Experiments And A Studio 360



Texture as Topography, 4X6"

Composition With Red Mistake And Ornaments, 4X6"

These two volunteers would better be classified as experiments, I suppose.  They're not about anything in particular.  Is that a failing on my part?  Perhaps.  But the fun meter went way up into the red zone. They both incorporate a new twist [for me anyway]--transfers.  The topographic one at top includes a print of an illustration I did for a developer--an illustrated site plan.  The plan to transfer the print to the already prepared panel failed gloriously.  Parts of it worked--parts blew away.  The result is pure delight.  You don't know what you're looking at as you gaze into 49 layers of transluscent nonsense, and then you see recognizable land features intertwined in and under the surface.  Wild!  Stand back a couple feet and it's a mudpie.

The other one was coming along fine when I spilled red glop all over the place.  It actually looked like a slab of slate before that happened.  Deep, deep mysterious surface.  Anyway, I kind of liked the red all out of order and everything.  Then I decided to see if I could transfer a magazine picture of a mountain.  All I got was the black area at the bottom.  I kept rubbing into it until the prevailing texture came back a little.  The ornamental stuff too--applied and then rubbed out.  There's something old and worn about all this that is satisfying to look at.  Other than that the thing would be a  wonderous flop if I was in a serious artist mode. I have to tell myself that to keep from crying a bitter tear.  

Any way here's the studio.  The room is versatile if I do say so myself.  I use the drawers as utility trays full of stuff such that when you close it, it's gone.  That's a light table in 1, where I can toggle between underlight and overlight.  The wall where all the new panels are displayed (3) is actually a vertical drawing board, and that aluminum strip just above the paintings on the floor is a parallel bar that covers the entire board (works on a weight system).  I used this to create patterns for lettering and illustration on truck sides.   That shelf is removable.

In 4 that's an oil pallet (1/4 inch plate glass) in the first drawer ready for business.  The second drawer pulls out to become a computer desk in 5 and that's the new dynamo humming away.  To the left is a scanner, printer above.  The roll around table in 6 is always useful for the more unwieldy projects, and those fruit crates serve as completed project files.   The painting on the wall was done in 1977, curiously, using the same techniques I'm experimenting with now.

Finally, yes that's a  boombox with a hard hat on top.  I wear that on my more unstable days.  Notable is the bottom shelf where all the shoes are supposed to be--the ubiquitous little buggers.  That's it.

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One On Each Side: The Day Art Was King





Lighthouse On Truck With Inscription



Slice Of Pizza On Metal Panel With Inscription

Bum Rogers Insisted On A Female Sook Even Though I Tried To Talk Him Out Of It
  

OK, it's not exactly fine art.  But I'm showing these in response to Katharine Cartwright's recent post on starving artists.  That and the most impressive response by Linda Roth, who essentially spelled out the story of my life.  What a fantastic forum.   This is one of my career iterations that I did to keep from having to starve, while protecting my fine art from compromise.  One gravitates to where one is appreciated in the money for art game.   Besides as a process artist, what difference does it make what the product is as long as the process is being experienced?  Same materials.  Same thoughts.  You know, lighthouse with crashing waves, gestural scribbles, portraits, pizza, crabs, whats the big deal?  

That pizza was for Larry Farrago, a former creative director at one of the big ad agencies.  Quit all the stress and started a pizza business.  How he found me I'll never know, although I was not unknown in transportation graphics.  Anyway, the piece was done in a Truck equipment firm--about a dozen mechanics, sales staff and office people.  As the painting reached it's final stages people started moaning in hunger.  Then around lunchtime Larry showed up with a few cartons of pizza and a portable oven, and treated the whole company to all the pizza they could eat, being so happy with the looks of his truck.    Art was king that day.

The illustrations were done in OneShot lettering enamel with Naz Dar Screen Printing Varnish as a glaze medium base,  drying times being manipulated with other types of varnish.   Hand lettering is done with Langnickel quills and OneShot Lettering Enamel.   Scale drawings of each truck were approved in advance, with the full sized patterns prepared in this studio. 

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PS  I don't know what the puffy art colleges teach now, but in my day they didn't teach any of this.   I agree with Linda, and add they need to be ashamed of themselves for extracting all that money and not teaching people how to get by.   That said, my AA laid a firm groundwork in commercial art for which I have always been greatful.   Then there's the BS I've discussed in other posts.  My Freudian slip is showing.  Sorry.