Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Thanksgiving fun!

Here are a few drawings that I made with my friend Julian (age 7) while visiting friends over the Thanksgiving holiday. We had a great time drawing monsters, knights, ninjas, and a separate miscellaneous category simply titled "art". I should work with crayons more often...





Thursday, November 15, 2012

And here is my final drawing from the "Metal Heads" series that I have been working on since this past summer, inspired by my friend Brad Richard's fabulous book of poetry "Butcher's Sugar".







Another Victorian Murderess...






Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Victorian Murderesses, a new drawing series...

Here is the first in a new drawing series that I started last week. In other news, I have a lot of very experimental and very time consuming projects going on in the studio right now (photos of works in progress to come...) This makes for a sometimes exciting and sometimes frustrating day at the races. 

Recently I have felt the pressing urge to do a little something on the side that is not so arduous, a series where the stakes are not so high, the media is pretty straight forward, and each drawing can be completed in about two or three days, tops.

Thus I present the first of the "Victorian Murderesses" drawings. These are all inspired by a thrift store hardback I picked up some years ago (see the awesome cover below...) I have never actually taken the time to read these women's stories, but I am intrigued enough by their names (Florence Bravo!, Euphemie Lacoste!) and the book jacket, that I am letting my imagination run amok with the material. All these works are dry drawing media (graphite, colored pencil) with touches of gouache and India ink. And yes, there is some collage there as well, aerobics instructors (in fishnet tights!) hovering around the edges of the composition. Angels or demons, you be the judge...







Friday, October 12, 2012

NYC drawings from this summer

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything here, funny how that happens in blog world.

Regardless, there has been quite a bit of work happening in the studio in the interim, I just haven't been quite as diligent at documenting it all.

So to get back into the swing of things, here are a few drawings from my trip to New York City this past summer. I spent several wonderful days with dear friends Tim and Ann, rushing around the city, from museums to parks and cafes, sketching all the while and combining the objects and spaces we encountered into these rather Surreal ink and white chalk drawings.

And to add to the fun, I took on the challenge of including real stick-on googley eyes to each piece. Googley-eyes are the art supply that just keeps on giving...



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Even MORE New Work: "Metal Heads"

And here's another one I just completed today...





More New Work: "Metal Heads"

Here are a few more pieces from my developing series "Metal Heads". Each of these drawings is a visual compliment to my friend Brad Richard's soon-to-be-published book of poetry, "Butcher's Sugar".




Monday, April 30, 2012

A few new pages...

Here are a few new pages from my hopefully VERY soon to be self published artist book, "Fremde". There's a lot to explain here when looking at these individual pages out of context, but here's a general idea of what's going on:
Each page on the left shows several small photos that I picked up while stumbling around thrift stores and flea markets in Bavaria while on an artist residency at a German Kunstlerhaus in summer 2010. Each page on the right shows a small painting that was made from these photos cut-up, collaged, and sewn together with my own drawings and found materials. This project is all about the pitfalls of translation; the tug and pull of visual information that shifts when an image or ideas slides from one language (or point of view) into another. I have been working on these individual book pages off and on for over a year now, and golly! am I ready to see the final product. All the components (image, text, backgrounds...) put together at last, for better or for worse...
















Friday, April 6, 2012

A Grand new possibility...

Sometimes you work and work away in your studio, waiting for some shining spark of inspiration to come dancing through your window, and sometimes it just arrives in a cardboard box from UPS on the front porch. The latter was my situation yesterday when I received the photo (below) of my dear colleague Heather's grandmother. Heather had recently put out an inquiry to art friends online, as to whether anyone wanted this image to creatively re-purpose (approx. 16" X 20" and in a wood, gold brushed frame no less...) and of course I jumped at the opportunity.
Just received the package from Florida last night, and may I say the real thing does not disappoint! On an interesting (and perhaps cosmically significant?) note, I just order a huge roll of Arches 200lb. watercolor paper from N Y Central Art Supply this week, 51" X 10 yards. I think that Fate has spoken through its messenger, Happy Coincidence.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

New Work: "Metal Head, Philip Glass"

Just documented my first finished work from the developing series "Metal Heads". Each of these drawings is a visual compliment to my friend Brad Richard's soon-to-be-published book of poetry, "Butcher's Sugar".
Process and materials-wise, I'm starting each of these drawings with a visual response to a piece of found metal. In this case, the metal in question is a decorative light socket cover, sewn to the lower right edge of the page. The combination of the stolid expressions on these faces (inspired by portrait busts from my recent trips to Italy in 2009 and 2010) and the collage of art glass pieces at the bottom of the composition influenced the title... plus I am actually listening to a lot of Philip Glass these days in the studio.



Friends from the Faculty Show #2

...and these are the bizarrely wonderful sculptures by another colleague, John Stephenson. John teaches art history with a specialty in Ancient Mediterranean Cultures. His nifty fifties robots gone awry are all the more charming for their deviation from this general theme.

Friends from the Faculty Show #1

This is the work of dear friend, colleague, and bon vivant Victoria J. Grube. Vicky runs the Art Education program here at Appalachian State and works on various amazing painting, drawing, and theater projects. I am a huge fan of the "wall of heads" (these were all painted from life at our open evening life drawing sessions) but for me the top prize goes to her miniature house, peopled with ogres and various otherworldly delights. If there were a full size version for rent, I would live in it.





From the 2012 Faculty Show

These images show my "Impostors" drawing series installation at the Catherine Smith Gallery, here at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. This exhibit was part of our larger biennial faculty show; I'll be posting more new work from other gallery spaces around campus soon...