JohannArts!

A falling-down-building

2010-11-21T06:48:00.003-05:00

Color Study

Stare Case

New Photos

2010-06-05T12:45:00.001-04:00

As I walked down by the Lea one day...

What the tree thought

Waterlily

White fluff (1)

For the Gulf Coast (1)

For the Gulf Coast (2)

Night Sky

Flutterby

White Fluff (2)

Spaces and Thames

2010-05-27T06:59:00.009-04:00

Installation View

Rub-a-dub dub. The Thames is your tub. Living in London, where the generations before us paved over nearly every square foot of land and walls of bricks form horizon lines, it is sometimes easy to forget that we are part of the geological environment. But despite our willingness to acknowledge it, we share a connection to the river Thames. Raindrops that we wield away with pocket-sized, preferably black umbrellas make it, one way or another, into the river. They slip off our skin, picking up dead cells, traces of our clothes, ourselves. They combine with the muck from our shoes, draining into sewers, which head river-ward. The land itself slopes that way. London and towns westward to Oxford and Swindon are within this massive area. The water that comes through our taps, which we use to sustain ourselves, to wash off the grime of the city comes from the Thames. So, we are all bathing in water that has touched other beings, has its own history, that has cleansed the land, our sorrows away. Rub-a-dub-dub. The Thames flows through your tub.

The art presented here for my final Foundation Fine Art show at Byam Shaw/Central St Martins explores this connection of the city of London to the river Thames.

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You are the Thames (mixed media sculpture)

You are the Thames (close-up)

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Thames River at Vauxall Bridge, 5/9/10, 12.46 pm

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Do you know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember nothing? #1 (Digital print)

Do you know nothing? Do you see nothing? Do you remember nothing? #2 (Digital print)

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Erosion/Deposition (1/6 gouache on paper paintings, washed in the Thames)

Erosion/Deposition (6 gouache paintings washed in the Thames)

Installed!

2010-05-14T08:10:00.000-04:00

Final Show Preview

2010-05-07T15:51:00.006-04:00

My project is about the physical connection of the city of London (and its inhabitants) to the Thames. More details later.....

A sign to accompany an interactive sculpture.

Paintings waiting patiently for the tide to rise....

Taking a bath....

An unexpected swim...

Rough currents in the water

But all made it safely back to shore. Drying out in the lovely spring sunshine.

Salt sculptures, rusty printing, epic poems, and other artings....

2010-02-05T12:56:00.022-05:00

The Ancient Mariner (installation of photos)

It's been a couple of months since my last post. Though I might blame Christmas, my fantastic city, a certain boy, or many other things for my lack of posting, I have actually been spending the entire time working on one project, about which I did not want to write until it was finished, installed, etc. It came into being through some reflecting I was doing in December during the Copenhagen climate conference.... and thinking about rising sea levels and that while many places will be completely parched, there are other places that will be completely swamped by completely undrinkable water. This got me to thinking about SALT as an artistic medium. I also looked at some maps of areas that might be swamped by rising sea levels, and it struck me that the shapes of these landscapes which might by the end of the century are very beautiful, abstract shapes. Which is much how the general public views global warming and sea level rise-- how can we *get* what it will mean to a Bangladeshi? I'm immersed in this conversation, and I can't fathom it.

Acrylic and vaseline painting of "submerged landscapes" along the US Gulf Coast

As such, I latched onto the idea of using salt as an artistic medium-- it's in the sea water, it's in us, it is (in the presence of water) ephemeral. I thought a lot about Buddhist sand mandalas-- the ceremony of making and destroying these gorgeous sand paintings as a ritual emphasing the impermanence of material life....

Based on areas along the US Gulf Coast that would be submerged with sea level rise of 2m.

But in starting to make salt paintings in the outlines of areas that would be destroyed due to rising sea levels, it all felt a little fake. I needed to play. This might have been inspired by an outstanding visit to the Camden Arts Centre to see Eva Hesse's"studioworks"-- a series of pieces that are not-quite-final sculptures.... but more just kind of experiments that are nonetheless stunning in their own right.

The Ancient Mariner

Designed to be viewed outside, this piece draws on numerous inspirations. On the surface, it is a piece about landscape, and rising sea levels. Salt is used to outline the areas along the coast of Bangaldesh that will be covered when sea level rises. However, it is enclosed inside an overturned bowl, buried by soil, and viewed through a peep-hole (the photos above were taken through the peep-hole).

Installation of the Ancient Mariner outside in the Byam Shaw courtyard

Noon/ "And all averred, I killed the bird that made the breeze to blow"

I was also much-inspired by the Caspar David Friedrich painting, “The Wreck of Hope.” When playing with some of the salt, I was reminded in a flash of that particular painting, and the ideas of the sublimity of nature, and nature’s power over man that are explored in that piece of art… and realised those are the same themes that I am exploring. Inspiration was derived from the French philosopher, Jean-Francois Lyotard, who believed that in art, there is an inherent sense of estrangement in simply looking at landscape (appropriate for the view through a peep-hole). I must also pay homage to Mariele Neudecker for her small little vitrine environments; she also plays with ideas of German Romanticism, although to different ends.

The Dead of Night/"Instead of a cross an Albatross about my neck was hung"

Finally, the title of the piece (and the source text for the photos and the “soundtrack”) come from "The Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge. When working on this piece, I could not get the lines “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink” out of my head. It so aptly describes the problem that people living in low-lying coastal areas may be facing in the coming centuries. I thought the story of the Mariner killing the innocent albatross. The loss of the albatross results in a loss of the wind. This seemed to be an apt metaphor for the way that we are treating our planet.

Dusk/"Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink"

Dawn/"As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean"

The Concept of the Dissolving salt cup

Many attempts were made at successfully molding/carving/evaporating a cup out of salt. All ended in failure.

Which is why this remains a concept. What follows is the text for the art “concept”, which following in the tradition of some conceptual artists, such as Sol Lewitt, provide “instructions” for the production of their art.

Water is an essential ingredient to all life. In its search for extraterrestrial life, NASA has the motto, “Follow the water.” In the face of global warming, many parts of the world will experience extreme water shortages. Other parts of the world, such as the coast of Bangladesh, will be flooded with sea water that is completely unpalatable, completely undrinkable due to its high salt content.Hence, this project.

Water is precious! It deserves a place of honour, of reverence. It belongs on a plinth.

What do we typically drink water out of? A simple cup….

Salt is intruding…… it is in us already……

A cup, constructed entirely out of salt is placed on a plinth.

The cup will be filled with fresh, pure water. Gradually, the cup will loose its internal cohesion, as the salt dissolves. What was once potable is now toxic to humans. Repeat, as necessary, until the cup itself is completely gone.

As part of my attempt at a salt cup, I brought a salt crystal lamp from a new-age shop to the sculpture yard and after subjecting it to various drills and chisels, it shattered. But it was interesting to take photos of, and was very struck how much like a man it looks here....

