august 2010
the small abstract paintings gradually acquire history and individuality. i've been handling each picture sculpturally, exploring the behavior of acrylic supports, gels and pigments at various viscosities, building up surfaces in thin layers, tinting, air-blowing and heating the liquid state and scraping and sanding the solid.
color is restricted to clear and white, with unknown forms and faint tints detectable within the creased, cratered and parched depths. the process yields unpredictable textures, circumstances, and other opportunities for ongoing intervention.
the overall effect so far is weathered, ambiguous, lustrous and serene.
i am seeing them as 'face-bodies'.
june 2010
topped off the clay supply for the Heads, and trying some harder consistencies for use in smaller figures. built out a good
bloc of new material in the Realitygarten. Imagebank is now mostly completed.
the material is very concentrated and suggests many opportunities. i've been learning more about ancient conflicts between spiritual traditions and material religions. the transcendent nature of spirituality confronted with the territorial nature of religion.
may 2010
going over pictoral themes in Imagebank. started a series of small abstract pictures. learning more about europe's dark ages. wandering monks as honeybees gathering ancient works from the continental wreckage and the islamic periphery; monasteries as safe havens for absorption and compilation. learning about court life in heian japan, a precarious atmosphere of high ceremony, confinement behind screens and panels, boredom, aesthetic interactions and stealthy late-night action. the poignancy of nature, the transitoriness of it all, life as a dream.
april 2010
Imagebank is well underway, transforming a random accumulation of pictures into a useful studio resource. learning about ancient egyptian cosmology, which brings to mind the renaissance 'alchemists' and goethe's way of science, sidestepping the self/other 'onlooker' control mode to enter into and consciously engage the inner life of nature as seekers, participants and co-creators.
march 2010
design/build blacksmith daniel hopper, sculptor roger arvid anderson and i are forming a metal arts collective. we will over time pursue opportunities for placing innovative functional art in public spaces. i've been looking at maps and castles lately. and learning about europe 500-1000AD.
february 2010
updated studio notes (now 1990-2010) and started building an Imagebank to manage many Gb of visual inspiration. it will feed the groups of drawings and paintings to come in the next few years. Realitygarten grows gradually in the background. designing street furniture, and capturing models for Heads.
january 2010
i've begun an open-ended project developing street furniture concepts - large-scale sculptural seating, modular seating groups, tree grates, planters, bike racks, pavements, water and lighting features. everyday amenities as functional art materially activating their surroundings. photos, drawings and models are accumulating.
december 2009
a new group of armatures for the Heads is ready to go. there are 9, for now. i'm experimenting with lighting and photo/video capture. models are photographed frontally, up close, and videotaped on a slowly-rotating platform. the video portrait will be the basis of the sculpture. incorporating the subtle animation of the face from moment to moment. many people look inherently sculptural. i'll be asking some of them to come and sit for a portrait.
november 2009
fascinated with 15th-17th century europe's climb from the wreckage of the black death through 'alchemy' and trade: the body actively engaging nature to unlock knowledge of its chemistry, structures and patterns. global commerce flooding the continent with ideas, objects and specimens alive, preserved or depicted. naturalistic painting regarded as a valid substitute for the physical subject depicted. the rise of a global market for 'true' substitutes, the exponential circulation of printed materials reading nature and projecting stories back onto nature. the surging overlap of the natural and the artificial. western culture as 'second nature'.
october 2009
open studios was hard work, great fun, busy and a success.
quieting down and getting back to color, Realitygarten, and moving forward on the Heads. i've been reading babylonian, jewish, greek and roman history.
september 2009
looking forward to a few years exploring new territory. there is much to do - i'll be throwing colors around for a long while. Realitygarten will in the background gradually accumulate and crystallize; it will inform and perhaps become integral to subsequent work. i'm prepping for a period of making portrait busts. right now we're getting excited and modifying the space for open studios.
