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Bamboo #3

2010-10-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

Cloud Outside Kyoto #3 Detail

Cloud Outside Kyoto #3

Cloud Outside Kyoto #2

Cloud Outside Kyoto #1

Looks like numbers 1 and 2 are done to me. Hannah is checking my 3rd draft of the thesis, and I just sent back my list for readers. Getting close! Also had the gaul to apply to New American Paintings: Current MFA Candidates. We'll see. I won't hold my breath, but how cool would that be?!!! Had some great help from Rob Sullivan and Julia Mills earlier this semester and ordered my retouch varnish for the thesis show.

2 out of 3 done?

2010-09-28T06:50:00.000-07:00

These are 2 of the 3 thesis paintings. I'm feeling pretty good about them. Working with the very kind and knowledgeable Rob Sullivan. These are very shiny in parts. It's a lot of glazes, washes, layers, etc. Planning to hit them both with retouch varnish this fall and bring them to school that way. Mentor David Feinberg talked me into leaving a lot more breathing space in these and I think it works!

August in Thesisville

2010-08-14T11:41:00.001-07:00

It's a busy month here in Thesisville! (I'm borrowing that term from Carolyn Rordam from my group, because I love it!) Got my first feedback from advisor Hannah Barrett on the Thesis and it's good! Also working hard on these 3 paintings for my thesis show. Lots of layers, the 2 groundview paintings I'm starting to paint the forrest floor.

Also teaching "Creating Personal Landscapes" my first class at the Bloomington Art Center next week. Hard at work preparing a thrilling lecture with images from April Gornik (of course!), Peter Doig, Vija Celmins, Gerhard Richter, and a bit of the Hudson River School for perspective. I will teach the class again in the fall and will also be co-teaching a creativity and movement class at the Jewish Community Center this fall in St. Louis Park. Not quite sure how that class is going to go but will keep you posted!

July, Semester 4

2010-07-23T12:42:00.001-07:00

Getting started on 3 large paintings (48 inches wide by 36 inches tall) for my thesis show. All 3 will be the bamboo setting with clouds. The first 2 will be very similar so I'm only posting 1 for now. The last one is looking up. Lots of layers on these already. Lots of thin transparent oily layers hence the high shine and the white outs from my lights on the sides of each.

Almost Group 4.... Finally!

2010-05-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

OK. This one is done. "Our Lord's Candle" is the real name of a giant flowering plant in the desert. Instead of doing more work for this semester residency I have started working ahead for next semester. I have a very strong feeling about that cloud in bamboo painting from this past semester... April Gornik loved it, and it just got chosen for the Boston Young Contemporaries so I feel strong about working ahead on my thesis stuff.

There will be 3 large bamboo paintings, 30 x 40 inches each. With the amount of detail that goes into each one, I think it's a good idea to get a jump on this. This one shows some reference photos in the upper right corner. I did those last fall. I literally had my brother walking around the woods with a smoke bomb while I photographed him.

Jeffrey says I have to keep up the blog...

2010-03-25T13:56:00.001-07:00

This painting is 36 x 20. It's a larger version of a painting I did for the 3rd residency. One I felt didn't get the attention it deserved. It's slow and tedious, but Tony Apesos said, "wow, you still don't know how to paint a field do you," so I'd like another crack at a crit with him...

I am starting 3 large paintings I intend to be my thesis show. They will be 3 large bamboo paintings with clouds. 30 x 40. That should fill up my allotted space for the thesis show. Also, working on my rough draft for the thesis. I ok'd working with previous mentor David Feinberg for another go round this fall. This seems slightly audacious (starting the work and the thesis), but then again it appears to me that as far as art school goes, good crits and work favor the bold and the brash.

Attended the Lucy Lippard talk at the University of Minnesota last month. Attended the CAA conference in Chicago in February. Also, have been in touch with art historian and paranormal investigator Adrian Lee, Ph D. I am looking to curate a show of artwork about the paranormal in Minneapolis some time in 2011.

Weeks 17 & 18. Final Paintings

2009-11-19T09:54:00.000-08:00

I tweaked this one a bit and it's done. Dark mood. No weird little hidden things. Just blue/black/white and a blurry photo.

This one was supposed to be a blurry side of the road photo. I am thinking it will be a bit too subtle for the AIB people, but we'll see. There's a small projectile in the upper left. The construction fence, etc.

I call this one Wil-o-the-Wisp. Trying to get that blurry, ominous side of the road image with the small unnatural globes of lights. See detail below.