Prints

The Maldives (etching on steel plate)

I ran into Adrian, our print guru, one day and was telling him about what I have been doing lately, and brought up that I thought it would be interesting to do some print projects using salt. Rather than actually printing with salt, as I had originally been thinking, he suggest I use salt to enhance the rusting of a steel plate. So, I drew a design, derived from a map of the Maldives Islands, which will be completely submerged if sea level rises as expected. I made a print from that (above). I then sprayed my steel plate with salt water and allowed it to sit outside all night. I then made another print .

The Maldives (rusted)

The rust had at this point only slightly deformed the plate. However, after leaving the plate outside for a weekend, having sprayed it again with salt water, I found that rust had grown over almost the entire plate.

The Maldives (very rusted)

OK, that is *most* of what I made that I'm not horribly embarrassed to post. There's more, but my attention, likely like yours is flagging....

Denudation-- The Art/Science Project

2009-11-30T11:32:00.005-05:00

"Denudation" is a sculptural installation, accompanied by a video expressing the breakdown of the human landscape, as seen through the lens of the genocide in Darfur. This project came to be through an "Art/Science" project that we were assigned in school, but something that had been swirling about in my head in some shape or another for some time. But as always, once the research started and the working began, it took on a life of its own.....

The sculpture hovers above the floor in an effort to express a sense of perspective-- our separation from the horrors of Darfur, and perhaps an inability to relate in a proper sense to our physical environment. On one wall (there will be) the movie play (though at the moment, it's just my laptop), and on the other, you see a painting in clay, charcoal, and leftover sediments from Loss on Ignition experiments I did during my PhD on sediments from Egypt. The designs are transcribed from the aerial views of destroyed Darfur villages (seen in the film). I find somehow the idea of a physical scar on the Earth's surface expressing human suffering to be incredibly powerful.

I built a landscape representing in a very literal sense the human landscape of Darfur(based on GIS modeling of populations in refugee camps-- higher areas are due to camps with greater numbers of refugees-- some have over 100,000. Appalling.). I built this sculpture (in a box I made myself!) using clay, sand, salt, and tar. I then acted to erode this landscape using earth, air fire, and water (inspired, a bit, I confess by games I've played with stream tables over the years!) The sculpture is left in each of those scenarios (and indeed afterwards in which it has continued to decay) subject to decay in whatever way is seen fit.

Would love to know what you think. I had a lot of fun making this and am incredibly excited about the idea of exploring various issues in this way and am curious if it resonates at all....

New Artings

2009-10-15T14:03:00.016-04:00

So, I've been a bit quiet on this blog thing because I've been making tons and tons of art. Every day (almost). For those of you that aren't aware, I've been getting my feet on the ground in my Fine Art foundation course at the Byam Shaw school at Central St Martins College of Art and Design in London. It's been a pretty crazy (and humbling) past couple of weeks for me in which I've learned an incredible amount, and been stretched in almost every conceivable way. Anyways, to give you a feel for a bit of the stuff I've been making, a few highlights.... (and give me shout if there's one of these you find particularly successful/unsuccessful)

I was assigned a painting at the National Gallery to copy that I ended up truly despising ("Psyche showing her sisters her gifts from cupid" by Fragonard). A strange relationship with the work ensued in which I ended up making this not entirely accurate (but more interesting to me) transcription in charcoal, acrylic wash, and collage...

Installation designed to camouflage objects. Spot the fishnet stockings, the candlestick, the shoe....? Somebody had a good evening...

"Storm in a Teacup" Clay sculpture designed to go atop the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square. I'll leave it to you to figure out the references yourself.

Trees. The assignment was to create a "bridge" with rolled paper. This is what came out. Particularly like how the part on the right came out with the metal ladder and the architecture of the room.

"Ant/arctic" We were instructed to do something awesome with a book. Would be curious to hear which of the variants of the installations you think is best (text/no text, pictures/no pictures...)

"LON BRI"

Starting something new

2009-09-20T11:32:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago, an assignment arrived for me in the mail as a summer assignment for the fine art foundation course I am starting at the Byam Shaw school of Central St Martins. The instruction was to "make a painting that explores the notion of "self" in relation to a double space (i.e. mirror with exterior, mirror reflection, etc).

The Hills are Alive (Cottarton for Per Kirkeby)

2009-08-27T06:16:00.009-04:00

"The hills are alive"

This might be the first painting I've done with a very specific audience in mind, that audience being my Dad and Amber to whom I owe birthday presents, father's/mother's day presents, and also a tremendous amount of gratitude for putting up with tearful phone calls and the existential crises that have defined my life over the past year. As such, I wanted to make a painting for them that was very personal, to do something that encapsulated their life at Cottarton (their cottage in the countryside of Aberdeenshire). I mulled over various ideas that involved the use of scientific data, aerial photography, etc, which I have utilized to a great extent in my most recent paintings-- but none of these seemed right. During these mental peregrinations, one image that really stuck in my mind rather iconic view out the window of the large living room window to the hill opposite the house.

To me, Scotland is a place with a lot of history. Maybe this is just coming from the United States, where everything is so new... but I really do feel as though the history of the earth and its subsequent human occupation is in your face more viscerally than in most places. Crust has been created, morphed and destroyed. Trees have grown, fallen, and been felled. People have made their mark on the landscape since the stone age. We are now drawing energy from those same rocks that lie beneath our feet, as well as from the air that we are breathing via wind turbines. There is a very strong sense of place in Scotland.... and I was interested in capturing that sense of place at Cottarton in a painting... that including everything from the history of the earth to Daddy's mushrooms and cabbages to the wind turbines (which are in the painting, but only faintly).

Trained as a geologist, I view a place in terms of its history and see time very much like a stratigraphy. Layers piled upon layers... it is this idea that I incorporated into this painting. What we see now is a function of everything that has happened before and is occurring now. It's all connected (to quote from 'I heart Huckabees,' "it's all the blanket.") While I as working on this painting, I viewed a spectacular exhibition of the Danish artist, Per Kirkeby at the Tate Modern. Kirkeby was actually trained as a geologist (he has a masters degree and was working on arctic geology in Greenland when he decided to train as an artist), and this is apparent in many of his paintings. I'm not sure if it was this knowledge that somehow caused me to be so affected by his work. However, his paintings, which incorporate landscape, figuration, abstraction, philosophy, and various art-historical references are fascinating. They are the kind that I can look at, turn away from, and then look at again, and see something completely new. I was particularly struck by his painting "Plank-Rock", which I naughtily took a photograph of... and motifs of which I think were blatantly or less blatantly stolen, but for which I'm offering him due credit and praise.

"Plank-Rock" by Per Kirkeby at Tate Modern

Amheida 1 (Out of Egypt, into the great laugh of mankind, and I shake the dirt from my sandals as I run)

2009-08-03T16:32:00.006-04:00

This piece was inspired in part by my work this past winter with the Amheida Project in Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt, which is involved in the excavation of a Roman Era (and probably earlier) archaeological site. One of the more spectacular parts of the site, much of which remains to be excavated and is still swallowed in sand, is a Roman bath (below). On the surface of the site, you can see the bricks forming the edges, and in places on the interior, plaster still remains. It was architecture like this, as well as many other spectacular features of the site that got me thinking about what we leave behind, and how our remains reflect who we are... and how somebody else later on might go and interpret that.

