I was planning on uploading these images only after the series was complete, but it's looking less and less likely that that will ever happen, 
so here they are.
These 6X12 inch paintings were originally intended to be a trashy, pinup take on the four horsemen of the apocalypse (I was thinking of calling the series The Four Bitches of the Apocalypse), but I never finished War; she's currently languishing under the couch in my basement/studio next to a bag of staples. Here, however, are Famine, Pestilence and Death, revamped and looking hot.
I was heavily influenced by Tara McPherson and the lowbrow artists at the time, and so we have a lot of bright, bubblegum colors and retro, cartoony themes going on, as well as a heavy helping of the macabre.
In addition, we have some of my recurring themes. Pestilence is an Exterminator, breathing out noxious fumes, exterminating people instead of bugs. This image has actually become a larger piece that looks very similar, only with ladybugs, and is currently in progress. Death is a Skullhead, which is only appropriate, and I've updated her apparatus by replacing the traditional scythe with a .44 Magnum--the Dirty Harry gun. It was my first time painting a gun and it was actually pretty fun. She also kind of looks like me. Famine is really the only all-original character here, and she's sort of a perky college girl gone bad. I used the concept of bulimia and eating disorders to represent famine, a sort of modern look at the way famine manifests in societies like ours.
These paintings also have the unique feature of having the sides of the canvas painted--the part of the fabric that folds around the stretcher bars--though you can't see it here. Some artists do this all the time, but I typically don't. On the practical side, it makes handling and storing the wet paintings very difficult, and I also feel it's a waste of time. Some argue that it eliminates the need for a frame, covering unsightly raw edges, but I don't see the point. Besides, I feel that the sum of the painting should be what is happening on the main surface, and that painting the side creates a distraction at best, and reduces the painting to merely a decorative object at the worst.
But these are merely decorative objects to me, and I think that's what inspired the painted sides. Obviously paintings are decorative objects, and I'm not trying to elevate them far beyond what they are. But to me the side-painting practice seems kind of dumb and cheap-looking. Of course, these paintings are meant to be dumb and cheap-looking, so there you go.
In case you're wondering, War is a cheerleader. If I ever get around to finishing her, I'll post her.
This is my new Slenderman T-shirt, which I made using Tulip brand fabric paints (in white and brown, Slendy's skin was made by mixing the two) and a T-shirt I altered to fit me.
Why? Because Slenderman is my new best friend.
I started watching the Slenderman ARGs on YouTube (Marble Hornets, EverymanHYBRID and TribeTwelve), and though in all three, Slendy is a menacing figure, I think he's adorable. I mean, look at that face. Er...
Anyway, the series are all really fun and spooky and I recommend them to anyone who likes a good creepy mystery. They've also inspired me to work with video, which I'm not very good at, but I'm liking the mysterious and cryptic shorts that plague the main characters in each series. I've been shooting some footage and maybe I'll piece one together at some point. (And no, no wild Slendies yet.)
And, of course, since Slendy is my new best friend, I decided to make a T-shirt of him. He lives on the left side (the wearer's left side) of the shirt, and that means he gets to hang out on my boob. Lucky Slendy. I painted him with sort of mitten hands, because I like to think that he's not so much wearing a suit as he is a suit.
Please excuse the paint blotches. This is an in-progress picture and so is not completely cleaned up. The colorful bit near the collar is not part of the shirt; it's a magazine separating the layers to prevent bleed-through.
Phew.
Now that I've ranted sufficiently, we can get back to our normal routine. You know, the one where I disappear for a while and then resurface with new work. Like I said, I normally try not to get emotionally invested in political (or pseudo-political, as the case may be) stuff, but certain things just get me...oooh.
Anyway, I got a commissioned illustration job for Circle of Grace, a spiritual group who was holding a lecture series on emotional dependence. The subject matter was all about learning to become more of an emotionally healthy individual, and the illustrations all centered on various concepts within that theme.
All of these are watercolor, pencil, ink and gouache on Arches paper (which is the best paper ever, if also the most expensive). As you can see, I used lots of patterns and chubby birds in these images, and I also experimented with (rudimentary) fractals, which was fun.
There are about 30 of these illustrations in total, and they were hard work. I stayed up past 4 am for these and watched 3 complete DVDs of the Daria complete series to keep myself awake.
I'm also working, when I can, on oil paintings and hopefully I'll be able to post them soon.