That's a wrap for the 3rd semester. I hope I get to go to school in January.

Weeks 15 & 16

2009-10-28T16:14:00.001-07:00

This one is done. It's a larger UFO one from the last residency. it's 22 x 28 and Oscar felt it was one of my strong pieces.

I think I'm getting close on this one. It's dark and moody with lots of layers. it's also still fairly wet and glossy, so i might have to varnish or something after the residency

this is a newer one. Just finished reading Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition, it was a great book and inspired me to work with this. Not sure how it will be received.

This is another UFO one, but I am also doing it a bit more in the style of Richter and his blurry photographs. Not too much to say at this early stage....

Weeks 13 & 14

2009-10-08T19:26:00.000-07:00

Finished writing and researching about Gerhard Richter. I was very inspired by his room at the new Modern Wing at the Chicago Institute of Arts! This above painting was originally intended as an underpainting but when I blurred it.... well, it really was fascinating. I touched up some details but left a blurry, hazy atmosphere. It's dark but not as dark as the photos. Included a detail below.

Detail of the bottom of the Richter inspired piece. Painting very dark this semester and it's hard to photograph.

My last bird one... for now. I told my mentor April the last one from a few weeks ago was it, but I forgot I was already working on this one. I think it's done and I think the bird flocks are done. They lost that uncanny/paranormal/extraordinary sense to me.... I guess I feel they are now familiar and I'm ready to move on.

My UFO pieces at the last residency were small. 8 x 10's mostly. I feel a couple of these deserved more consideration so I'm redoing this one larger. You can go find the original somewhere in the Semester 2 blog. This one is around 30 x 24.

This one is exciting to me. Just the right amount of ominous and beautiful. Working on lots of layers and I really like the light vs. dark interaction on the edges.

Weeks 11 & 12

2009-09-25T06:06:00.001-07:00

This week found me traveling to Sag Harbor, NY to meet with Super-Mentor April Gornik. She is very insightful and gives awesome critiques that are very helpful. I know some other people have had some difficulties with their big name mentors and I am very lucky and grateful to April. I told her the bird picture I sent out (as seen on the previous blog) was the last one. I forgot I had already started this one.

I think the birds above and these trees are heavily influenced by my paper about Gerhard Richter. I am playing with that soft mostly grey palette. Very eerie indeed.

This UFO painting is coming slowly, but I want it done right. It's been a while since I did a traditional landscape background (blue further back, yellow closer up, etc.). I'm a little rusty with this one.

This last one is an under painting for a new winter scene. Under painting in the compliments didn't help me so using relative colors might.

Weeks 9 & 10

2009-09-11T09:33:00.000-07:00

These two are as done as they are going to get before visiting NY mentor April Gornik next week. Layers, layers, and more layers. I need to let them dry, ship them, etc. for a meeting with April on 9/21.

I don' t know about the colors, but this is as far as I can push it before this gets shipped.

On to new stuff, well, newer. I did this image last semester. It was 8 x 6 inches. At the urging of both April and last semester's advisor Oscar Palacio, I am doing this one again but bigger. It's 24 x 20 or so.

This is the start of my last bird flocking painting. Wanted to try one more. It's large and I wanted it all grey. Which leads into my last one below.

This originally started as the under painting for a bamboo forest, but I'm very excited about it. I'm also researching Gerhard Richter. The grey and the fuzzy made me think I was channeling Richter so I'm going to go back into this and make it more like one of his.

Weeks 7 & 8

2009-08-28T07:17:00.001-07:00

Had a great phone meeting with my mentor yesterday. Even looking at JPGs online she is extremely insightful. We talked about how to make sure I'm engaged for the entire painting and where and when I am not.

This is a larger one that came together fairly quickly. It's part of my flocking birds series. It's 36 x 24 inches and I'm thinking it's just about done. I have one more bird one planned but I think I might be done with this series.

Still working slowly with layers on this figure in the water.

Working slowly and steadily on this bamboo forrest. Mentor and I agreed to push this one as far as I can and I am still doing trees. I will go back in soon and do all of the little bamboo knots in the trunks.