This painting consists of a number of layers. First, you have what you see at the surface (bricks). Then you have what it represents (a pool, literally; a whirlpool of time, more metaphorically). Finally, you have how we represent it now (the black lines, which correspond to the lines drawn by the archaeologists denoting the construction itself, as well as surrounding structures).

This piece was, incidentally, painted almost entirely (exception is the black gouache and a wee bit of blue watercolor) with pigments collected in Dakhleh. These consisted of some sort of red oxide and some charcoal I collected from spring mounds and mixed with an acrylic medium (as a binder) and then added water to, and painted with, just like one would with watercolor.

Finally, regarding the title, in my (so far) tradition of naming my paintings after songs I like, this one goes out to Sufjan Stevens.

Just unwinding from a long day....

2009-06-26T00:20:00.002-04:00

Contemplating Erasure

2009-06-24T23:24:00.013-04:00

I guess the concept of "erasure" has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm moving (to London) and wonder what sort of lasting 'impact' I have had on the Columbus area. As I watch my belongings disappear into boxes, I feel as though I'm being erased from the space in which I live... When I'm physically gone, am I really gone? It leaves me with this desperate desire to grab a can of spray paint and scrawl on these now-empty walls "I was here." Is it in our physical detritus that our presence on the Earth is noted, the literal marks that we leave on the Earth? My intellectual self wants to tread lightly, whereas my ego wants to make a mark. 'Erasure' has also been on my mind through reading about Rauschenberg's "Erased DeKooning" in a book about conceptual art and also through some conversations I've had recently with my friend Sara about some of the interesting things she's doing with an eraser in her drawing class.

A while ago, I read an article about how GoogleEarth teamed up with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum to document the destruction of villages in Darfur. I was really struck by how (from an aerial perspective) it looks like somebody has taken an eraser to the skin of the Earth and scrubbing as hard as possible. Which, sadlly, is a fairly apt analogy.

So hence this series of drawings, depicting destroyed Darfur villages. For each of these, I toned the paper and drew in charcoal the outline of a village I'd found on GoogleEarth, and then started to erase and erase and erase.

This Desert Life

2009-05-23T16:53:00.007-04:00

"This Desert Life"

see below for more/process shots

This piece, which is a kind of sculpture-painting hybrid, was a long time coming and represents the direction that I’m really interested in taking my art-- that is, making visually provocative art (you decide if that's achieved) that has a basis in science and also speaks to societal issues at-large.

I have long been fascinated by water issues in the American West. I guess this comes from my undergraduate education at UCSB, where we learned stories about William Mullholand, water treaties, and the development of Los Angeles. Cadillac Desert is an amazing book. On the way to Santa Barbara from Houston, I would often have layovers in Phoenix, which kind of epitomizes thef conflict between the natural environment and the ridiculous, unsustainable lifestyles of (some) occupants of the area.

This piece was provoked by those sentiments, as well as an amazing photo of subsidence of the San Joaquin Valley in California due to groundwater extraction and some data of subsidence contours that I have my students work with. This painting portrays Palmdale, CA (a kind of hellish suburb of LA) and its surroundings, where subsidence has also occurred (though of slightly lesser magnitude, its presence in suburbia is in a way more significant in a sense to me).

I am interested in landscape in its both literal and metaphorical senses. I see this piece of art as a meeting of those two ideas. The surface itself comes from a USGS map of land subsidence (so not actual topography-- so actually creating a new landscape out of scientific data). The wires that 'hover' above the surface represent the current levels of the groundwater (circa mid-90's). I'm interested in how our lifestyles and actions are manifested in visible and invisible ways.... (and thus playing a bit with positive and negative space). The inclusion of aluminum foil, silver paint, salt, and sand are not accidental either-- but are intended to speak both to the natural state of the "system", and our modification of it. I could write more that you probably won't read, so if you're interested in learning more, let me know and I'll talk your ear off about it since I've been living with this thing for about 4 months now.

Some other views/process shots:

Grey Gardens

2009-05-14T15:26:00.005-04:00

"Grey Gardens"

At long last, some new artwork! Never fear, I have been plugging away on a kind-of-insanely-involved piece that I’m hoping should show up here in a couple of weeks. That combined with the craziness of the semester (teaching 2 lab classes), art school applications, and preparations for leaving town (will be in London next year in a foundations program at Central St Martins College of Art and Design) have prevented me from blogging in quite a while.

On to the work at hand.

Amongst many things, I have been thinking a great deal about how we interpret our environments and the subjectivity of many of those interpretations... and how our experience of a “place” is not only dependent upon visual cues, but is ultimately the summation of so much more—sounds, smells, associations with thoughts or events. Then layer that upon the actual 4 dimensional reality of a place, which includes all of those things that happen in a given place that we never see or know about (my mind goes to that scene in “Amelie” where she wonders how many people across Paris are having an orgasm at any given time). Walking by a window at night, you catch a glimpse of something you weren’t looking for, and wasn’t intended for your eyes. You pass somebody and catch a snippet of their phone conversation. Each of these moments happened at a specific moment, at a specific place, and from a specific reference frame.

This painting is about all of those things. At the most basic level, it is a map of my neighborhood (the Short North in Columbus). After a couple of initial layers of paint, I wrote onto the canvas various associations that I have with particular blocks. Some are deeply personal, others are just as deeply impersonal. Atop those reflections I layered more paint. This time, abstract patterns, gestural marks, drips and globs of paint…. Many layers of reality—I see the nature of a place almost like a geologic stratigraphy. In some places on the painting, the text shows through, and the viewer bears witness to those thoughts. In other places, it’s just a kind of ghost of a moment.

I want to acknowledge that in constructing this painting, I was perhaps partly inspired by the Hitotoki Project. I discovered this website focused on mapping narrative (awesome!) while I was thinking about making a painting about my neighborhood, and I’m sure some of the background ideas behind that project filtered into this work somehow. The title of this painting comes from the fantastic song "Grey Gardens" by Rufus Wainwright.

Lake Nasser (Oh Fox Confessor, Please)

2009-02-21T12:34:00.010-05:00

I have long had a fascination with dams (see 3 Gorges picture) because they represent such a morally ambiguous human construction. Though they prevent flooding and represent a source for ‘clean’ energy, they wreak havoc on the surrounding environment/landscape and represent a monument to mankind’s attempt to ‘control nature.’ The Aswan Dam of Egypt is one such particularly controversial project. Completed in 1970, it flooded much of lower Nubia, displacing more than 90,000 people, effectively erasing a fairly unique culture. On top of that, a lot of older archaeological sites were lost; the Abu Simbel temple was moved and reconstructed, but this was not the case for many other monuments (not to mention the prehistoric cultural material lost!) Although the Aswan Dam has been effective at controlling flooding along the Nile and also provides hydroelectric power, there are also a number of environmental problems. There are serious concerns about sediment build-up behind the dam, which could threaten its lifetime, and the stagnant water in the reservoir and irrigated fields has led to issues with salinization and parasitic water-born diseases.

