Fourth Volley

Done over three sessions in an open studio figure painting class. The next few will posts will be works coming out of there. Oils on vellum paper. I must apologize for the lousy quality of the photo. At some point I will learn to light things better and make Gimp do what I want.

I have the habit of working too tightly on paintings, which makes me take forever on them. I would like to loosen up a bit and just let some well placed strokes represent the subject. Kinda like Jenny Saville.

(p.s. eat it, photobucket.)

Third Volley

Oils on board. Graphite. Thirty inches by twenty four inches.

An older one that recently was paired with the wood cut below for a show. I was playing with the idea of creating my own saints. I don't know what they would be saints of, not having ever been Catholic for more than a day. I like the ceremonialism that happens in religion. I also like the iconography, and while I'm not a fan of it, I can appreciate the suffering. So I wanted to play with illusions of halos. Like how in graffiti you see crowns floating above things. I thought, why not a helmet? Who is more saintly than a soldier? And what better way to set up a dichotomy between that which is holy and that which is barbaric, than start playing with the idea of combat. I'd like to do a series of these, soldiers as saints, or saints as soldiers. To bring that which was more than human back down to a human level.

When I look at depictions of saints, or Christ, I don't see blood as holy, I see blood as terrifying. And then I see the humanity of it as something to be admired and holy. And by humanity I mean lack of supernatural, people bleed, feel pain, suffer. I think religious imagery can be used as a metaphor or vessel to convey those feelings of pain, or joy.

Second Volley

A woodblock print on Japanese paper. Twenty four inches by nineteen inches. The first one I've done in three or four years, which was intimidating to undertake. It also (once I got started) was something I flew through, borrowing a nice chisel from my job to remove the large areas.

I was looking at a book of women artists of the Wiemar Republic, specifically Kathe Kollwitz woodcuts. She has one in there of a solitary figure who looks dead. There is a very minimal atmosphere around the figure made by minimal noise from the block. I wanted to try something like that, and figured what better thing to beat the hell out of than a piece of wood. And who better to beat the hell out of than soldiers? I use them a lot in my work. I like drawing people who are weary, the lines stand out on them more. The archaeology of their faces and bodies is closer to the surface. I like them because I can find more character in people like that, they've been around the block, and have the stories to prove it.

I want my pictures to tell me a story, and hopefully you as well. Or to look like someone who could narrate to you.

First Volley

First thing. Images made late last year, and hopefully the beginning of a series. They hang as a triptych, and are twenty four inches by forty eight inches, and seven inches deep. Pine, roofing tar, oilsticks, candles, the bible, jars, dirt, urine and rope. Oh the fun of being out of art school and recycling props from old art projects.

I think of myself as the analog photomanipulation, I find objects and make lots of really bad stuff, recycling things that stick with me from them, until they come together in something more concrete. Something I'm happy with.

I'm going to start with older pieces that I am documenting and keep uploading new things along with it. New art, visual. Words. And the fleshing out or discussion of ideas for both. I hope you'll stick around for the undertaking.