Weeks 5 & 6

2009-08-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

"From the shores of Gitche Gumee..." these first two works are a step back, or sideways. I have to admit I feel great pressure when I paint and it is almost never enjoyable. I don't know if it's school or the idea of showing my work to one of the greatest living landscape artists alive (to my mentor's credit, she never ever comes off this way, she has been nothing but helpful and insightful), but it is a daily struggle. It might be just the difficulty of continuing to push myself.... regardless, I am painting at least 20 hours week, usually more, and continuing to work bigger, with more layers/glazes, and trying to build on the success of last semester. So these first two works are more like what I was doing in the second semester. I wanted to find out what I enjoyed about working like this, and what can I bring to my more "school-minded" works. The work above was totally inspired by one of April's paintings from my visit in July which featured a large centrally placed full moon. Mine is waning... or perhaps waxing.

Magic hour on Lake Calhoun.

Jeffrey Ebeling was kind enough to provide me with some small canvases to experiment on. It's oil ground on linen and canvas respectively. Hannah Barrett provided the small gessoed panel. How better to explore the different surfaces than to do the exact same painting on each?

The figure and the bamboo forrest continue to move slowly and continue to be a challenge. These are more like what I want to have ready for school in January. Ominous. I understand in these more what April talked about to me in July. In her works she talked about a certain "speed" things had. Some parts moved faster, some slower. These are both very slow. Solemn. Maybe too slow. I am not sure how to speed them up as it were.

Weeks 3 & 4

2009-07-31T13:42:00.001-07:00

The fire tornadoes are almost done. A group show for the Hinckley Fire Museum gets hung in the middle of the month and this is my entry. My photos aren't looking great with the wet paint/light glare, but hopefully you can get a rough idea.

Continuing to paint slowly and meticulously. Lots of small brushes. It's a much slower, more demanding process.

I like this one a lot. In all of these I'm working on lots of layers. Especially for the fire, the water, the leaves, etc.

Still not quite sure how this one is going to work out, but I do like the general color/mood. This one has probably been the most difficult and is the least finished.

Semester 3: Weeks 1 & 2

2009-07-19T15:17:00.000-07:00

The first week of the semester had me driving down to Long Island, New York to visit Semester 3 mentor April Gornik. Gornik was every bit as brilliant as I expected and we had a great visit. She gave me a lot of notes, but to do a short summary here we talked a lot about under painting, avoiding perfunctory areas of my canvas, and looking at light and speed in my work. She was extremely generous and took time to critique every work I showed her. She had amazing insight and picked out numerous things I had not seen myself.

The following works are from weeks 1 and 2. April and several professors in my program inspired me to work larger, slower, and push these further. These are all under painted in compliments and I'm working with a lot more layers and glazes.

These two are both from the perspective of being underwater. Some one told me at the residency that there wasn't anything to fear in contrails or a blue sky. They said that if they were trapped underwater than they would know to be afraid. The figure is new. I haven't painted a figure in several years. It seemed necessary to the narrative.

This fire painting is early in the process, but I like it so far. It's for a group show in Minnesota, and I don't think it will make it to the residency, but it's something I wanted to do. The fore ground is going to be very difficult to photograph it's all black or off black trees.

This last one plays more toward the beauty than the fear in the sublime. It's going to be a bamboo forrest, but this is the second layer of the under painting and I think the colors capture my signature mood.

Week 16

2009-05-21T12:14:00.001-07:00

This one is smaller but it is done. It's a dust devil in front of an abandoned stip mall. I like the tones, and it fits into that UFO series a bit.

I'm really happy with these two. Sort of following and breaking selected landscape rules. Also keeping that weirdness and unusualness that both David and Oscar wanted. My last meeting with Spring Mentor David Feinberg was last night. It went very well and we agreed about focusing on our formula for my work: Graceful, deepspace, bit unusual, and timing. I think this last one is the best and I think it hits all of those things.

Week 14 & 15

2009-05-13T09:04:00.001-07:00

Finally finished these up. There are 12 in all. Took sort of a photo approach with this at the beginning of the semester. There might be the hint of a narrative. I'll have to play at the residency with what I want to do about the actual arrangement, but there is a wide range of views, colors, times of day, etc. Don't know if the format holds them together.

Week 13

2009-05-01T13:36:00.000-07:00

I finished up those 3 bird flocking paintings this week. I feel very good about them. (Can't usually say that!) I think they follow David Feinberg's formula we worked out together. Unusual/Graceful/Timing/Deep Space. These are the 4 things when they are in good balance work well in my paintings. I like that they're definitely a series, but there are each their own painting and not a production line like a lot of the New Yorkers. I also was able to work in that flying saucer shape in a palatable way.