august 2009
we're planning the space for open studios, coming up october 10-11.
i'm casting plaster houses, and painting on paper, a scaleless field layered with landscape-like, creature-like and story-like marks and shapes.
july 2009
fascinated by the body as the material trace of spirited action in the physical world. body exposed to life, body of love, work, war and healing. body of paradise and disaster. continuously shedding itself, always arriving. culture as a projection of stories and experiments upon the land. 'the world' as a human mirror, an exposé of our obsessions. the human struggle with 'getting it right'.
june 2009
i've started a new long-term study project called Realitygarten to explore the evolution and origination of western cultural 'form', excavating and mapping the facts of history which explain the weave of biases and assumptions undergirding our living present 'reality'.
may 2009
we installed a grid of beefy eye hooks in the ceiling above the entire gallery space for anything that needs to hang, and mounted triple brackets to the walls with rolls of seamless paper- now there is a photo shoot space.
march 2009
the studio is up and running.
i've been drawing since the new year. spontaneous marks, accumulating structures. pencil, ink, goache and acrylic. exploring different vibrations and densities. pure energy fields, articulated bodies/landscapes/floorplans, and 'heads'.
these drawings are my way into the new space. for the moment, after years of discipline, am loving the freedom to do whatever, see what happens, toss it aside, and start the next one.
the sculpt station is set up. we're converting a reclaimed fridge into a heater box for the clay. i've been sampling different clays to see how they perform in this space- it's cold in the winter and warm in the summer. i will be starting a new series this year. heads. portraits from 'life'.
december 2008
during the past two years i've been finishing the city group and slowly transforming the empty concrete shell of the new space into a comfortable multipurpose studio.
we gridded the space with nylon parachute curtains for shoji-like space-making flexibility and built a tatami platform in the one large window. created a kitchen area and installed gallery lighting and ventilation.
lately gearing up for a new round of work, gathering supplies, looking at pictures, reading stuff, thinking, writing, sketching, experimenting.
the small abstract paintings gradually acquire history and individuality. i've been handling each picture sculpturally, exploring the behavior of acrylic supports, gels and pigments at various viscosities, building up surfaces in thin layers, tinting, air-blowing and heating the liquid state and scraping and sanding the solid.
color is restricted to clear and white, with unknown forms and faint tints detectable within the creased, cratered and parched depths. the process yields unpredictable textures, circumstances, and other opportunities for ongoing intervention.
the overall effect so far is weathered, ambiguous, lustrous and serene.
i am seeing them as 'face-bodies'.
june 2010
topped off the clay supply for the Heads, and trying some harder consistencies for use in smaller figures. built out a good
bloc of new material in the Realitygarten. Imagebank is now mostly completed.
the material is very concentrated and suggests many opportunities. i've been learning more about ancient conflicts between spiritual traditions and material religions. the transcendent nature of spirituality confronted with the territorial nature of religion.
may 2010
going over pictoral themes in Imagebank. started a series of small abstract pictures. learning more about europe's dark ages. wandering monks as honeybees gathering ancient works from the continental wreckage and the islamic periphery; monasteries as safe havens for absorption and compilation. learning about court life in heian japan, a precarious atmosphere of high ceremony, confinement behind screens and panels, boredom, aesthetic interactions and stealthy late-night action. the poignancy of nature, the transitoriness of it all, life as a dream.
april 2010
Imagebank is well underway, transforming a random accumulation of pictures into a useful studio resource. learning about ancient egyptian cosmology, which brings to mind the renaissance 'alchemists' and goethe's way of science, sidestepping the self/other 'onlooker' control mode to enter into and consciously engage the inner life of nature as seekers, participants and co-creators.
march 2010
design/build blacksmith daniel hopper, sculptor roger arvid anderson and i are forming a metal arts collective. we will over time pursue opportunities for placing innovative functional art in public spaces. i've been looking at maps and castles lately. and learning about europe 500-1000AD.
