I have been unexpectedly tied up with various things. Even with a full tilt boogie schedule, I draw or woodshed every day. All the various mediums which have become synonymous with me I fell into by complete happenstance while exploring. Each of these things, no longer new to me, I miss if I got too long without doing (or should I say crave?). My next big project is a large painting. While I can’t start it yet, I get the same pay off emotionally/intellectually/spiritually doing Lyra pieces. Although monochrome, they have a painterly feel to them and the touch required in making them is similar. An additional plus is, if I can achieve the desired feel utilizing only one color, then when using my paints proper, it feels easier.
All pieces are 5×7 inches.
A Pal of mine is doing great concert for those of you in the UK. Highly recommend
I now have two printers. One is black and white and used just for text. The other is a high-grade/hi def photo printer for my visual work.
As I went to print up the first of these 8’s I forgot to toggle the switch so that it printed on regular paper in black and white. I actually liked it and so am including it here. The other black and white image was an element of chance occurrence, I lifted the paper up and the unfastened components formed the face. It’s looser than my intentional 8’s but I still liked it.
I am always seeking models for the series as it continues to be ongoing. When I am not the one taking the photos, they are done specifically for me (as opposed to found images). There’s no digital magic just my trusty scissors and adhesive applied with brush.
this was by chance composition when all parts not glued down slid during moving paper
I always have several things going on at once. Currently I am in the middle of finishing a big project (full length novel) while about to start several others. My CINEFIELD® work tends to start to sprawl across my studio. And despite now vacuuming/sweeping daily when working on one, there is still paper confetti snow flurries and sheets of tiny pieces waiting to be used that find their way onto every available surface.
There is a great pleasure in my working in this medium. Mess aside, they are also very time consuming. I don’t want too long a time to go by without doing a piece as, like all my other mediums, it’s very much become a part of me.
The solution was to do a smaller piece which makes far less mess. Surprisingly though, smaller pieces are more difficult because the already tiny components must be even smaller. And the smaller general area means far less space to create sense of tension and release. (I equate this aspect to way back in the day, early vinyl had technical limitations, so the average record time wise, was shorter than later. Because of this, great jazz soloists, when doing their thing had to take far shorter solos than during the Long Playing era. This limitation forced all the greats to learn to make their statements within the confines of the medium’s limits.) I am always up for a challenge as I feel it facilitates evolution.
Like all my works, ever image used was from photos which I personally took. There is no digital magic, I use scissors & adhesive applied with a brush. The piece is 2×4 inches.
Free Advice: Aside from blogs, most people are on one if not all other social media sites. Adding to the non-stop stream of Twitter. Instagram etc. are new posts from whomever one follows. If a minimum of 500 people are being followed and they are posting every day, when combined with everything else one has going on digitally, it reduces what could be meaningful content (learning something new, interactions etc.) down to white noise babble.
If you are an artist/anything in the arts, then the goal should be interaction, creating an audience who will be curious to what you do next. If you want to exchange ideas/interact, in general, this too will be hindered by the deluge.
Even some of the better blogs would benefit from posting less frequently.
Last time I posted this idea, people got defensive. There are only so many hours in the day a productive person can give to bowing their heads in prayer to the screen of their phone tablet. I am not commenting on anyone’s legitimacy but merely offering way to be a better, more effective blogger.
I do not often paint large pieces. There’s a completely different physicality involved. The way I have always worked, when I see a piece in my head before starting out, included in this vision/conception is its size. If I envision it small, it’s not merely a matter of using larger paper to make it big. I can only make a thing as I saw it in my head.
With Victory I saw it big.
I enjoy the challenge of leaving my comfort zone. Most of my paintings are 11×17, this one would be 20×30. I have a large wooden easel. It has heavy brass machinery. I pull on a loop below the ledge upon which the canvas sits to raise or lower it on the wooden axis. There is a wooden crossbar on the bottom which connects the two front legs of the large tripod.
While painting the lower section of the piece, I sit on a stool leaning forward. My feet rest on the crossbar. It feels as if I am on a ship, brush in hand. Seas calm, seas stormy, call me Ishmael.
When I started this Cinefield® I had decided to stretch myself as I had no deadlines. I work no digital magic on my pieces, but the photos I use are of course kept on my computer. Being a little under quarter of the way done with the piece my computer of seven years gave up the ghost.
I wanted to research what best option was for new one as unlike last time i bought one, I had concrete ideas of what I was going to use it for and what I did not need it to do. The research was the first delay. Once I determined what I wanted, it would take about two months for them to make it for me. I cleaned up the paper chad snowdrifts, switched to painting and some of my other visual projects.