This small one was on the smaller 8 x 6 format of the UFO paintings, but it's not quite the same. It's a dust devil behind a strip mall. Still in progress.

This one is inspired by Minnesota Point and also the show LOST. It's to be finished next week.

Week 12

2009-04-24T11:31:00.001-07:00

So I'm not sure why I insist on reinventing the wheel every week. I feel these are 2 subjects that were successful and I wanted to explore them a bit more. The 3 above are in various stages and deal with flocking birds. I think it's fascinating that we are not sure how or why these birds are doing this. The two shots below are in progress and they are pond reflections. They go in the series, and I am hoping to come to the June residence with at least 12 of these done that form a loose mural.

Week 11

2009-04-17T13:52:00.001-07:00

I realized this week that I found a few things that I think we're working for me and for some reason I feel the need to go rediscover the wheel every week. Not sure why. I really concentrated on going deeper on a few of these subjects. This is the first of 3 that will explore the flocking bird idea from earlier in the semester. I'm excited to do them and not sure why I didn't do this sooner.

These 3 are obviously smaller and go with that UFO series. They are close to 8 inches by 6 or so. I think these are working well and I will have to see where these go.

Another pond one. It's frozen and the white are air bubbles, but they start to feel a bit like galaxies which I like even better!

This week also had me visiting the Burnett Gallery in Minneapolis. Chris Larson has exhibited in Germany and New york with his shot gun art. Also stopped over to Gallery 13 to look at regional work of Jim Burpee.

Weeks 9 & 10

2009-04-10T11:50:00.001-07:00

Weeks 9 & 10 had me finishing up these two large paintings. Worked closely with my mentor on these ones. Trying to make sure they followed the formula he set out for me: grace, minimal, unusual, and timing. Those 4 things need to be working together for me to pull off this style. The small white birds in the top one don't necessarily read as birds, but they could be stars, or ashes and I like that as well. Likewise, there is a large piece of flowing plastic sheet on the bottom one, that may read a bit as water.

This is a new one. The colors are much too bright. Need to tone down and also add the foreground figure. Not sure who or what that is today.

These last 2 pond images are almost done. They are sort of a dark traditional kind of piece. I think the reality/perspective in these ones will set up the shots of jet contrails and ice in the other ones.

Week 8

2009-03-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

2 New smaller ones from my "pond" series. The first one will be the only one with a real horizon line. A bit of abstraction. A bit of realism. I also like the photo-like quality of the shots. These are fun.

This is another one that starts with a piece of photo. It is an assignment from my mentor. The small photo at the center is my grandfather in his Naval Uniform before shipping off to the pacific in WWII.

I'm fairly happy with this one. It is doing a lot while doing a little. It's a different perspective, looking up. I am also finishing up my report on Peter Doig, April Gornik, and Verne Dawson. I talk in my paper about "the other" and how these artists move between worlds. I'm using a bit of narrative to make the viewer ask questions. The large unearthly plant at the center is called "Adam's Needle," and while it is a real plant, it can seem quite surreal to a first time viewer. I also think I endowed it and personified it a bit.

The storm one I'm working on is inspired by April Gornik. Trying to bring a lot of emotion to some storm clouds. Hers is an inner landscape of emotion.

Week 7

2009-03-20T09:57:00.001-07:00

This week found me visiting Oklahoma University. Went through the museum there on campus. Interesting collection with a lot more older European works than I would have imagined. This first one (above) is another one in my pond series. I'm not as excited to keep working on these for whatever reason, but to quote Tony Apesos, "If it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing!"

This is revisiting one of my mentor's projects. I had to redo most of this one and I will need to start another one soon.

Trying to do a dramatic one with the vertical format.

I am very excited about these last two. Playing with the space a lot. Deep space in the beach one on the bottom, abrupt cut-off space in the first. Alien objects will be coming soon. These successfully capture my mentor's idea of all my works: Graceful, Sparse, unusual, timing. We agreed these were the 4 items I needed to incorporate to pull off a successful painting. Also working on my second paper, a study of the works of Doig, Gornik, and Dawson.

Week 6

2009-03-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

Finished this small UFO one. Had a great meeting with my mentor this week. He responded to this one very well. I think I will do a few more in the series. They're small and fun.

Finished up this one. It's small, but the Weinermobile is parked in the lower right. Sort of a group 2 assignment. Speaking of my group, Jeffrey and I went to Open studio night at the Northrup King Building. I will also be in Dallas some time next week, so I will be sure to check out the local art offering there.

This one is done.