So to this painting. It’s an oblique aerial view of Lake Nasser, the lake behind the Aswan Dam. Like the 3 Gorges painting, I am playing here with the idea of the Earth’s surface as an abstract entity, and reduction of landforms into amorphous shapes. I am also starting to think a lot more about the materials that I paint with, and have been asking myself “why do I choose to paint….” And why with these specific materials? Hence, this painting includes a lot of sand that has been brought all the way from Egypt. I like the idea of inverting the area that is “desert” and the area that is “water,” in part for metaphorical reasons. Has the Aswan Dam really achieved its goals? At what cost? The sand obscures (floods) the watery blue surface (culture). Much of the sand used in this painting represents [geologically] an evaporitic sludge with gypsum crystals… much like what Lake Nasser might eventually become… Regarding the title, it’s from a Neko Case song “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” with the lyrics:

What purpose in these deeds  

Oh fox confessor please  

Who married me to these orphan blues  

It’s not for you to know  

But for you to weep and wonder  

When the death of your civilization precedes you…

Drawings from Dakhleh

2009-02-14T16:36:00.014-05:00

Fake pigeon tower at the Amheida Project house

Sketch of mudbrick House in Dakhleh

I just got back from spending the past 2 weeks in Dakhleh Oasis (Egypt), where much of my professional research has been focused. During this time, I made a couple of sketches (from life) of a few things around our project house. I also came up with a few ideas for new art projects, and had some fantastic conversations about Art and Life with John O’Carroll, an artist that has worked with the Dakhleh Oasis Project for a number of years now. I had seen some of his archaeological drawings in a number of DOP publications, but was particularly struck by some of his contemporary work, which deals with a lot of issues that are close to my heart in a really beautiful, subtle, way. We had a fantastic day gathering pigments together from spring mounds, which I’m really excited to try out, either mixed with my regular acrylic/oil paints, as well as egg tempera. John’s ongoing work with the DOP has also inspired me a bit in the direction of site-specific-artwork. I was quite drawn to his model of working with an archaeological project as an artist… and have been thinking that given that I’m particularly drawn to a number of environmental/social issues in Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, I wonder if there might be space within some project in one of those areas for somebody with my interests in art/environment/science. Anyways, here are just a couple of sketches I made around Dakhleh. Hopefully, within the next few months some interesting pieces based upon my work there might surface on the blog…

Why we don't we understand each other

2009-01-08T09:04:00.005-05:00

Whew. Finally done. With holidays, travel, finals, and the insanity that is generally December, this one took me about a month to complete. But here it is, ironically at a time in which its subject matter is in the news for reasons that have all too much to do with my thoughts when I was designing this painting....

Hooooooooooooooooooooly Crap!

2008-12-06T20:20:00.003-05:00

I sold my first painting! In a gallery, not to myself, ?presumably not to a friend (though I don't know yet and even if it was, I'm still excited!). Here it is, with the little red dot on it at the Ohio Art League. Was 6 inches by 6 inches, and priced more than a breadbox and less than... dunno, yo mama.

"Somewhere, CO"

I found this amazing paper at Utrecht a little while ago that had this kind of transparent, oily texture and these ropes running through it. I'd also been wanting to do something with very evenly spaced pivot agriculture, as is found in CO... So, I painted a blue pattern on the canvass (representing the Ogallala aquifer below these plots of land), laid some of this oil paper on top of it, and painted the patterns you see onto it. I knew that the Ohio Art League was doing a 'small works' show for the December Gallery Hop and figured that I had little to lose by giving them a piece.... which, holy shit, somebody thinks is cool enough to hang on their wall.

We Will Become Silhouettes

2008-11-25T12:12:00.007-05:00

The title for this piece comes from the name of a Postal Service song....

"... I wanted to walk through the empty streets
And feel something constant under my feet,
But all the news reports recommended that
I stay indoors
Because the air outside will make our cells
Divide at an alarming rate until our shells
Simply cannot hold all our insides in,
And that's when we'll explode
(and it won't be a pretty sight)

And we'll become silhouettes when our bodies finally go..."

So those lyrics get at a little bit what I was thinking about when I made this one... Fundamentally, I was interested in this piece capturing how ephemeral our so-called-civilization is... especially in areas such as the Middle East (where it was, in ways, born), but where due to our own unsustainable use of groundwater resources, communities are effectively reaping their own destruction. No matter how much we try to take control of the Earth, we still have to live by its rules... I was really struck by an image (Saudi Arabia) where you could see how areas that had once been lived in were taken over by the desert... and the human habitations are just islands in this vast sea of sand. Which I interestingly, colored blue... like the ocean... like the water it hides... and the agricultural areas have been inverted to desert-colors...

An as yet untitled painting about the 3 Gorges Dam

2008-11-02T08:01:00.003-05:00

This is a painting depicting the massive lake of water behind the 3 gorges dam in China.... and is fundamentally about its impact on the surrounding human and environmental landscape, which I have represented with a checkered pattern in which each square is 1.3 inches wide, symbolizing the 1.3 million people displaced by the construction of the dam. I am also interested in what *you* see when you look at the painting. Is it a body of water, is it a blob? How do we recognize the change in the landscape if we weren't there to observe it? That change just is... it's a giant lake filling in a canyon, the 1.3 million people displaced by its construction are not displaced but unhappily living in newly built towns, there are serious problems with soil erosion from the surrounding hill-slopes, but from this frame of reference there isn't a causal relationship between these observations and the dam itself. It's a big blob of blue paint on the canvas. It's a different reality, but perhaps there are ripples in its fabric, echoing what was previously or might have been, or unforeseen consequences yet to come.

1950 Armistice Line

2008-10-25T17:23:00.004-04:00

This painting is along a similar theme to my last. An exploration of boundaries between countries, between cultures. The landscape is taken from an aerial photo of the Gaza Strip, with the Palestinian Territory to the left and Israel to the right. Looking at a Landsat Image of the area, I was particularly struck by the difference in patterns of farmland on either side of the border. Yes, there are the political realities screaming at you in the face, but I'm also interested in this area as an exploration of how we interpret human nature through land usage. How do you as a viewer initially react to what you see to the left of the border, and to the right? I want to make it clear this is not a "civilization" vs. "savagery" painting. I hope to convey some mystique and beauty to the west of the Gaza strip.... it might be less immediately recognizable, but it's there. It's more urbanized, and is more dynamic than the static patterns of farmland to the east. As with "Calexico," I am interested in exploring how we interpret aerial photos, these effective abstractions of reality, and how the image that we see from the sky reflects the reality of the ground situation.

