CLOSE

Enjoyed this interview on Fresh Air with Chuck Close where he talks about grids, among other things. One thing I remember, Close says that he is basically a sloppy, disorganized, maybe lazy human being, and so, by employing the grid in his giant methodical paintings, he could go against his own nature and forge something elegant and new. (I'm paraphrasing big time, but you get the idea.)

WHAT BASQUIAT'S WORDS DO

Thinking about what words do in art, I come back to Jean-Michel Basquiat. I'm drawn to how his words are texture, and also emotion, I feel no need to read or decipher them to understand them.

Top: Bird on Money

Bottom: The Daros Suite of Thirty-Two Drawnings,

(acrylic, charcoal, crayon, pastel, pencil)

RELUCTANT MANIFESTO

My images are personal reflections drawn impulsively, like a nervous tick or doodling in the margin. I make this work mostly for myself. 

Subjects include figures, objects, and text which speak to personal quandaries and emotional soft spots. The  process is  additive and generally focused on drawing, bookmaking, and water-based media.  Observation, abstraction, layering, obscuring, and re-finding line are important aspects.

At the moment I'm interested in drawing antiquated  man-made objects and sequencing them through time, as a way to think about narrative and in particular, nostalgia: the feeling of rediscovering an intense long-lost earlier feeling. Layering, flip books, gifs, circular animation, and series are all possible expressions of this idea.

*old photo of us, by Aaron Farrington, I think* 

DRIPS

Experimenting with drips, edges borders. In the second image,
I randomly made a white work area that became the field of the tape. Neither image is complete.

FEATHERS TWO WAYS

Feathers two ways, in progress. Thinking about relative size, on picture plane.

WHAT WILL/CAN TEXT DO IN THESE IMAGES:

• size of text, 
• color of text (light on dark, dark on light) 
• on object only, behind object, woven
• scrapped in, drawn atop
• etc.

THINK BIG(GER)

Starting my big(ger) paintings: 11 X 14.

Arches cold press 140lb with blue and red (and gold) acrylic grounds. What next?

FLIP BOOK TUTORIAL

How to create your own flip book video, very basic tutorial.

FLIP BOOK EXAMPLE

Found this Flip book and PLAN at The Design Place. I like how it incorporates text. How to plan my own sequence of  images?

FEATHERS

Still interested in feathers as an image: old feather (above) and new(below).

LAYERING TEXT

White Gouache text over older images; also thinking about the dripping effect of water based media, both in text and backgrounds.

RESEARCH: CY TROMBLEY

Writing as texture, artist Cy Trombley: also the use of line, sgcraffito, and white.

THAUMATROPES

Thinking about animation--low-fi.

NATURAL OBJECTS

Was missing the organic quality of natural objects, so I played around with layering and drawing this aloe. Also trying to keep sgraffito and/or the uneven edge. I like the introduction of vibrant red/orange. 

CELESTIAL CASSETTES

Wanting to revisit the tapes, outside of the animation idea. Moved to primary color scheme: celestial feel...Idea of nostalgia.

SWITCHED

Another object from the novel: I like the switch up of acrylic and gouache on watercolor field.

FIGURES WITH WORDS

Still Gouache on Acrylic with touches of ink. I like the white outline and the uneven edges. Wondering what the words should be, I looked at the work of Jean-michel Basquiat---words as texture and mood. 

MIXED TAPES

I started a series of mysteriously unraveling tapes as possible (but ultimately unsuccessful  animations. Again gouache with ink on Acrylic wash.

1X1

This was my first drawing: acrylic wash with ink and gouache overtop. Cassettes were an object from my most recent writing project. I thought the theme would be objects from the 80's.