Mentor and I both really liked how this assignment turned out.

We also both agreed that this one didn't work as well. I'm going to go back in and try and "fix" it. Stay tuned.

Week 5

2009-02-28T09:13:00.001-08:00

This one is a bit back to my "regular" style, but I'm doing a few things. My mentors comments were that the horizontal pieces were stronger than the vertical ones. He wanted me to play with canvas sizes a bit. He also said the "weird detail" that shows up in my work happens at 25 ft. This one will work with both of those ideas.

This is the second project from my mentor. Started the first one last week. There are pieces of photograph in the center and the upper right of this one. Playing with starting the painting around those two photos.

This is # 6 in my "pond" series. These are slow, but there's a lot of wet on wet. They are a bit more abstract/real. And almost no horizon lines. They will make more sense when they are all together on the wall at AIB.

Seagull is coming along. Just letting this one happen. I'm not thinking about anything anyone has said or recommended. It's an elegy for my grandpa so it just needs to happen. Might not bring to AIB in June.

Back to these small UFO paintings. Wasn't sure what to do with them. Really liked the Elizabeth Peyton show at the Walker. She has re-inspired this series. I want them small, slick, populist subject, shiny. Sort of a guilty pleasure.

Week 4

2009-02-20T11:14:00.000-08:00

Week 4 was great. Extra studio time, less time working on reports! This first one above is one of my assigned projects from David my mentor. The objects at the top left and lower right are pieces of photographs to be used as jump off points, but they are ripped out and placed on the canvas.

Finally started working on the gull and not the forrest floor.

These two from the pond series I think are done or practically done. I think they have a certain photographic quality. A snapshot quickness. They will be strong when they are all done and hanging together.

This last one is done too. Very out of my comfort zone. Wrong horizon. Weird homogeneous color. Took care to make distinctive marks (Hannah would be proud!). I also like the shape of this one and the first one. My mentor says my vertical paintings aren't very strong. The horizontal ones have deep space and the vertical ones "bog down in technique." Playing with some wider sized canvases. Too cold to make my own in the garage right now. (My hands freeze up and hurt after 10 or 15 minutes. So off to Blick Art!

Week 3

2009-02-15T17:51:00.001-08:00

Very busy week! I don't know if I got exactly my 20 hours in the studio, but I will have more time this next week to make up for any time I missed. Spent an inordinate amount of time working on the first research paper (omniousness in David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock.) Got a rough draft finally out so on to the fun stuff. Visited the Walker with Jeffrey this week. We heard a lecture about Elizabeth Peyton. I thought I didn't like her until I walked through the retrospective and I think I do now. Well, I hate her of course because it's "easy" and she's famous, but I do like the shiny, pretty, fuzziness of the paintings. Even more excited by the exhibit of Japanese artist Tetsumi Kudo. A LARGE retrospective! Radioactive penises were every where!

The two works above are from my new Pond series for which I've done a few already. Not much to say yet, it's early...

Starting 2 works for my mentor. Cutting up parts of photographs as starts in paintings. Each had to have an item and a piece of landscape. I need to paint to match that landscape. This piece had the photos placed intentionally. The other arbitrarily.

This is the first painting in response to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. I like it a lot. Not my usual. Moved the horizon. Changed the paint a little. Out of focus. Eerie. So far, so good. I think the summation of the paper and the movies is this. There's the scene where the Crows start landing on the kids' playground. There's no music. When there are 4 or 5 and they keep landing slowly 1 by 1, it's scary. When we look and there's 500 of them on the playground I don't think it's quite as scary. The scariness/eerie part comes not knowing when exactly or if we've crossed over into the absurdity of the dream, when we ask ourselves, "is this real or am I dreaming?"

This seagull one is odd. I don't think I'm painting it. It's sort of painting itself. I spent about 10 hours this week continuing to work on the background. I started it at the end of January. Don't know why exactly, but I had a clear idea of it in my head coming out of the residency. Hadn't even thought about my Alfred Hitchcock assignment yet. On 2/2/9 my Grandfather died. I was much closer to him than any male in my life. He was a big squawky bird, but strong and majestic. I guess this has sort of turned into an elegy for him.