february 2010
updated studio notes (now 1990-2010) and started building an Imagebank to manage many Gb of visual inspiration. it will feed the groups of drawings and paintings to come in the next few years. Realitygarten grows gradually in the background. designing street furniture, and capturing models for Heads.
january 2010
i've begun an open-ended project developing street furniture concepts - large-scale sculptural seating, modular seating groups, tree grates, planters, bike racks, pavements, water and lighting features. everyday amenities as functional art materially activating their surroundings. photos, drawings and models are accumulating.
december 2009
a new group of armatures for the Heads is ready to go. there are 9, for now. i'm experimenting with lighting and photo/video capture. models are photographed frontally, up close, and videotaped on a slowly-rotating platform. the video portrait will be the basis of the sculpture. incorporating the subtle animation of the face from moment to moment. many people look inherently sculptural. i'll be asking some of them to come and sit for a portrait.
november 2009
fascinated with 15th-17th century europe's climb from the wreckage of the black death through 'alchemy' and trade: the body actively engaging nature to unlock knowledge of its chemistry, structures and patterns. global commerce flooding the continent with ideas, objects and specimens alive, preserved or depicted. naturalistic painting regarded as a valid substitute for the physical subject depicted. the rise of a global market for 'true' substitutes, the exponential circulation of printed materials reading nature and projecting stories back onto nature. the surging overlap of the natural and the artificial. western culture as 'second nature'.
october 2009
open studios was hard work, great fun, busy and a success.
quieting down and getting back to color, Realitygarten, and moving forward on the Heads. i've been reading babylonian, jewish, greek and roman history.
september 2009
looking forward to a few years exploring new territory. there is much to do - i'll be throwing colors around for a long while. Realitygarten will in the background gradually accumulate and crystallize; it will inform and perhaps become integral to subsequent work. i'm prepping for a period of making portrait busts. right now we're getting excited and modifying the space for open studios.
august 2009
we're planning the space for open studios, coming up october 10-11.
i'm casting plaster houses, and painting on paper, a scaleless field layered with landscape-like, creature-like and story-like marks and shapes.
july 2009
fascinated by the body as the material trace of spirited action in the physical world. body exposed to life, body of love, work, war and healing. body of paradise and disaster. continuously shedding itself, always arriving. culture as a projection of stories and experiments upon the land. 'the world' as a human mirror, an exposé of our obsessions. the human struggle with 'getting it right'.
june 2009
i've started a new long-term study project called Realitygarten to explore the evolution and origination of western cultural 'form', excavating and mapping the facts of history which explain the weave of biases and assumptions undergirding our living present 'reality'.
may 2009
we installed a grid of beefy eye hooks in the ceiling above the entire gallery space for anything that needs to hang, and mounted triple brackets to the walls with rolls of seamless paper- now there is a photo shoot space.
march 2009
the studio is up and running.
i've been drawing since the new year. spontaneous marks, accumulating structures. pencil, ink, goache and acrylic. exploring different vibrations and densities. pure energy fields, articulated bodies/landscapes/floorplans, and 'heads'.
these drawings are my way into the new space. for the moment, after years of discipline, am loving the freedom to do whatever, see what happens, toss it aside, and start the next one.
the sculpt station is set up. we're converting a reclaimed fridge into a heater box for the clay. i've been sampling different clays to see how they perform in this space- it's cold in the winter and warm in the summer. i will be starting a new series this year. heads. portraits from 'life'.
december 2008
during the past two years i've been finishing the city group and slowly transforming the empty concrete shell of the new space into a comfortable multipurpose studio.
we gridded the space with nylon parachute curtains for shoji-like space-making flexibility and built a tatami platform in the one large window. created a kitchen area and installed gallery lighting and ventilation.
lately gearing up for a new round of work, gathering supplies, looking at pictures, reading stuff, thinking, writing, sketching, experimenting.