Calexico

2008-10-18T10:43:00.004-04:00

Right now, I am teaching a class called "Earth from Above," which is largely devoted to remote sensing and interpretation of satellite imagery. As such, I've been looking at a lot of Landsat images, one of which was on the US/Mexico border near the Salton Sea. It was particularly striking how the patterns of land use change at the border. Another inspiration for this painting was a recent flight from Columbus to Houston.... and looking out the window I started to think about what it is that we're seeing out the window of a plane, what it is that we're seeing when we look at a satellite image, and how that's something of an abstraction of reality. As is our American notion of what Mexico (or any other country) is... So that's what this painting is about. It's acrylic paint on paper, with a decorative paper overlain on the bottom half of the picture.

Pondering collaborations...

2008-10-16T18:23:00.005-04:00

An artist friend of mine and I have been talking a bit lately about doing a collaborative project together involving art and science, not museum-like.... but rather in a completely provocative, non-didactic way. Exploring all sorts of issues to do with human use of the earth, landscape (in its many literal and metaphorical permutations), and different ways of seeing and interpreting our surroundings. Anyways, one site that we originally spoke of as a source for inspiration (and who knows if anything will come of it) is the Nevada Test Site, where the US government tested nuclear weapons for over 40 years.... leaving a landscape that looks a little bit like the moon or Mars....

Starting out with the aerial photograph that served as inspiration....

Using the above aerial photograph, I started to paint.... obviously not an exact representation of the above landscape, but something interpretive, a little bit in the style of some of my other abstract work. But it occurred to me that it was a little too "pretty" to be a nuclear test site.... and started to drive a thin drizzle of paint+turpoid across the surface of the canvass, giving it a bit of a dusty, muted look....

However, I still wasn't happy. The Nevada Test Site is an incredibly visceral place. Nuclear fucking weapons were tested there. I needed to do something with lots. of. paint. that kind of evoked what had happened there. The painting below was done completely with a pallette knife.... scraping the paint across the page. A lot of fun, an amazing release to do something like this... letting go like this is something that is, for whatever reason, a little uncomfortable to me. Which is maybe good? But my question for you is.... does it work?!??

Sacre Coeur

2008-10-16T18:16:00.002-04:00

Earth and art.

2008-10-03T19:18:00.003-04:00

That is my latest obsession. Melding my interest in earth science and art. So.... while I don't think this achieves that, it's sort of an example of something at least a little bit less navel gazing than some other things I've produced (and in truth am continuing to produce) of late.

This painting was inspired by some patterns of foam in the water from a place we visited on our department field trip to Sudbury. The patterns themselves were stunning, ever changing, and in their static form remind me a bit of banding in gneisses. Hence, the title.

"Abstraction of Foam in the Water Abstracting Gneissic Banding"

On the other hand.... more sunflower power.

2008-10-03T19:16:00.002-04:00

Three Gorgeous

2008-09-28T18:45:00.003-04:00

Ok. I am not claiming that these paintings are gorgeous. But they are about the Three Gorges dam project. A few weeks ago, I saw the film, "Up the Yangtze" at the Wexner Center. It's a stunning, haunting movie about the excessive human tragedy associate with the construction of the Three Gorges Dam in China. Since learning about this project, I have been simultaneously fascinated and horrified by its scale, simultaneously fascinated/horrified by its environmental consequences. So, these came together a bit fast, and I'm aware of some issues with them.... but figured I'd put them out as they are, since I have some other projects I am interested in pursuing.

This is partly inspired by a photo of the 3 Gorges area that I found online. The archway in the foreground is intended to echo one of the locks on the river.... though within the context of this painting, I was thinking about the juxtaposition of man and nature....

Locks within the 3 Gorges. Inspired from a scene from the movie in which the cruise ship is passing through a lock at night. I added a small fishing boat, and exaggerated the height of the structure to emphasize the enormity of this construction in comparison with a 'human' scale...

The Yangtze flooding a house. Also inspired from the film, and stills that I found on the website's flicker archive.

A flower.

2008-09-21T14:58:00.002-04:00

I'm harboring a bit of resentment at the moment that the frenetic pace of the beginning (and middle/end, presumably) of the semester have prevented me from being able to find much time to paint. That said, occasionally something does happen (such as the flower below). I am also working on a series of three paintings that I hope to post together, and hopefully will show up in the next couple of weeks.

Flower itself is from a photo I took in Costa Rica, with a bit of abstraction going on in the background. Liked the idea at the time, but now not quite sure how well the two techniques fit together. That said, can't figure that sort of thing out without trying, I suppose.

Getting political....

2008-09-05T11:03:00.002-04:00

Part of the reason I started this blog was that I felt a bit strange posting provocative (be it slightly risque, political, etc) artwork on my facebook profile since the pictures could potentially show up on the newsfeeds of so many random people, including folks that could potentially be offended by it. And while I think that there's definitely a place for 'offensive' art, not sure facebook is it... Anyways, on to the painting of interest.

This (yes another hand painting... I do have some stuff in the works that does not contain hands, believe it or not) painting was inspired by the "fist-bump" between Barack and Michelle Obama before he formally declared himself the winner of the democratic primary. The right wing media made a huge fuss about them lightly touching their fists together (I thought kind of cute and endearing), calling it a "terrorist fist bump" alleging that it was some sort of Hezbollah symbol or something. Dunno. Ridiculous.

Anyways, interpret this painting as you will. I'll say no more than basically everything in it has some sort of intention behind it.... and anybody that knows me should realize that it's more of an indictment of America than the people of the Middle East who have suffered so much as a result of our misguided policies there.

"Terrorist Fist-bump"

This weekend in aht....

2008-08-31T17:17:00.005-04:00

Classes start Monday.... and since my syllabus and lesson plans are done... so I took some time to do a bit of last minute painting. Once classes start.... I worry I'll start sleeping a lot less just so I'll get in my painting time.... :(

This picture continues the hand/fist theme, as well as well as having some personal significance. Please note that despite my ventures into the art world, I am a trained Quaternary geologist and therefore felt obligated to make sure that the soil horizons were properly represented. Please note the O, A, E, and B horizons. Thanks.

This is a fairly personal painting and represents what I would consider to be my first marginally successful portrait. Still not perfect. Continuing issues with the eyes and the ear. Regarding the subject matter, it's a fairly personal thing, and I'll let you take out of it what you will. Freud supposedly criticized surrealists for using dream-like imagery in their paintings, saying that without knowing the associations of the dreamer, their paintings say nothing. So although this isn't based on any sort of dream, persay, I'd be curious to see what you take from it.

Also, excuse the upturned corner. I need a better set-up for photographing my artwork. Currently I just take my easel outside for natural light and snap a shot.... but the corner kept turning upwards, and it was a bit windy....

Hands, Part 2....

2008-08-30T09:33:00.004-04:00

"Praying for rain" Hands + sunflowers.... two of my favorite things to paint, it would seem.... I was really torn about whether to outline the sunflower in black or not.... Prior to doing so, it seemed not quite bold enough.... and I think I like the effect.... but maybe there needs to also be some black in the background to bring it forward a bit and integrate the painting a bit more? Dunno.... if you have an opinion on this, let me know....