Week 2

2009-02-06T18:52:00.001-08:00

Julia and I were in Chicago this work. She went for Land O' Lakes and I went Museum-hopping. Mostly I ran around the Institute of Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Art. I also have a good idea for some galleries for my next Chicago venture. Assistant teaching is fun, but I found out that some grad students get PAID to do it.... DAMN. I also met with new mentor David Feinberg. We had a great critique today and he gave me two interesting assignments. Words don't really do them justice, so you'll just have to see them on the blog in the near future. Jeffrey and I also attended an AWESOME talk by Jerry Saltz at the U. He was amazing. I wasn't expecting much, but wow, he was inspiring! Busy week to say the least. OK, here's the work:

I decided to start a UFO series. Two sky studies here (above). They are smaller works on board. I don't have a lot of reason to do these except that I want to.

This is the first finished one from my "photography/painting" project. Sort of a painting collage when it's done. I think I will do around 12 or 16 of these total.

These two are about birds. Inspired by Alfred Hitchcock and also by a small book Hannah lent me about Oriental painting/marks. Top is base coat on canvas. This one I will paint thicker. Bottom one is on board. Bit more odd I hope...

SEMESTER 2: WEEK 1

2009-01-30T07:54:00.000-08:00

OK. Here goes. Semester 2. Was decompressing a bit last week with travel and PRSD (post-residency stress disorder :) Last week I met with my mentor David Feinberg from the University of Minnesota. I get to be a teaching assistant to his painting class on Wednesday nights. Our first critique is tentatively scheduled for next Tuesday. I also am auditing an Art History Class at the U for Contemporary Art/Painting. I am also a bit surprised but in my preliminary research for a Semester 3 mentor, I received a very fast reply from New York artist April Gornik. Looks like she will be agreeable to mentoring next semester! Finished up my Residency summary and emailed to new advisor, Oscar Palacio.

Spent a lot of studio time this week getting some canvases ready. I sanded and gessoed a bunch of masonite boards. I have never painted on this, but it was a common suggestion at the residency. Also painting on some smaller canvases because of residency suggestions. More on these later.

I was a bit stumped starting this week. There's always a lot of mixed messages at the residency. Usually I will try some different things, but stay close to my advisor and 1 or 2 other professors. These next 3 I think will be part of a very large work. They are smaller, but I want to do a bunch that will add up to an actual landscape/scene. Was sort of inspired by Oscar's work and some other photographers. I guess these are a bunch of snapshots that will add up to some sort of collage kind of thing. Skies are always a good place for me to start painting when I am confused or distressed and needing to get started with out a clear path.

This next one is a study for the following painting. This one is on pre-made gesso board from the art store (for comparison to my own home made boards). I am trying to get a thicker painterly effect going on this one. Lots of texture and brush strokes. (This is something that former advisor Hannah Barrett suggested in our last meeting.)

This weekend is also my first Chicago trip. I plan to make at least 2. This first one I will most likely be trying to get through the 2 big museums. I emailed Michael Newman (AIB professor) about other places to be looking at for my next trip.

Weeks 18 & 19

2008-11-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

All 4 of these paintings are very wet so I apologize for the flash in the middle of all of them. Felt like I finally moved off of those 3 or 4 bigger ones that I was constantly working on and refining. Don't know how happy I was finally, but I just had to move on for my own sanity. These next 3 are all Lakes and all at or just after sunset (movie makers refer to this as Magic Hour because of the warm soft light that is everywhere). This one above is Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis and will have some buoys/moorings in a white pattern on the water.

I need to keep my edge. The large clouds/lakes/island one from last blog didn't say as much as I hoped. The first comments I got about it were, "what are you trying to say? it's not very interesting." Maybe that's what I'm heading into at the next residency...

This one should say something. There's going to be a small moon or two at the top. Haven't quite figured that part of it out yet. I like the isolation at the top. So much going on at the bottom and then 1 small thing at the top.

This picture is very dark, but I think it comes closest to Jeffrey's summation of landscape: trying to capture the ethereal atmosphere next to the very rough earth. Have noticed people piling rocks to make little "people sculptures" like the Inuit. This is happening all around the great lakes on hiking paths, etc. they will show up at the bottom of this one.

And finally this one. my interpretation of "Starry Night" by Van Gogh. Don't know if I have a lot to say about this one. It just is. Tried to capture the light, vibrancy, and color of the original while being with my paint stroke.

Weeks 16 & 17

2008-10-31T10:24:00.001-07:00

I was out of town last week, so this covers the week before that and this current week. Continuing to explore. Working with some more layers, smaller brushes, greater detail. Had a great meeting with my mentor Christine Wilcox and I think there's a couple of works we looked at that I will go back into.

