self taught artist

Evolution

Evolution, 2008

Mixed Media Photography
Approx 39" diameter

Well I managed to get something done this week! Trying to get at least one more piece finished to submit this weekend at the West Branch Gallery. I'm hoping they like this, it feels very powerful in real life, like a symbol or sign of some cosmic sort. I also hope they take this piece so I can see it on a real wall....this just fit in the hallway, literally no room to spare. The whole white balance thing nauseates to no end and I feel I have to mention it/apologize for my crappy photos of my work just in case a new comer visits and doesn't know that I have no where else to hang the work to view it and there are stairs in front so I can never get the right shot.

Meanwhile the Wonder Horse is still the bane of my existence. It is the tiniest little details that have caused a delay in finishing. I'm sure when people look at it they wont understand how I could spend a week solid just fussing with it non-stop. I have taken dozens and dozens of photos trying to see what looks best and it just clogs my brain after awhile.

Artists Review Artists

J.T. Kirkland at Thinking About Art posted the review that Aric Calfee wrote about my work. You can see it here. I really was impressed by his thoughts on the piece. I'm not so sure I could have come up with something nearly as interesting or well thought out. In fact, if I had to review that piece I have to wonder if it would have been favorable (even though I really love this particular piece). It is that out of context thing, when I try to imagine what I might think about it ~ having no clue that the artist (me) was making 100 clocks on RR Fish Tie Plates and using all found objects. At any rate, it was a good experience and I'm glad I mustered up the courage to do it.

to the dogs

I turned the tube on this morning for a quick looksee at the evenings possibilities. (looks like WPT and High Stakes Poker are it) when I happened upon this blippet on the sunday morning talk show.

A dog did this. 'Tillie' aka Tillamock Cheddar. A little Jack Russell from Brooklyn. She even has her own website.

I kind of viscerally reacted in a negative way at first. Tod was walking by and he too had that roll of the eye 'tude. Then we laughed. And then found it interesting. This is how he does it as quoted from Dog Art Today:

Tillie expresses her artistic sensibilities with the help of her assistant F. Bowman Hastie III, who assembles a touch-sensitive recording device by affixing pigment-coated vellum to a sheet of lithograph paper backed by mat board. Then, Tillie takes the "canvas" in her mouth and uses her teeth and paws to scratch sweeping lines and intersections with a ritualistic intensity, sometimes to the point of nearly destroying her creation.

Yeah its frustrating that a dog can make art and have more sales and gallery shows that most of us ever will. And yeah there is something not quite right about an animal doing things and making money. But I do have to hand it to the owners' ingenuity for getting this together. And I would even go as far as to say this is actually interesting to me. I especially like the chewed off edges. Art you can sink your teeth into. (I had to say it)

is anyone out there?
summer blogging sucks

gallery openings

Things are busy in my little world. Tonight is the First Friday Art Walk in B-town (independence day pushed it back a week). While I am not officially having my own show, I am now showing possibly seven clocks. Gabriel also wants me to bring the two clocks posted below along with that camera clock. (four are already in the gallery)

Tomorrow night the Lazy Pear is having an opening, again I'm not the 'star' of this but I do have seven pieces there. I'm slated to work a bit taxi-wise but hopefully I can zip the 26 mi or so over there and visit.

In a few more weeks the Stowe Gallery I am in is having an opening as well and new works need to be in like NOW. This has been a slow year for me there. I've not made more than one mixed media piece (plenty of clocks though) and that is the only thing I've got in there. I've got two large prints of the wonder horse and a larger print of evolution lined up for mixed media pieces, I'm going to have to bust a nut to get those done soon.

Not much taxi work, I guess until I want to drive airport runs I'm pretty much useless. It's still challenging to want to spend that much time enclosed in a box with people, I still feel like I'm going to tourrettically burst out with some hideous verbal bout of nonsense or worse, say something inappropriate and mean. I don't know what that is about, there is something about being in a situation where I'm confronted with banal conversation that triggers a lion in a cage response. Anyhow, suffice to say I could use more money. I am so ready to get my car fixed. I want to go somewhere other than the grocery store. Having said that, I pulled weeds for 6 hours yesterday for the gardener who had a big job to do. My ankles feel fused. I marvel at people over 40 who do grunt work day in and day out, thats all I can say. It's work...it gives me some change and time to work on art. So I'll shut up.

the artists review artists project

J.T. Kirkland at Thinking About Art has a project going on over at his blog that I partook in last week. I believe it is still something anyone can do if you are so inclined, it being the ARAP (artists review artists project). It's a great way to get a little exposure, be exposed and just have some fun with art in general.

I had my work reviewed in a gallery opening over a year ago by an editor of a New England Art Zine, he actually spoke about my work along with two other people at a gallery opening. It was kind of a big deal at the time. The one thing that bugged me was he never spoke to me at all about my work (probably the norm but it still bugged me). He had no real idea why I did what I did or what it meant to me. I've written about this on the blog before, how during his talk at the gallery when someone asked a question about my work he answered and I piped in with my two cents worth.

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was nervous to submit a picture to J.T.'s site (I submitted Nitidulidae) and have a complete stranger review it out of context. And I'd be lying if I didn't say I wasn't also nervous to submit another persons work out of context. What I mean by out of context I think is more not having knowledge of the person who created the work. For me, I learn more about the art and the person when the two come as a package. Let me see their body of work and then let me know as much as I can about them. THEN I will know if I like the work.

It will be revealed on his site at some point the work I reviewed. [review is posted here]It was challenging to say the least. I was able to read and respond to the persons review of my work as they are able to respond to my review if they want. I learned a lot from this and I highly recommend others who aren't 'established' to give this a try. I think I learned more from this persons review than I have in a long time, and not necessarily about the art itself. I also learned that reviews while they seem to mean much initially, in the end, don't. For me at least I know I don't want to sit around and mentally scrutinize what something means. How can you even know? I found it fascinating that the person who reviewed Nitidulidae had some powerful things to say about something I gave no thought to. I enjoyed it but I really got it that I make art as if by waving a magical wand. I don't know why I do what I do. Rarely have I given it intellectual thought beforehand. The whys and hows don't enter into the picture as much as just the doing. The more I can get out of the way of my brain the better the art. That isn't to say I don't have to stop and think about what to do, but the whys are what I try to silence. I suppose in the end, it is fun or interesting to tear something apart and analyze it, I'll leave that to the experts.

*UPDATE
Aric Calfee was the artist I reviewed. You can see his work here. When I got to see his website and body of work, find out more about the artist I had a big duh moment that he is a fan of R. Crumb. I was able to appreciate the piece I reviewed much more after seeing/knowing more about the artist and his work. I recommend you guys submitting to J.T. and doing the project, it took me out of my comfort zone and woke me up a bit.

a day in advance

So Monday night at 9pm east coast side, HBO presents the documentary "The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not For Sale"
It looks like its a gonna be a good one so if you don't get HBO find someone to tape it for you.

Click here to read a synopsis. I personally hadn't heard of him, but I am a late bloomer when it comes to the whole art thing. Enjoy!

scribefire

testing, one two three.
hey did you know that firefox has an ad-on whereby you can blog without being on your blog? It's called scribefire and all you do after adding the ad-on is click the scribefire thingie on the bottom of your screen and poof you get a half screen sized window that you can post from. no more going to your blog and hitting new post or going through any of the routine of that. you can even still surf the web without it closing. god i'm loving firefox!