And no more socio-political rants, I promise.
Today on "Artists You Should Know," we're taking a look at some of the people who I've not only known, but have given me wond
erful guidance and advice as a young artist. The three artists I'll be discussing were teachers of mine at SUNY New Paltz, all of them sweet, lovely, and immensely talented and smart.
The painting seen here is Big Whoop by Robin Arnold, and features her awesome mouse character. Robin is pure awesome. Her critiques were always on point, and she always seemed to know what we were trying to say with our paintings and how we should go about expressing ourselves more clearly. I have a special appreciation for her work because, like mine, it deals with nostalgia and the eerie-but-comforting and always inescapable qualities of memory. Unfortunately (for me), hers is the only site that actually allows me to reproduce an image here.
Up next is Audrey Francis, whose work is bright and moving, and deals with identity, the body, and more. I did probably the best painting (The Council) I did in the entirety of my college career in Audrey's class. I'm not sure that she still works for the college, but her site is great and you should check it out. I particularly like the "Santos" section, as it appeals to my cultish qualities. That body of work was done, as she put it, "a lifetime ago."
Finally we have Kathy Goodell, whose name I can never remember to spell correctly (the spelling here is right). Kathy taught Water Media and Collage and was the kind of person who made you feel totally comfortable explaining your weirdest, most convoluted art concepts to. She also can be seen in the documentary Crumb, having once dated cartoonist Robert Crumb. Really. But more important is the vast scope of her work, which utilizes a wide variety of materials and methods to create forms and images that speak at once to the universe at large and the dark human interior. Working with beeswax, glass, found objects and wood as well as watercolor and pencil, she captures deep and complex emotions in organic shapes and lines. Her website is arranged by body of work, so you can easily see the concepts of her pieces.
Check them out!
Normally I sketch in preparation for a larger project--they're like maps to the image in my head and they don't make a lot of sense on their own, and I typically include lots of little notes that amuse only me with arrows pointing to things and such. But here's one that I liked on its own. It's after the medieval fashion, and features intrigue, as usual.
I also made a video sketch, which came out looking like Kurt Cobain. It was unintentional, and I didn't realize it until it was done, thinking instead that I was drawing a sad Viking. I would have uploaded the video here, but Blogger and/or my Internet connection wasn't having it. I actually like the video itself more than I like the drawing, which is kind of meh.
Kurt Cobain would have made an excellent sad Viking.
In other news, I went to a farm the other day and farms are very good for artistic inspiration. Lots of homey things, and fields and fat birds. I have some sketches drawn up for possible future paintings. Hurray!
Finally an oil painting!
This is Big Wind, which is actually the title of a song by Myshkin's Ruby Warblers (but that is not, sadly, up on YouTube), but it seemed apt for this painting. It's oil and collage (dyed leaf skeletons) on fabric and is the first of a subseries within the Home series. This subseries, "Storm Country", is based on the Little Apocalypse monotype series, specifically on one print bearing the same name.
The idea is the decay of Americana, and the future of what was once the promised land. The three paintings star two exterminators, who I've been calling Sarah and Miranda without knowing which is which, who live in a blighted landscape of severe weather and the fossils of the homesteaders who went before them. Here's one of them taking daily meteorological measurements, gauging the day's weather. The thermometer/barometer set-up, the pinwheels, the sunflower and birdhouse are taken directly from the print. The whirligig, next to the pinwheels, is modeled on one I saw on Antiques Roadshow one time.
Appropriately, it is raining violently and occasionally hailing as I write this.
Welly, welly well, it's been a while. That's okay though, because that means I have a job and can't sit around on my computer all day.
It also means I've been shamefully remiss about painting, though things are under way and I'm hoping to complete them before the sun becomes a red giant and swallows the earth. (Although at that point, who cares?) I haven't even really been doing any watercolors, having been feeling rather uninspired lately. Here, however, are some pieces I put on my deviantART account but not here.
Up first is a group shot of me and most of my alter-egos. One more came out of the woodwork after this picture was completed, but you'll get to meet her soon. From left to right is an exterminator, a skullhead (a sugar skullhead, to be precise), me, a skullhoodie, and a surgeon.
Next is Beast Boy and his new necklace, because even Beast Boys need to feel pretty sometimes. I really enjoy painting teeth like that.
Both were done with the usual mix of watercolors, watercolor pencils, gouache, ink and colored pencil.
so here they are.
