A Green Surge

I feel like I'm going to post everything all of the sudden, and then have nothing again for a while.. old habits die hard, I suppose.

This one has been kicking around my space for a while. I'm finally leaving it alone.

A Green Surge (Theoretical Spacescape No. 1)
48x72 inches
Acrylic on Canvas

My paintings are becoming less and less literal, and while they are still heavily influenced by the nebulae works, they are also becoming more influenced by my own memories of landscape and
atmosphere. I found myself writing about the recent direction in a statement for a project:

First, I’m most interested in image references that are obtained by means outside of conventional photography and go beyond naked eye observation; telescopes and radiology reveal a world where the images are determined by electromagnetic readings and colour is arbitrarily assigned according to raw data including thermal readings and radio frequencies. Images of stellar objects like nebulae and planets spark my imagination and leave much room for inventiveness.

Secondly, I am compelled to reminisce on images from my past growing up on the Atlantic coast on the ocean. I’m interested in considering how these memories slowly change and become sensationalized as I spend more time away. Recollections become simplified, deteriorating to simple tonal planes as particulars become vague. Specific details forgotten, they are replaced with memories about the ambiance and energy of the landscape.

Both nebulae and water exhibit fluid, unstable characteristics, yet are beautiful and powerful bodies. My paintings reflect this wavering existence, revealing the excitement as well as the anxiety about these unknown realms. They become glimpses of possible alternative realities that may not exist or perhaps exist somewhere.

I think we all hate writing statements, but I lately have been finding them rewarding in that they can be reminders about what we're doing with our work, and put it in context to the rest of our lives. A little meditation and inner reflection on why we do what we do is not necessarily a bad thing, regardless if the path to getting there may be a little painful at first.

I've also gone back to editing this work, but I think I'm done with it now and will put it away with the other:

m42
46X72 inches
Acrylic on Canvas

Number 15

I like how I started this blog in Jan '09 and have a total of 27 posts. What does this say about this entire year. ??

Anyway, it's been a crappy weather day, and with our transit strike I wasn't going anywhere. I finished another drawing in illustrator - I think I'm really getting it now. Aside from indecisiveness in regards to my design, this actually came together pretty quickly with minimum googling.

This developed a lot considering my original drawing was this thing floating some-what to the right of this paragraph because I don't quite understand blogger's formatting.

I ended up editing it a lot first mirroring it and then adding to it, back and forth between illustrator and photoshop. The rest of the pieces come from a variety of sources, but unlike the waves in my last attempt, I didn't go so far as drawing original stuff to throw into the background, and just edited a bunch of random elements together to make it look half decent.And now to fold laundry.

Studies of Spacey Landscapes pt.2

Here are the rest of the studies from yesterday's post.

While some of these, I think, are much better as small studies, a few of these will move on to become larger works. In the end, the long ones will be 48x96 inches, the square ones 60x60 if I get my way and they work out.

6x6 and 6x12 inches
Acrylic on Masonite panel

When I paint, my work doesn't spend its entire time sitting on an easel. They find their way to the floor, upside down, whatever position I need them as I do runs and washes, so working larger proposes a challenge on canvas stretched on bars which usually has some give at the centre. So my solution has been painting on canvas stretched on plywood, which is great but hard to do when you get outside of anything more than 48 inches in width.

60x60 inch plywood can be done, apparently (I called and checked around), but I still might settle for stretched canvas, I haven't quite decided yet. Of course there's cost factors in everything, as well as weight issues moving such large pieces when I'm working by myself. But I have 2 48x96 pieces on the go right now, and it hasn't been too bad so far.

Studies of Spacey Landscapes pt.1

Photographed some work today since deadlines loom. It was the first sunny day here in what felt like a while, so I took the chance to photograph all the paintings I could. There are still a bunch of kinks to work out for shooting at my space - there's windows that are huge, meaning its difficult to get photos without glare but its easier to do when there's sun opposed to artificial light.

So here's some bunch of the studies that were in pics from earlier to start:

6x6 and 6x12 inches
Acrylic on Masonite

More tomorrow so I don't flood the world.

Goodnight all ~

My Finished Illustrator Project - a One-Eyed Monster

So after many hours today and yesterday, I've managed to come up with something I am actually okay with in illustrator... Much pleased with my success! On this project I was able to learn a whole selection of random tricks and tools, including how to import and use my own drawings to make my own brushes and swatches, how to edit those images, re-colour and organize, blahblahblah. Some of it was quite tricky! The worst thing for me about this program is how earily similar it is to Photoshop - which makes me attempt to do things how I would in Photoshop, only to realize that it's just not going to work. It took me forever to figure out save colour swatches on my pallet. Insane.

Anyway, speaking of colour, I'm not sure if I'll stick with these, but this is the general idea. I'm more attached to the light one than the dark one but its impossible to gage on this monitor (I moved to my roommate's computer for the home stretch since it has more ram than my laptop, and his monitor is quite dark).

Ofcorse. Pink. Because it is so hardcore.

and dark grey could make a good t-shirt.

So, hurrah... go me... I did it. And I have ideas for my next one too, which hopefully will go a lot quicker. I'd also consider taking requests if any readers have subjects in mind. But otherwise now that I'm finished this task, I'll probably be back to painting the rest of the week.

More Studio Life + Goin' Ons

Thought I'd update this again since I found myself taking silly pictures around the studio again.

Been working on some big projects but haven't yet taken any photos of the work. This weekend I'll mostly likely have to do some shooting, however, since I need some images for a small portfolio, so maybe some things will end up on here, but it is way too early to tell.

I think I'm going to call these photos my 'Studio Life' series. Sounds almost intentional.

Anyway, 2 more:

Today I learned how to neglect my plants without actually neglecting them. Alas, I'm not nearly as classy as the person I stole this idea from - she used wine bottles..

Happy little brushes. Or, not so happy. So another thing I some-what neglect (okay they are still soft and good for painting, they just look pretty trashed.). I think if we all spent our life in painty water, we'd look a little frazzled too.

Anywho, I decided about a week ago that I was going to learn illustrator, so I've been trying to learn the many different things about the program that I can actually use to rework drawings and stuff in the future. Back and forth between photoshop and lots of little drawings, I've figured out how to make my own brushes and things among other cool things. It's been a thoroughly challenging and frustrating ordeal.


I feel like blogger may not be as happy-go-lucky as livejournal is/was in regards to what I post. So hoping nothing really comes of this.

Cool beans, yo.. cool beans.

A couple photos

For my own amusement.


I remember back in the day when I use to use blogs for motivation...