As I was not merely sitting on my hands waiting, I did not mind. My third delay, the computer showed up and upon getting it set up, my equally old printer died. The amount of work she had done for me (ships & printers are always referred to in feminine form) made it not so shocking. I had already been looking at new printers anyways. Knowing ahead of time what I wanted and needed made the wait for a new one shorter.
The printer I got is geared towards photo film too. I bought few different types to experiment with while working to finally finish this piece. I was curious if I would be prevented from getting the flush edged fit as happens with my pocket printer mini-cinis. That film is akin to instamatic camera film, this is not, so I am able get the flush fit.
Aside from trying for more diverse color palette a few things made this piece different. The components consists of the paper on the old printer I always used, new printer with different type paper and three types photographic paper also from new printer. It was very different for me too in that I have never put down a Cinefield® for more than a day or so. The extended time away from it was totally new experience for me.
As is always the case, all the images are from photos I personally took. I use my tiny trusty scissors and adhesive applied with glue. The piece is 11×17 inches.
I had been about a quarter of the way through a full sized Cinefield® when my computer gave up the ghost. This meant I couldn’t use my printer, needed for components. I Switched to doing a painting. The computer I ordered taking it’s time to get to me. I missed doing Cinefield® work
I decided to use my pocket printer and do a smaller piece. Having the luxury of no deadline and no expectations of a collector, I decided to try some new things:
I inserted an In the Eights figure into the work (female figure for those not familiar with my 8’s project)
The pictures are printed on thicker, instant film like paper. When I initially was figuring out methodology with these materials, I used my regular adhesive. If that comes in contact with picture side of the film, it immediately clouds it. I Switched to glue sticks. Problem with that was that it secures the pieces only temporarily. Often times I would lay a piece down only to have a different piece fly off. For this piece I used regular adhesive, applied with a tiny brush as to control it. The tricky part was that I had to lay each piece exactly where it was meant to go because of the adhesive. A piece lain wrong I might be able to pick up but then adhesive had touched other parts.
The nature of pocket printer pieces is they are thicker and rigid so it’s an impossibility to get the pieces flat and flush. The visible seams/edge are part of the look.
The piece is 4×4 inches. All the photos are by me except the female photo which was done for me. The clock image is from photo I took of Orsay Museum clock in Paris.
I had been in the middle of a full sized Cinefield® when my computer of six years gave up the ghost. This rendered my needed printer into an expensive paper weight. I switched to doing a painting. This is 11×14 watercolor & tan paper.
“Maggie” 11×14
errata thought on the elderly: In media & especially television, a shorthand for “old people” they often will reference big band music (usually Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman). A few Rolling Stones albums just hit their 50th anniversary mark. If you do the math, an “old” person was not swinging their gal arround on the dancefloor to “Take the A Train” but rather Hendrix’s electro lament for a decades turmoil & new found freedoms.
Lyra water soluble graphite sticks have become one of my favorite mediums. That with a brush and pocket pad and i can do painterly pieces even when sitting at a cafe table. And I need not sprawl out taking over the table. I am also able to maintain discretion as I would hate to be like one of those people stateside who feel it necessary to go to Starbucks to show everyone that they are “writing”.
Aside from fully realized works, i continue to woodshed, hands, feet, whatever is in front of me. It is akin to a musician practicing scales. Both Renoir and Matisse when in the twilight of their years said something along the lines of it being a shame that they did not have a few more years left as they both felt that they were finally starting to get it. Coltrane before and after a concert or recording session would still put in time practicing. This has been my overall approach too. Regardless of how my day is spent, an hour or two at night woodshedding.
I do not go for the outwardly dramatic thing in my sketching. I let the organic truth of whatever the thing is create the emotion. A sort of raw reportage without any preconceived agenda. All pieces are either 3×5 pocket pad or 4×4 pocket pad. My 3×5 pad has circled the globe with me more ties than I can count and is always besides my bed or in my pocket during the day no matter where I am in the world.
How it beganSelfieKini in CapThe End: selfie freaked out & tired @ Heathrow
This season, I was really able to trim down the amount of equipment I brought with me. For painting, I had my custom cut 4×4 in both standard white watercolor paper & brown multi media paper. The plan was to buy a standard block once here.
I actually enjoyed challenge working small, and people liked the weird hanging chads too. So I decided to stick with it, forgoing other paper.
With smaller paper you have less space to create tension & release. The density I prefer in my compositions also trickier to achieve.
Here is my portrayal of flesh which I never tire of doing, a night scene trying to show shadow without blatantly showing darkness of a room and detail from a favorite statue in The Luxemburg gardens. All are 4×4
Paper Life Painting 