Leaving aside what this painting 'means' to me.... technically speaking, it's a few things. First of all, I am continuing my exploration of hands.... and how to effectively paint them (and hoping that eventually since hands are relatively complex things.... that I can lend this experience to better painting of the whole human body). Since I've been including a lot of clouds, fog, etc, in my artwork lately, I am interested in learning to portray weather. I realize that I have a long way to go. Recently (can't remember how) discovered the artwork of Alexis Rockman.... and was really quite intrigued by how he portrays things like storms, tornadoes, and various other environmental phenomena.

Phthalo Bluesy

2008-08-30T09:26:00.004-04:00

I *love* phthalo blue, but since it's such a strong color, don't get to use it very often... and it was really fun to do an entire painting completely out of different shades of phthalo blue. That said, I find the design a little bit cliched.... sort of safe... but still pretty? That's ok, yeah?

The chaos inside...

2008-08-27T07:47:00.004-04:00

I don't think that I have anything superprofound to say about this painting... Perhaps a slightly more hopeful painting than other things that I've done lately. It's inspired by a Nietzsche quote that I have to credit Natalia for introducing me to. I'm working on getting a hang on painting the hands (expect to see a few more 'hands' paintings in the next few days/weeks. Am also working on intentionally thinking about color schemes when designing paintings. This was based on a purple/yellow-orange/yellow-green color triad.

"I tell you: one must have chaos within one to give birth to a dancing star..."

A portrait.

2008-08-24T10:04:00.004-04:00

I'll start this post out by saying this is my first portrait painting EVER. I've done a few sketches of my own face, occasionally tried to draw people when I thought they weren't looking.... but that's about it. Admittedly, this was not done with my subject (Natalia) before me... is largely taken of a picture I took of her while we were in Munich together. There's a lot wrong with this painting, but am actually on certain levels kind of happy about how it turned out. I think it's recognizably her, and has a good color scheme. That said, her face is not perfect-- in particular, I had trouble with her eyes and lips. Maybe it's a problem with portraiture in general, but I don't feel as if it completely captures her sense of life. But that's something to work on, I guess.

For a friend....

2008-08-24T09:54:00.005-04:00

Because she's either a) crazy; b) wants to be nice and encouraging; c) actually really likes my art? a good friend of mine asked for a copy of the yellow and purple painting I did a few weeks ago. Since I view most of the art I'm making right now as a) practice for better things to come; b) therapy, I haven't been working on stretched canvas. Yes, it's canvas, but not stretched just since it's cheaper and easier this way... and since most things I start I feel are a bit domed from the outset, I don't want to waste the extra $$ or time on something that might not turn out. That will probably change in the future, but for now, it seems to make the most sense to me. Coming back to the matter at hand, for that reason, I wanted to repaint this piece. It turned out pretty well the first time, but I thought there was more that could be done with it, and liked the idea of actually putting it on a proper stretched canvas. Anyways, here is a picture of my first kind-of-commission.

Timekeeper of Chaos

2008-08-22T18:15:00.004-04:00

This picture was inspired by my recent visit to Musee D'Orsay in Paris, where this amazing clock hung from one wall. It's about how in the most chaotic times in our lives, time seems such a pivitol factor. Either it moves so fast we can barely keep up, or it moves interminably slowly, and you feel like you're suspended like a cloud while life whirls around you, moving with the winds....

I've been doing a lot of reading about art lately. In addition to the strong emotions conveyed by expressionist art, I am also interested in how the surrealists and abstract expressionists use art as a means of exploring the subconscious. Many of the pictures I've painted lately, while containing elements (such as clock or human figure) intended to help hone my skills as a painter, are primarily images that come to me, in part from recent experience, as well as I think derived out of the turmoil within which I've lately been ensconced.

Back to the painting of interest though. I had a lot of fun with the splattering.... and ended up covered in paint myself. If anybody has any non-nasty ideas for getting oil paint off of skin, your suggestions would certainly be welcome.

The Swimmers

2008-08-20T18:24:00.004-04:00

I came up with the idea for this painting while sitting on the plane back from Munich. It was originally supposed to be an extremely harsh painting, with knive-like objects slicing into/towards these sort of foggy human shapes floating in a cloud of confusion. As I painted, it turned into something much softer. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that despite my current confusion in life in general, I don't actually have that kind of visceral pain and anger that the original sketch intended to portray. Feel a bit like I'm swimming through water with lots of obstacles, no air supply and am not really quite sure how to escape.... Or maybe it means that I just don't have the artistic skillz yet to portray that original feeling. Or it's not enough at the surface enough (do I really want it there?)

A note from Munich

2008-08-07T13:40:00.002-04:00

As many of you know, I am in Germany right now visiting Natalia (my sister) in Munich. Although I don't have anything new to post (though I did do a small painting for her and have been working on my drawing skilz) I wanted to post a quick note about some of the amazing art I saw today.

We visited the Lenbachhaus museum, where there was an exhibit of the Blau Reiter (Kandisky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Paul Klee, et al.) paintings. It had been SO LONG since I had seen an exhibit of world class art (Columbus museum of art does not quite cut it...) that I'd forgotten what a revelation seeing those paintings in person can actually be. And, with my newfound interest in actually DOING art, it was wonderful to spend some time examing the individual brushstrokes of these artists, their use of color, the composition of their works, etc. I am particularly drawn to Expressionist paintings, in general, simply from the standpoint of the amount of emotion that is conveyed in these works. Although I appreciate and recognize the skill of artists like Monet, and recognize the beauty of those paintings, for me they do not carry with them the same emotional power as some of the expressionists.

The exhibit itself was centered around the art of Kandisky. I particularly loved his 'impressions', paintings that verged on abstract, but which managed to convey a deep sense of his subject matter (if even recognizable). Apparently, Kandinsky actually had synesthesia. Maybe that helped account for his amazing use of color. I also particularly liked the paintings of Franz Marc-- probably the onlz artist that I've encountered that has managed to do paintings of animals that I find truly interesting. All too often the paintings are of these kind of dumb looking, idealized animals, and I found those of Marc to capture something about the spirit of a real animal (although far more abstracted than most animals you ever see painted). I bought a book about the Blau Reiter group and look forward to learning more about those guys (and am already heartened to learn that Kandinsky didn't take up art until 28!!)

Also included in admission to the Lenbachhaus was the Kunstbau, a smaller museum of contemporary art located in, of all places, a U-Bahn station. The setting was strangely appropriate for the art shown there. The space was entirely concrete, the high ceiling supported by massive concrete pillars. The space itself was dimly lit, and there were a number of video installations accompanied bz the sort of strange music that often accompanies video art (bells, clanging, rhythmic tapping, etc), which when combined with a subject matter often on the depressing side (installations alluding to torture, and some very modern, rather existential pieces) created an atmosphere that was other-worldly and rather surreal. Although I didn't find the art in the Kunstbau as affecting as the Blau Reiter exhibit, it was interesting in its own way. I am eager to understand contemporary art better, learn what sorts of questions contemporary artists are asking. I feel like that might help me understand what I saw today a bit better (if indeed it is worth understanding) since I found it to be inherrantly less accessible.