This one might kill me. I tried rendering every leaf. Not sure how those old masters die this! It also isn't quite working the way I hoped. I do like that this is a bit of a different perspective (point of view) than what I always do and was suggested by Christine.

What to say about this one. So far it's just fun. Wet on wet and I've only done the top half obviously. Was shooting for "magic hour."

I am continuing with my landscape painting class and learning the "prismatic" method. It is slow and frustrating, but it is good technical practice for my work. It is helping me in another way as well. The more I learn the more I realize what I am doing in my own work that is "breaking the rules" and creating work that I am interested in. Harsher lights and darks, rendering certain details that wouldn't be in traditional work, etc. Good points that I am sure will work into the thesis.

Weeks 14 & 15

2008-10-10T11:19:00.001-07:00

Couple of larger images I am continuing to work on. (Patience is a virtue, that is a difficult lesson all on it's own!) Working on trying to capture realistic colors and light-patterns. My landscape painting class is not going as well as hoped. They are dogmatic slaves that copy photos and really don't create interesting images. However, I am learning what I don't want to do. I am learning a lot about the things I can do to make sure my works don't fall in this category. I use a lot more white and black and try to push the extremes of the color scale to create a lot of drama and tension in my work. So I guess it's not a total loss...

These clouds have been very difficult and I have had to redo them a LOT! Many layers, many wipe-downs and do-overs. I can say I am not totally displeased with this latest incarnation and I did some things technically I have never done before...

This stump one has been totally redone. I was trying to do a lot when I realized the stump was the star of the painting. I put it in the middle and gave it the detail I was trying to spread around. It feels alive now and I like that. (Just for fun I put a Sasquatch back in the trees.)

This last one I have worked on for a long time it seems. Continually changing things and tweaking colors. Tried to anthropomorphize the tree but not sure if it worked. It may not be done, and I may just wait to get comments from the next residency.

Week 12 & 13

2008-09-26T10:23:00.001-07:00

This one is still in progress. lots of layers, lots of glazes. The water around the North Shore of Lake Superior gets very red/muddy like this in storms and it's not translating well to canvas.

Hard to tell in the photo, but I have pretty much completely repainted this one. Still working on a driftwood stump in the foreground. Lots of red in the blacks/greens. Very warm.

This one is larger. Very cool. Lots of layers so far. Want a very distant/realistic feel.

My next study of a master. I started redoing "Starry Night" by Van Gogh. Decided I don't plan to every paint in that style so I am re-interpreting this piece in my own style.

Started my painting class tonight. It's a landscape class taught by Joseph Pacquet. Very technical. Working with GOOD paints (expensive). He is teaching the "prismatic" method. Basically, I think it means more blue and less yellow as things go backwards, more yellow/red as they come forwards. It's hard and I don't like most of the work of the other students. A good reminder of why my landscape needs to be different.... Image above is the start of my underpainting. Hannah will be so proud!

Weeks 10 & 11

2008-09-11T11:23:00.001-07:00

These two look done. Tweaked quite a bit. Left the figures in the first one as I want the Monsters opinions at the next residency. (That's our affectionate term for each other in group 1 soon to be group 2). Took the fox out of the second one. Now it has that, end of the world/what happened feeling that my critique group from last semester came to know me by :) The top one had a "Chupacabra" but he ended up coming out too.

The next two have always gone together for me. They are coming along but are in the "bad tree" vein of anthropomorphizing some trees in my landscapes. Giving them some life and interest in the painting. I added a ghost to the second one. Does it seem heavy handed? It sort of looks like lightning, but i like the relationship to the big, heavy, dark trees... below is a close-up of the figure which is vaguely reminiscent of lightning against a darkening sky.

Finally here is a new one. I've always wanted to paint a ship! Yes, cliche, but that will be my challenge to make it fit.

Week 9

2008-08-29T10:54:00.000-07:00

This one looks done to me. Had a great meeting with my mentor, Christine Willcox from Macalester College in St. Paul, this week. Talked a lot about some of the things that came up in the Residency. Also, she gave me some more practical ways to execute these ideas especially in the works I'm creating now like the one above. Talked about mixing colors, looking at edges, and trying to keep things simple. Looking at nature and photography, etc.

Working on trees. Lots of greens and blacks.

These two sort of go together. Didn't realize it at first, but they both started off so similar and I'm working from photographs from the same day and place.

