Week 38. "The New Bohemians" 40"x30" oil on canvas

"The New Bohemians, Bobby and Jeff in Chicago, circa 1993"


"Girl" by T. Rex

O God
High in your fields above earth
Come and be real for us
You with your mind
Oh yes you are
Beautifully fine

O Girl
Electric witch you are
Limp in society's ditch you are
Visually fine
Oh yes you are
But mentally dying

O boy
Just like a boat you are
Sunk but somehow you float you do
Mentally weak
Oh yes you are
But so much you speak

Week 37. "Inside, Outside" 22"x30" charcoal on archival paper

Okay, technically this is not a painting but having put all of my effort into it this week this is the piece being posted. Having gone back to school in and attempt to earn amy degree in graphic design my time has become a bit more limited and some work may have to do double duty, like this one. This is an assignment for my drawing II class. The directions for the assignment are to create an illusion of space using linear and atmospheric perspective. Looking into or out of a window or door is also one of the requirements. This is the view from my kitchen window. I've never considered myself very good at drawing with charcoal. Charcoal is messy and likes to be used in a very free manner. My drawings and sketches tend to start with very precise lines and occasionally I'll give them some shading if I want some volume. This drawing was done with practically no lines but by making shapes of differing value. I tried to find a good balance between free and constrained. The charcoal sort of behaved.
Below are two different photos of the painting I posted last week, "Icon". The color in the top image looks very close to the actual painting while the color in the second image (what was originally seen last week) does not. What a difference a good photo makes. I had to take the first (bottom) photo under artificial light and my silly little Pentax just couldn't get it's little circuits to figure out what it was suppose to be seeing. The more recent photo (top) was taken outside in natural light.

Week 36. "Icon" 16"x20" acrylic on canvas

Through the ages there has been so much iconography produced that it really must be considered an art form all to itself. Most recently, beginning in the mid-19th century or so, artists began shaking off some of the dogma of the church as well as some of the restrictions established by renaissance art and began making more personal and intimate images of iconographic material. These images were Christ images as opposed to images of the man Jesus. In other words artists were attempting to represent the Christ idea as opposed to a believable representation of Jesus's physical body. After all, Jesus wasn't crucified because of his awesome physique but because of his ideas. Edvard Munch is probably the artist that best typifies this for me. Christ figures show up in much of his work. They are always a single luminescent circle floating above a shining pillar of light. The figure isn't identifiable as Jesus or even a man but it is obviously a Christ figure. My Christ figure in "Icon" is much more humanoid than Munch's. Still, I'm aiming to represent an idea or a feeling, not an accurate representation of a body. While I was painting this I was continuously asking myself, "what could someone possibly be saying to shake the world at it's very foundations? Is a message of love truly so powerful?" Sadly, this photo of "Icon" is a very inaccurate representation. Please check back in a day or two and I should have a better one posted.

Week 35. "Scylla and Charybdis" 48"x24" acrylic on wood

Scylla and Charybdis, according to myth, were both sea nymphs who were turned into sea monsters and together created an impossible straight through which to sail. If one is said to be "between Scylla and Charybdis" then they are between two equally undesirable options or dangers. At least that's the most common understanding of the myth. Personally, the story reminds me to never say die. There is always hope... unless you give up. I don't have any idea why this story popped into my head this week. This is my second week rediscovering acrylic paint and really working it and seeing what it can do. I thought painting water would be a good test. It was. It is much more difficult to paint water with acrylic rather than oil. Nevertheless, I really enjoy some of the effects that happening in this painting. There's an echo of traditional Japanese painting in the waves. The colors are appealing and I love the whirlpool in the lower left hand side.