Wide Load

I finally snapped a pic of a previously unphotographed piece of mine that's been hanging in a friend's apartment. It's a giant, 4' x 6' painting on canvas stretched over a wooden frame. This picture is blurry, and has a glare, but I'm going to get a better shot soon. I also want to capture the look of the painting in the environment of the loft.

The particular space (an apartment in a renovated old factory building in Pike Place Market in Seattle, Washington) inspired me to create a large decorative piece that would invoke the feeling of being in a stand of trees in a thick forest. Abstraction of the tree trunks plays off the architecture of the space, and the implication of sunlight shining in through the trees lends a subliminal illusion of another window.

The space is composed of large wooden beams in the ceiling, exposed brick walls, a dark slate floor, and very high ceilings. The windows face the bay and the mountains, so there's a lot of natural light. Those elements sunk into me and drew out my utmost love for the Pacific Northwest. Seattle is my home town and I love it - that building epitomizes Seattle, as well - but this beautiful city is enhanced by it's proximity to natural beauty. I've always had a passionate love for forests, so upon first seeing the living space, I felt a strong need to put a little forest feel into that loft, especially to accentuate the high ceilings and tree-like beams, so I did it.

My friend was stoked because he got to have a little extra color and texture on his wall, and I benefited from the opportunity to construct and paint a large surface, as well as follow through with a whim and do something I hadn't done before. It worked out well because when he moves out I'll get it back to work on it some more. I'd say right now it's a good start; what is there now will be a great underpainting to work out some really extraordinary layered textural detail. I rushed it a little in the beginning to get it in the apartment for the housewarming party. It's been sitting there being appreciated for 9 months and now soon I will complete it!

My plan is to build up the surface and complexify and enrich the color palete. Right now I feel it is merely decorative, which is fine and I like making decorative things, but it can be so much more. It's massive, too. Four by six feet is a little much to carry around, but sure looks good on such a large wall. In fact, the size of the wall dwarfed the painting! I would have liked to hang a 6'x10' piece on that wall! But until I get a bigger studio space and a method for making huge supports, I'm just gonna have to top out at 4'x6'.

Let me know what you think about this piece. Sorry again that it's a blurry photo with a flash glare. I'll do better next time. Painter, not photographer, appartently.

Exploring my Artist's Statement

Occasionally I need to reexamine or reiterate why exactly I love to make art. Now is one of those times. Quick before it becomes seemingly obligatory or forced. I recently reread my previous post from May about Anthropomorphism and discovered that I actually laid out a fundamental of my approach inside brackets beneath an inset quote in tiny italic text. Of course! The most simple things are so easily hidden. So here it is in larger text:

"I find it fascinating that as humans, we perceive our ability to reason and feel as being so pervasive and omnipotent that we impose it on any other object or living thing we encounter, almost automatically."
- Me

That is basically my THESIS in a nutshell. I need to get better at saying so when people ask me what the anthropomorphic element of my artwork really means, I'll have something to say in response other than, "Ummm, you've just gotta see my work, man."

That statement is, however, part of my larger concept of art, which I will make another crack at defining below. An artist's statement should always be a work in progress in my opinion. Well, there are different kinds: one that sheds personal light on a particular series, and one is ever-evolving and growing with my relationship to art/life. Many of my favorite artists have written extensively on meaning in art. Periodically I like to read the theories of other artists who I admire, like Motherwell, Raushenburg or Kandinsky for their unique perspective, but what follows is as much my own take on it as I can muster at this point.

Somewhere amidst that narcissistic tendency of our highly evolved species, we are given the under-appreciated power to imagine.

Our eyes are open wide and our brains are intricately wired to pick up and assimilate all that comes into sight. We subconsciously collect images in our mind's infinite memory banks and each of these are accompanied by other points of reference, which mostly boil down to emotions born of our personal trajectory through life. (This is the very phenomenon that advertisers and propagandists across the globe play upon.)

As an artist, I get to play around with all of the infinite visual elements I can muster and juxtapose them to give the viewer (and myself) particular reference points that will trigger something deep in our visual memory banks and bring forth a particular group of emotions.

It excites me just as much when people don't get the same feelings from the "scenes" I paint as when they do catch on to my general intent. The beauty of creating an arrangement of colors, shapes and symbols, is that every person who sees it will think and feel differently about it.

Much of what I paint I am unable to fully describe in words. When I try to speak of my choices in color, shape and symbol, the words feel clunky and gooey inside my mouth. At times when folks ask me to tell them what my art is about, I wish I could pull out a tiny, pocket-sized projector, point it at a wall and say "THAT." Come on, Apple, get on it. I give them two more iPhone generations before they build in the projection feature.

All that being said, I expect that this will be a lifelong curiosity that will keep me entertained with life as well as keep me artistically inspired... or at least I hope it will. As long as I keep reminding myself how cool I think it is that by using various landscapes, color combinations and anthropomorphic figures, I can create allure and intrigue. Something exciting and interesting will result from almost any combination of those elements, and it will touch upon some minuscule part of mankind's myriad of emotions.

SUGGESTED READING: "Ways of Seeing" by John Berger


Don't even get me started on the Mass Marketing Machine's role in all of this... I can go on forever. What happens between our eyeball, our brain, our Id and ego when an image is before us is a fascinating topic. An understanding of our visual/mental processes can be used for good... or for evil. I like to partake in the good, but I certainly have a lot to say and think about the evil... Another time, maybe.

Studio Update

Just as I suspected, summer is winding down and I've finally unleashed the built up momentum and have begun the process of setting up my new studio for real. The last boxes are being unpacked, and my supplies are finding their homes in the most logical place I can think to put them right now, all designed to contribute to my future flow of creativity.

It's quite exciting, and it feels really good.

I feel blessed. The 10'x13' room is the perfect size. Not sure yet if the fan I have for the one-and-only window will adequately exhaust the fumes, but we'll see... The robin's egg pale turquoise/blue color in eggshell luster I painted the walls is a brilliant, motivating, awake and inspiring color. With my many lamps and full-spectrum bulbs, the room is bright and glowing. I think it will be impossible to give in to the winter woes in here.

I have a big desk for my computer, printer and work type stuff. I have a drawing table for sketching and working out ideas. I got a dresser for all my random supplies and a bookshelf for my art books. And then there's the painting corner. More than enough space for all the mediums, brushes palette table and my large easel. Bitchin'! I'm so set.

Does anyone in the area have some cork-board you'd like to donate to the walls? I intend to plaster them with inspirational tidbits.

It's times like these that I feel blessed to be an artist. Now let's see if I can follow through and bust out these images that have been bouncing around my skull for so long.

FUN!

Love it