art[+]work[s]

Farewell. Blerg.

A portrait of my friend Cole and his special lady friend.

(pencil + paper)

My friend (code name: Brown Bear) ran the Staten Island half marathon Sunday. So I made posters - mainly to show support but also mainly because I love making posters.

“yeah, you”

acrylic, glitter, + crazy-strong adhesive on canvas

2011

My drawing will appear in 3rd Ward’s Member Group Show tonight!

“The 3rd Ward Member Group Show is a celebration of the people who give this place its amazing energy and sense of possibility… With live music and complimentary drinks from Brooklyn Republic.”

3rd Ward, 195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn

art + music + free drinks = best math ever!

My first painting of 2011 (well, technically end of 2010, but close enough) is a portrait of my friend Dmitriy. He thought the red really “pull[ed it] together”.

Only a true comrade would think so - bam.

I am really pleased with the way this turned out, especially given the deadline acceleration the New England “snowpocalypse” blizzard caused. Being grounded in Atlanta - very far from my initial sketches in NY - made me hunker down and focus. This painting really evolved into D, a fortunate result for which I am quite grateful. (Portraits are tricky business - 1 part luck for 2 parts skill.) Due to the time crunch, I couldn’t really redo and refine sketches. There was a moment I was about to start a drawing and then said, eh, whatever, just paint already. And I did.

Bonus: D’s mug may be a “two-fer”… stay tuned.

h

Ninevah, acrylic + canvas

     “Whales, we now know, teach and learn. They scheme. They cooperate, and they grieve,” wrote Charles Siebert in his NYT Magazine article on whale watching.

     This painting, seen in a prior form here, has been a thorn in my side for the last week. There was an intermediate stage, and now this.

     I was looking at the thing and thought whale. Jonah. Pinocchio. Belly of the beast. A host of loosely allusive cliches: that whole bit. Innards. And I thought about those cartoons where some character is in a cave or large fish (or whale) and they pull some chain and the sole light bulb comes on - you know, because entrails conduct electricity. Et cetera.

     Whales are cute. Powerful, graceful, huge. The whale in this painting is boxed in, small. But still pretty cute, right? The rest of this painting is not. It’s messy and impetuous, unusual for me. I can work quickly, but rarely in that way. So, what more is there to say? Not sure. This painting is iterative, self-referential (to me, to itself). I guess, most simply, I found myself identifying with a minor prophet.

     And I’m not superstitious, but Moby Dick was the final Jeopardy! response tonight, so, ta da.