alma

One more quick post before heading off to Miami.

I present the four best pre-deconstruction images from the shoot with my latest sculpture.  The sculpture was formed from the model Alma (who was also the female in my latest drawing series . . . she had dreads back then), a 23 year old model, who I found very hard to read.  I never could tell how she was feeling, as if she herself didn't know how.  What I liked about her was her curiosity and soft demeanor, and her body was pretty fantastic.  Should I admit to you that this was the first female model I felt curious about sexually?

'Gawkward' coo the chorus of homosexuals.

Thanks Alma for a great sitting.  Best of luck in graduate school.

winter is coming

As the weather turned mild here in New York, I was inspired to share these photos that I shot this past summer.  I am in the process of printing them in large and small sizes.

studio visit: narcissus no more

I think it might be finished.  Going to let it dry and collect a few days of dust and decide on Tuesday.  Edit the next morning: it's not quite done, but almost there!

studio visit: this is what I'm working on now

I'm not sure how long it will be before it's finished...I've yet to incorporate the image from the last sculpture, which is supposed to be what this painting is about.  He was at the bottom, at the foot of the man pictured here, who was an old lover of mine . . . this was a photo I snapped of him years ago.  You can imagine that parts of his body were fun to bounce on.  Conversely, the experience with the model was quite unusual and uncomfortable.  Will write more about it later once I've incorporated him into the composition.  For now, here is a painting in progress.  See if you can catch it move.

new drawing process

It took me a long time to find joy with my drawing, but I think I finally found it with soft pastels.

another new one but familiar

Our Immaculate Lady Pigeon, 24" x 18", 2012 acrylic, charcoal, soft pastel on canvas

This painting was once called my "first painting" a long, long time ago.   I couldn't bear to look at it anymore, so I started working on it again.  I heard Walton Ford in an interview once say that it takes a lot for a painting to stand the test of time.  If that's the case, then do I sell them as soon as the paint is dry (a gallerist's dream) or hold onto them for a while and wait and see if they stand up to time?

new painting

Addie, 48" x 60", acrylic, gesso, charcoal and soft pastel on canvas

I didn't work on the sculpture that inspired this painting for very long...actually probably only five days for ten hours in total.  But very shortly after I took the photo, I knew the colors and layout.  I only spent two days on this painting, about five hours in total.  The first day it took me almost three hours to draw the figure in charcoal onto the canvas and then use black gesso and pastel to fill in the bottom portion.  On the second day I attacked the figure and the top portion.  I had no idea it would take so little time, but there was a point when it felt ready.  The energy expended was exhausting, but the endorphins that coursed through me once the work was complete kept me from falling asleep.

It was this painting that created the title for the series: "Becoming."  It's the moment when you realize you're alive...that moment between life and death when eternity seems possible.  As humans become more robotic, enlightenment, even brief patches, is God.

new painting: hey zeus, maria

Hey Zeus, Maria, 60" x 36", Acrylic and charcoal on canvas

This one came from a sculpture of a model who has become a friend.  Again, I want to mix the mythic with the religious.  Can you guess what the title means?

Two Weeks Project

One print a day for two weeks.  This is the outcome.

 

Two Weeks Project Day Fourteen: What it Means to Be Gay (Final Draft)

What it Means to Be Gay (Final Draft), 24" x 20", C-Print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Thirteen: Urban Center

Urban Center, 24" x 20", C-Print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Twelve: Self Censure

Self Censure, 20" x 24", C-Print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Eleven: When I Used to Hook Up with Strangers

When I Used to Hook Up with Strangers, 20" x 24", C-Print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Ten: Purgatory After This

Purgatory After This, 20" x 24", C-Print, 2012

In my exploration of using materials I've used in the past to create images, I decided to use ones from the past week and two days.

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Nine: Into the Woods

Into the Woods, 24" x 20", C-Print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Eight: Back from Dead

Back from Dead, 20" x 24", C-print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Seven: Back from Earth

Back from Earth, 20" x 24", C-Print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Six: Figure Blossoming Over Da Vinci's Insides

Figure Blossoming Over Da Vinci's Insides, 24" x 20", C-Print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Five: Those We Left Behind (The Killing Field Part 2)

Those We Left Behind (The Killing Field Part 2), 12" x 12", C-print, 2012

I had an impulse to take out these characters who I've used before in another project, and who I initially rescued after a photo shoot where they were not good enough to be photographed next to luxury handbags and shoes. I'm thinking about the sustainability of objects and their continued use in work.  Unfortunately for these guys, this is their last call. I like their impact here atop styrofoam, which will never go away.