This one has departed from the Freidrich I originally looked at quite a bit. Took out the fox. Like the sparse, "end of the world," feeling here that was described by Eliza in one of my critiques! Thanks, E! Oh, and it is State Fair time here. I've always been bitter about never being accepted into the Art Contest. Next year I may change mediums and try out for the "Seed Art Competition."

Weeks 7 & 8

2008-08-21T09:47:00.001-07:00

Staying very productive. Met with Jeffrey Ebeling from group 1 this week. Another great art meeting as always. Started out last week finishing a copy of Edward Hopper's The Long Leg (see above). LOTS of blue in this one. Also, my digital pictures never quite do these justice.

Working on my own black. Taking lots of different methods with the brush in these landscapes. None of them are ever the same twice. This one above is in response to my mentor Christine Willcox's ideas about animals and anthropomorphism. She lent me a book I am reading through on this subject. The working title for the one above is Bad Tree. Trying to create menace and suspicion. Sort of like Bob Ross' "Happy Trees."

This one was originally inspired by Monk by the Sea by Caspar David Freidrich. Mostly he influenced initial layout, colors, and painting details.

The next two landscapes I'm trying to block out areas of color ahead of time. This is a VERY different method for landscape than I usually work in.

Week 6

2008-08-09T10:16:00.001-07:00

This week found me doing a lot of academic work. Finishing up a rough draft of my first research paper on Orientalism, starting my next paper on Surrealism, and setting up a meeting with my mentor Christine Willcox from Macalester College in St. Paul.

This first work I finished up this week.

I'm going to try and keep up some of the reproductions. This next one is a start on a Edward Hopper. An artist that several critiquers suggested I look at.

This next one is the larger landscape I've been working on for the last few weeks. The figure is inspired by one of Hannah Barrett's double-figure images, although this one turned out to more of a conjoined twin look. Not done with this work yet.

Two new landscapes. Trying to "block out" spaces ahead of time. Also trying to premix colors a bit to avoid surprises on the canvas.

This next one is another look at a classic, but I started deviating. I was looking at the color in Caspar David Freidrich's "Monk by the Sea."

Weeks 4 & 5

2008-08-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

Week 4 found me finishing up the two Caspar David Friedrich paintings for my faculty advisor meeting with Hannah Barrett. They were difficult and time-intensive but worth it! Had a GREAT day with Hannah and learned a lot of technique, etc.

Week 5 I finished up a few landscapes that were primarily color studies. Really trying to push the grays, make my own black, etc.

Week 3 Update

2008-07-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

All Caspar David Freidrich, all the time!

Working on an assignment from my advisor, Hannah Barrett, I am recreating 2 paintings by Caspar David Freidrich. I'm enjoying the experience a lot. It is very technical, difficult, and a bit boring, but I'm learning a lot about the rules of landscape, experimenting with my colors and trying to match his, etc. I also feel, that while I would like the ability to paint in this manner, I don't believe I would choose to do so. The "picturesque" is not for me. I am amazed by the talent that goes into these, but I don't enjoy spending sooooo much time on tiny, bluish trees in the background hills... sort of like too much Bob Ross and I want to fall asleep. But it's a great assignment and I'm getting close to finishing.

Here are the two I am working on with the originals.

Week 1 & 2 update

2008-07-10T12:01:00.001-07:00

Here are the images from the first 2 weeks in my studio. The first image is more a traditional style for me personally. Going off feedback from Deb Davidson and Oscar Palacio, I wanted to push the "creepiness" factor a bit. It's more blatant than my normal work.

I did numerous studies for the wedding dress of the figure in the lower right of the first painting. I had a great discussion topic with Trevor from Group 1. He gave me a great technique to do clothing/folds with out the harsh black.

After gaining a bit more confidence, I have been trying to work on developing my color palettes. I'm trying to make various grays from complimentary colors. This is a nautical landscape, but the colors are much richer and interlaced than my usual piece.

Another experiment with colors. This is entirely blue/orange/white. Laying some base layers and trying to mix colors more professionally.

This is another color study. Pushing the grays and whites and not using any blacks. None of these are finished yet. I have a few more figure studies, but after talking to Christine Willcox on Wednesday, I feel that I can get away from the figure and work on creating tension and interest with other things.

I am starting my first research paper. It is a bit daunting for me. My assignment in this first paper is to incorporate some of the material from my critical theory seminar and also to relate it back to my own work. I have chosen the theme of Orientalism. I haven't quite crafted the thesis/argument of this paper but I think it will be something about how they are using reality as a launch point and creating their own world.