mini 39

Miniature #39- April 23 - 29, 2012,  6.75 x 6.25 in, ballpoint pen and acrylic on panel

...so Alphonse Mucha walks into a bar and sits down next to a Beatles poster.  (haha)

I'm posting this near the end of the day because I photographed, then re-photographed, then re-re-photographed, and have come to the conclusion that the screen just can't capture this background color in all its highway-roadwork-safety-orange loveliness.  The new pack of pens almost tripled my color options, so I may have been over a little over-enthusiastic, using light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, and green (and white).

This week I also prepared the panel for a larger work in this technique, finished the under-drawing on a Gothic-inspired work, and (drumroll.....) finished a painting!

(c) Haven't decided on a title quite yet, 2012, mixed media on panel, 24 x 48 in 

For not having a model, I think the wings turned out pretty well; though working on then has reinforced my longing for a taxidermied bird with the wings spread. 

Also pretty happy with the hands

mini 38

Miniature #38 - April 16 - 22, 2012,  6.5 x 6.5 in,  ballpoint pen and acrylic on panel

Ah, mini 38!  The color is not me manipulating the saturation on the image - it's actually neon, highlighter yellow, and I love it!  There is something so satisfying to me about the sharp flatness of the background against the almost obsessive, volumetric hatching of the forms.  For a while now, I've been feeling like I'm almost on to something, but then it slips away before I can catch it - like the feeling when you know you're forgetting something important, but can't remember exactly what the thing is, only that it's important and missing.  I feel like I finally had a breakthrough with this one (and it only took me 37 other tries to get there - haha)!  Now, all I want to do is make more (I started preparing a full-sized panel before the paint was even dry on this one and splurged and bought a $3 pack of assorted color ballpoint pens, so now I have 8 colors to work with instead of just blue, red, and black.) I wish I could hole up in a cabin in the woods and just paint and draw all day.  Unfortunately, that's not exactly an option right now, but I feel motivated to try and make it work in the here/now.  We'll see how it goes, but every time I look at this I see a whole body of work instead of a fragment, and I am so excited (just trying to make sure I draw it all down in the magic black sketchbook)!

mini 37

Miniature #37 "Blue Bird" - April 9 - 15, 2012, 5 x 7 in, mixed media on paper

I thought this might be "the week of no mini." The real world has been encroaching on Tinyland - Bills (capital B), rejection letters (no capital, but plural), and Deadlines (capital and plural) - oh my!  But then I decided that not making a mini would qualify as an "art surrender" (never!).  Mini 37 seems soft an quiet at first - the "fuzzy" appearance is from multiple layers of an aerosol paint, and the paper survived several rounds of sanding in between layers.  The tone strikes me as "quietly aggressive" (is there such a thing?)

mini 36

Miniature #36 - April 2 - 8, 2012, 2.5 x 3.5 in, mixed media on canvas 

This week's mini is a little dark (I keep thinking Metropolis). 

mini 35

Miniature #35 - March 26 - April 1, 2012, 5.5 x 5 in, mixed media collage

I've been exploring a new material for minis 33 and 35 - color vellum.  While I work with a lot of different materials, one commonality among most of my work is that I like to work in layers.  This material allows me to work in both dark and light media on the front, back, and underlying surfaces.

As far as the content - I love so many art works that it would be hard for me to ever come up with a non-book-length list, but this is one of my "favorite-favorites": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flandrin,_Hippolyte_(1805-1864)_-_Jeune_homme_nu_assis.._1855_-_Louvre.jpg  Maps are something I've worked with in the past, but they've been making a reappearance lately as I search for a city - one with a significant art scene, jobs, affordable housing/studio space, and either extensive public transportation or not see-my-life-flash-before-my-eyes scary traffic.  I've looked at a lot of maps, but haven't found Utopia on any of them yet; so, for now, I'm still searching. (It remains to be seen whether cutting up the maps to make collages out of them will prove to be helpful...)