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Four: Mom and Dad Take me to the Montgomery Airport after Christmas

Mom and Dad Take me to the Montgomery Airport after Christmas, 12" x 18" each, 2 C-prints

 

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Weeks Project Day Three: Identity Theft

Identity Theft, 11" x 8.5", C-print, 2012

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

protagonisto

I came across two articles today about fiction.  One, a short essay by the novelist Keith Ridgway in the New Yorker blog about how everything is fiction.  And the second from a future novelist Michael Bourne about the hard work it takes to clinch an agent.

The day after I destroyed the first draft of my novel these two strong points of light seem to be guiding me back to that manuscript, seven drafts later, which ripped my heart a half dozen times.  I never intended to give it up.  But with visual art now at the forefront, it's given me a break to look at the novel from a new perspective, to see that I need to write a compelling story, not a clever one.  To write more honestly.  To attempt to distill more truths.  To write for a reader, not some fantasy boyfriend of Halloween past or the Literary Guild of America.

I've only been handed less than a handful of rejection letters because I never had the balls to go very far with submissions.  The good news is the relationship I've developed with an agent at Inkwell.  She's read my manuscript twice and given me great advice.  Now it's time to return to her second letter of advice and polish off another draft.

I have a lot on my plate.  And to avoid looking like this
, I will be patient and deliberate--slow and steady wins the you know what.  I will concentrate on my art, the novel, my health, my relationships, and the taming of this blog, and avoid trifling diversions so that I won't disappoint my Thousands of Readers and Fans.  Thousands of Readers and Fans is the nickname I gave my mom.

Two Weeks Project Day Two: A Portrait of an Office as a Young Artist

I think I'll call this one A Portrait of an Office as a Young Artist.  Anyone can do this at the office, if you have a bit of freedom to have these kinds of pauses.  Discover your own materials.

Portrait of an Office as a Young Artist, 20" x 24", C-print, 2012

For more information on the Two Weeks project click here.

Two Week Project Day One: First Draft

Before the day was out I wanted to post the image I selected from my first mini-project from the Two Weeks project.  The title of the piece is 'First Draft.'  I used the first draft of my novel.  Did I mention I wrote a novel?  (This artist is beginning to think that perhaps it wasn't such a good calling, but he won't give up trying to make it into a great novel . . . eventually.)  I also used some tools from my first round of art projects that I began in February.  So it becomes about first efforts, choices (some call them failures, mistakes, blessings, and triumphs) and being drenched, swallowed completely by your calling, and fully alive for the first time.  For more images from this shoot, visit my website in November.

First Draft, 20" x 24", C-print, 2012

If you want to do this project at home, here is what you'll need:

• The first draft of your novel, printed double-sided on cheap paper, left on a shelf or in a box for four and a half years while you complete seven more drafts
• a sculpture armature, preferably broken and rusted over after being used for three or more times
• a tray of some kind
• a large bowl of water (not pictured)
• camera (not pictured)

1. Form the Armature so that it stands on its own and place in the tray.
2. Starting from the first page, wet each page of the novel manuscript and place on the armature.
3. When the armature breaks or falls over, re-position so that it stands on its own.
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until entire novel is wet and on the armature or at its base and the sculpture stands on its own.
5. Photograph the sculpture in your choice of setting.

For information on the Two Weeks project click here.

The Two Weeks Project

I'm giving myself a little project beginning this Sunday and ending on Saturday, September 1.

I returned to sculpt a week and a half ago to get new inspiration for a new painting.  I found that it didn't go as well as I would have liked.  Plus the painting that was supposed to be inspired by Sherry (The Great and Powerful) also hasn't been going well.  But instead of whining, I want to take a break from the sculpture paintings and do something completely different.

A new mini-project every day until school starts again (with a two-day break).  I want to try and make something from what I have . . . either at home, or at my desk at work.  I will turn everything I create into a print and display them in the fall as a celebration of creation and my life as an artist.  A fall harvest, a coming out party, a reinvention.

Of course I'll continue the sculpture paintings until the end of Winter 2013 (maybe beyond) but I'm hoping this Project will keep me focused and refraining from depression, which loves to cuddle me.

this is the end of 'this'

I've already admitted to hating summer, but as the season gears up for its final stretch why not look back on its many joys so far.

Reading.  The one thing I loved about summers starting in middle school were our summer reading lists.  While I haven't read anything as compelling as Lord of the Flies or The Scarlett Letter or Huckleberry Finn, I have been entranced by a number of books.  Here are links to some of them:

1. Inside by Alix Ohlin (a short compelling character study with an intense beginning)
2. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain (the perspective of Ernest Hemingway's first wife)
3. The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt (a revealing look at the psychology behind happiness)

Seeing a bridge disappearing.

Hiking.

Making more art with Barbie.

Gaining ten pounds and not caring.

Being in a relationship.