Personal Paintings

2008-08-03T01:29:00.005-04:00

As I've said in earlier posts, I am not only interested in painting as a way of expressing beauty, but also as a means of communicating and expressing emotion. I'm not one for outpouring my feelings into cyberspace, so unless you ask me personally, you won't be specifically privy to what these are about, aside from the fact that in multiple ways, I've been feeling a bit lost lately. I am also working on getting down the human figure. I plan to participate in some live drawing sessions once I get back into town from Germany.

"Shitstorm"

"The Fog"

Paintings I like

2008-08-03T01:02:00.004-04:00

I feel as though I am starting to make paintings that I like a little, at least. I'm not trying to put myself down, but I think I started out with a long ways to go.... and the more I learn the more I realize I have to learn.... etc. That said, I am starting to be able to predict what a given painting might look like in the end, and am starting to cultivate the patience necessary to see that it gets there. This is just a simple abstraction.

Oil Paints at last!

2008-08-03T00:51:00.004-04:00

One day after art class (we're drawing again, actually... but I continue to paint in all my free time!), I decided the time had come to get some oil paints. As my painting has improved and become more complex, I have been becoming increasingly frustrated with how quickly acrylics dry. Also, a friend had let me try out his oils.... and with that experience I was hooked. So Nonetheless, they too are different, and offer new challenges! Not only am I now messing with paint, but also turpenoid, linseed oil, galcyde.... and am trying my best not to smear my work as I make it. I also have to be patient (not a virtue I posses in abundance) while the paint dries before I apply another coat. Here are a couple of examples of some early attempts with oils.

Back to sunflowers. I made a background that I rather like, but am not entirely pleased with how the painting itself really came out. Maybe a bit too bright.

I'm working on getting the human figure down. This was done from a black and white photo.

Urbanscapes and art

2008-08-03T00:00:00.005-04:00

A good friend of mine is in charge of programming for Denison's campus-wide theme of "Urbanscapes." Knowing that I paint, she encouraged me to submit a painting for the opening convocation. I readily agreed, since it wasn't like I needed much of an excuse to pick up a paintbrush, but I mulled over what my subject might be. A source of inspiration came one day when I saw an excellent and inspiring lecture by a visiting artist, Frieda Dean. After attempting, fitfully, to work for a couple of hours following this lecture, I finally abandoned my writing and raced home to paint, without any idea of what I was going to work on. It was a beautiful afternoon, and as I drove, I was thinking about Landscape.... and the Earth (what I study).... and the fact that I needed to think of some urbanscapes project.... and it sort of came to me like a bolt of lightning. Earth as a disco ball! The lights from the disco ball reflect various (mostly socio-political) aspects of life on Earth.

I made the decision to do this painting in 2 stages-- first as a "study" in which I would try out the idea.... and then transfer it to a larger (24x30) canvas. This would allow for greater modifications to be made, to see if the idea worked in the first place, etc....

Study for Disco Ball Earth

A close to final version of the painting.... I made a few more changes (straightened out some of the rays, added more dots to the background), but unfortunately didn't take another picture before turning in the painting.

Me and my aht. I was definitely originally a bit daunted by the size of the empty canvas!

"Urbanscapes" and art intersect now on an almost daily basis for me. I live in the Victorian Village in Columbus, which is within walking distance of downtown. Despite being a geologist and liking hiking, mountains, and deserted landscapes, on a more daily basis I crave the diversity, as well as the hustle and bustle of city life. A classic example of how my urban experience has affected my art came one Sunday when I met Marlaine and Dave to check out an Ohio wine tasting festival at North Market. It was a beautiful, sunny, and hot afternoon..... and a good deal of wine was consumed. I came home a bit dizzy and had to paint. Without much skill, I started throwing colors onto the page, forming the background of the painting below. Later, I looked at the bright design and thought it reminded me of a vibrant sunset, atop which a skyline could easily be placed..... In a way, I see the bright colors (and in the painting that follows, the textures I use with the paint) as reflecting the things I love most about cities-- diversity and activity.

Painting after a lot of wine on a hot afternoon....

After taking first version of this painting in to my art class for a critique from my teacher, she suggested that I offered little variety in my brushstrokes, and that the skyline itself could be made more interesting by adding some additional color to it. Since I was at this point a bit uncertain whether I wanted to submit the Disco Ball Earth, I thought it might be a good exercise for me to redo this painting. Which I did, with the above results, which is, I think a bit more interesting....

I see a comet!

2008-08-02T23:45:00.004-04:00

A little while back, a friend of mine introduced me to the absolutely fantastic, amazing "A Voyage to the Moon" by George Melies (1902). This inspired a couple of paintings. Probably not *the* most amazing things I've done, but they sure were fun....

Experimenting with abstraction and emotion....

2008-08-02T23:20:00.006-04:00

In addition to learning how to "copy" things, I am interested in finding myself as an artist. What is my own style? What does art mean to me? Why do I choose to paint a given subject? And why do I choose to paint it the way that I do? Although I love to look at things that are aesthetically beautiful, I am even more drawn to paintings that also convey a powerful emotion. And those of you who know me at all know that I'm sort of a swirling ball of emotion... it sometimes lies pretty close to the surface, and this has gotten me into trouble on more than one occasion. So in addition to simply being fun, I've found painting to be an amazing emotional release. Wouldn't you rather see a painting of irrational anger rather than have it directed at you? Right. Well here are some results along those lines....

An expression of anger and frustration....

"Sometimes I'm not ok being alone...."

"What lies beneath" I was thinking about expressing how beneath what might look on the surface something very smooth and peaceful, there is actually a very turbulent, boiling sea....

Costa Rica!

2008-08-02T23:02:00.004-04:00

One of the highlights of my first year at Denison was a trip that I took with my department to Costa Rica. I brought with me my brand new Canon 40D SLR camera, with which I took a copious number of photos. So many photos were taken that inevitably, a few turned out very well. These photos have served as inspiration for me in the production of a number of paintings, and I hope will continue to do so.... as painting them will hopefully help with my technical development... and perhaps serve as a happy reminder of the amazing time I spent in a beautiful country. Here are some examples.....

One of many shots I took looking upwards through amazing, beautiful trees silhouetted against the sky....

Pretty flower. Maybe Andy could identify for me?

White-faced monkey in the Kuru wildlife preserve. Had some problems getting the shadows on the trees quite right.... but have since gotten some helpful hints that I hope will help in that regard in the future.

Painting from art photos....

