30", acrylic on canvas board, 2012.

As with my other recent paintings, I'm trying to develop my work with as little conscious thought as possible, attempting to connect with the hidden currents of the deep waters of my unconscious mind. The result of this is that although I may have at least some sense of what these paintings are about, they are in large part a mystery to me. This is what I find so intriguing about this way of working, and what has been the main driving force in the production of my art over the last few years.

Sequence of Sketches

The first sketch was done with Prismacolor sticks on newsprint. I'm using a method I refer to as "blind ambidextrous symmetrical drawing"; meaning that I draw with both hands, eyes closed, in a more or less symmetrical manner. This is the part where I attempt to be as unconscious as possible of what my hands are doing.

The drawing is photographed and brought into Photoshop, where the right side is selected, copied, and flipped to make the drawing totally symmetrical. I stare at this for some time, and wait for things to begin to reveal themselves to me. I then proceed and develop the drawing, using a custom "brush" (in Photoshop) and a Wacom Intuos tablet. It goes through several stages, and then gets colored. I attempt to work very freely and intuitively throughout this whole process.

Sequence of Painting

The sketch is printed and, using a grid, the drawing is started with pencil on the canvas board. The pencil is then painted over with black, and a transparent red goes over the whole thing. Various shades of blue are added. Finally, all that remains is a large number of hours of meticulous detailed rendering.

What I'm finding these days is that although in a conceptual sense I've moved a LONG way away from my commercial illustration days, I'm still using a lot of the painting chops that I developed during that period of time. So, in a way, it's kind of like the best of both worlds.
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In the art room at school (why I like my job)

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Here are some pics that I took today in the art room. I have some really cool kids this year; I enjoy being at school every day (well most days, anyway). It's almost not even like work a lot of the time. I had a particularly fun day today, and decided to share a bit of what I see every day.


Angela and Annie wearing their fur suit heads that they made.




Iris, Anthony, J, Trey, Haylie, Crystal


Iris


Iris


Iris


Iris on Trey's folder


Iris


artist unknown... this was left on one of the tables recently


Anthony, signed and tagged


I borrowed one of Anthony's markers and tried some tags of my own.




At the end of a long day...


This towel dispenser has been painted about 800 times, at least! Current image by unknown artist, Anthony, and RJ.

Figure drawings by my high school students

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Follow this link to our class blog to see a large number of very nice drawings by my students--click here. Here are a few drawings as a teaser:

(click on drawings for a larger view)

Hidden Currents of the Deep

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New digital sketch. Click on the image for a larger view.


Jacobi, Hidden Currents of the Deep

Machine Elf

This is a digital sketch for a possible upcoming painting.

Created w/ Painter 11 and a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet.

Car as Art

Chuck Redding's Western Flyer Rocket Car






Link to story and video

Chuck Redding built this street-legal car basically for fun and his own enjoyment. It's not for sale. Nor, I imagine, does he think of this car as ART. Now, just ponder for a moment, if someone like Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst had paid someone to make this car and then put their signature on it and declared it to be "their artwork", how much do you think it would be worth? Well actually, the question would more aptly be put, how much do you think some high-end art collector would be willing to pay for it?

I know that there is an artist that has, in at least one case, had people make a custom car(s) for him that he then declares to be his artwork. I can't remember who this is. I think the car I saw was maybe a Dodge Charger or something. If anyone can provide this information, I would appreciate it. (I may have seen it on the Guggenheim Museum website a couple years ago; not sure...)

We know, of course, that artists often have assistants and/or technicians do some/much/all of their work (in terms of creating the final object). The question becomes, at what point can we question the validity of a work as actually being that of the artist?

Of course, "found object art" has been around for almost 100 years, going back to Duchamp's "readymades". But still, having someone make a car for you that then becomes your art, I don't know....

Now, I know that Jeff Koons has designed at least one "art car". Key word here being designed. Okay, I can buy that. However, in the unknown car described above, as best as I can recall, there wasn't really a design on it per se... I think it was basically just your semi-custom type muscle car or something along these lines.



Anyway, I'm not on my soapbox today, really; some of these thoughts just came to mind when I saw the wagon/car.

I think I'll make some art today. I'm going to "appropriate" this car (pictured below).



Thanks to artist friend Sheree Rensel for alerting me to the wagon/car!