2008-08-02T22:14:00.004-04:00

Although I am often drawn to interesting abstractions, I firmly believe that before I have any "right" to start hurling paint at canvass, I need to learn how to paint what I see. Or at least gain some skill with the paint and brush, and produce something that looks like I would like it to... rather than starting out my career as an ahtist by producing squares of green canvass as a study on green, or a square.... (I'm laughing with you, Ellsworth Kelly, not at you). Anyways, as a bit of inspiration, I checked out a book of interesting art photos from the Columbus Public Library. These served as the basis for a number of early adventures with acrylic paints... with varying amounts of my own interpretation (often colorizing black and whites). Also, during this period, I switched from working on "canva-paper" to sheets of unstretched canvass.

First maybe semi-successful attempt at water.... and love what happened with the sky. Color scheme came from the original photo (obviously highly stretched.....)

An early attempt to copy a photo.... with the original colors of the picture....

Abstraction of a spinal column from a black and white photo....

This was originally black and white, and I painted over with colors (mixed with my acrylic gloss medium) perhaps a little too darkly.

A new medium!

2008-08-02T07:26:00.006-04:00

Up until this point, I had been working with watercolors, pastels, and just plain ol' (or maybe not plain.... but the fancy kind Utrecht sells) pencils. The third session of the 2D fundamentals class focussed on oil and acrylic painting. Somewhat daunted by the list of mediums required for the oils and figuring I can graduate to them when I'm ready, I decided that I would work in acrylics. For the class, we chose a painting to copy (I chose the one below by Lawren Harris).

But I couldn't imagine only working on the above painting. I had so many tubes of beautiful colors of paint. I wanted to learn how to use this new medium. To be able to mix colors. To create gradients, forms, and perspective. So, I started working..... and fell in love. Incorporating various principles from the color and design class, I started to work. I had the idea of incorporating flower petals into my paintings (after all spring had finally arrived and the neighbors' yards were offering a multitude of options to choose from!).

Stole some lovely orange flowers form a neighbors' yard for this one. No regrets.

To create the shimmery effect, I mixed the yellow and purple paint with an iridescent white. These flowers came from my own yard. Subsequently dried up, but still looked kinda cool because I coated them in an acrylic gloss medium.

Expressive Drawing....

2008-08-01T18:57:00.008-04:00

The second part of the 2D Fundamentals class was Expressive Drawing. Drawing was always something I've always felt pretty inept at.... and now I'm supposed to be expressive with it?!? Not so sure about that. If I go expressive, it might look kinda like something a 2 year old might produce. I am in awe people I know that can quickly whip out a sketch of.... pretty much anything. And it looks awesome (ahemWes).

In part due to my overall fear of drawing (in part since there seems to be such a culture of precision in that regard) I both listened to every word my teacher said and also borrowed from the library a copy of the book, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." I've since purchased my own copy and am still working through it, but at some point in the class I actually hit a break-through in terms of drawing. Am not claiming at this point to be anywhere near a good drawer, but somehow the whole drawing thing kinda clicked, and I realized, like really realized that I just need to draw what I see. It's very zen. I'd been told that before.... and thought I was doing it (whilst talking, looking around, and not really paying attention), with completely unsatisfactory results. I'm not anywhere near perfect, and am still working on that illusive self portrait, but here are some examples of some pieces that I made while in the expressive drawing class.

Self portrait done "for fun". I'm continuing to do these and maybe getting a little bit better, but this sort of gives you an idea where I was at that point, ahtistically.

Sadly, no hot naked man to pose for me. Copy of another drawing.

'Nuff said.

This started out as copying another painting with pastels.... but sort of diverged away from it and ended up creating something of my own....

Copy of a painting by (crap I can't remember who!) with pastels.

We had a vase of flowers..... I drew/colored the flowers in class... The vase itself was a later improvisation....

Sunflowers, Sunflowers, Sunflowers

2008-08-01T13:50:00.011-04:00

One of the first "famous" pieces of art that I recall becoming aware of is Van Gogh's "Sunflowers." Although I don't aspire to replicate it or even claim to see him as a major source of inspiration (though I think he has inevitably gotten under my skin a bit), I nonetheless have this weird compulsion to paint sunflowers. They kind of look like they are smiling at you.... and I think it's amazing that I can be dwarfed by a 7 foot tall FLOWER.

Anyways, while I was in the "Color and Design" class this past winter, I started painting sunflowers..... I also started to put windmills into some of the pictures. I see them almost as a man-made parallel to the sunflowers. Tall, beautiful, with blades that move in the breeze. There's also the energy parallel. So. Without further ado, here are some sunflowers! (Painted with watercolor + guache....)

This photo of a sunflower from Anita's garden in Trento served as some inspiration!!

Seaside sunflower

Sunflower again....

Sunflower Power

More flower power!

Experimenting with color and design.....

2008-07-31T23:59:00.007-04:00

This class approached art from simple principles of color and design, asking from that perspective what makes a good painting.... exploring complementary colors, color triads, juxtaposition of different values against one another... and so on. In addition to making pretty pictures, lots of color charts, color circles were made. We painted in watercolor and guache and critiqued each others' work from time to time. I hear my ahty friends laughing as they read the above saying, "Oh look at Johanna paint. That is so cute." And it is, really. But I think I did learn a bit in there, and here are some of the things I painted whilst in that class...... Chronological order.... and hopefully you can see that maybe by the time the class had ended, I'd learned a little something about how to put a painting together, as well as praps improved my technique.

5 1/2 Minute Hallway (Reference to House of Leaves-- a very good book!)

A pretty flower that came out of my head.... think the assignment here was to use 2 complementary colors.... plus grays...

Ugly, Ugly.

Simple design.....

Pretty flowers. This came from the dead of winter... probably one of the more successful things to come out of this class.

Introducing my blog..... eek!

2008-07-31T15:05:00.010-04:00

The Picture that started it all....

So last December I was rummaging around in a drawer full of old craft supplies looking for some tape. Out fell a picture of Ruzca, the house in Poland that my paternal grandmother was given as a dowry. I looked at it and thought-- I must paint this. Don't know why I had that impulse, but there it was. I pulled out a pencil, some watercolors that I hadn't touched in years and started to work. And lo and behold-- while not painting something fit for a museum, I had produced something that I was definitely not completely ashamed of. And thought.... I'm not arty, I can't draw, I can't paint. But I did this. WTF, man. But then.... I've never had an art class before. Maybe I've just never learned. Maybe given a bit of instruction, I could conjure up a bit of Mimi(my maternal grandmother)'s talent. And thus started an obsession. I've been taking a series of 2D fundamentals classes at the Cultural Arts Center in Columbus, and have fallen head over heals in love. With painting, that is. I'm a science teacher by day.... but have been spending basically ever spare minute making art, reading about it.... and wishing that I'd discovered this when I was an undergraduate and could have become completely immersed.

So this blog is intended as a record of stuff that I make. I see it as a way of sharing my work that can't stop by my living room, or haven't been following my facebook album. Please critique my work and leave comments! I really want to get better and your thoughtful and frank feedback can only help.

Peas,

Johanna