The Hardcover Plan!

Hey, Providence is great! What else can I say, really? I'm pretty easy to please, though, to be fair. All I need, conceivably, is a supply of paint, a computer with internet access, and the occasional disconnect from it all to go on a long walk to somewhere just far enough away to seem unreasonable.

Providence, for the moment, has all of these things. So, I'm happy.



I'm heading over to the local Utrecht in the morning to apply for a position there. That would be fine by me, working in an arts supply store, fielding art-related questions, being around paint and paintbrushes all the time. Yep, that's fine. I hope it works out. I'm optimistic.

Other than that, there isn't anything earth-shattering to make mention of. The city is great. I'm excited for the winter weather. I'm probably bound to get a bike or something - cheap car, maybe. Who knows?

I should mention that I have plans to put together print package for a 100(ish) page hardcover of some select works of mine from the past year, which will include a wide variety of pieces, complete with little bits of writing - all that kind of stuff. I'm pretty excited about that and the Kickstarter (kickstarter.com) effort that I'm going to throw behind that project. So, WATCH FOR IT. Contributing to the cause by pledging will undoubtedly get you original artwork, exclusive access to creepy video sessions of my paintings in process, and even some of the pieces that will show up in the book - not to mention: the actual book, if you pledge a certain amount.

In conjunction with that is a plan to release some poster-sized prints of my work.

I have a ridiculous stock of high res images of all of my work, as some of you are aware. So, I'm putting all of that to a relatively good use. Right? I think so.

Hey, that's exciting!

I also have somewhat far off plans to figure out either a graphic novel or a children's book or some kind of publication dummy. Watch for that. I suppose "vague plans" is a better way of presenting that. They might not be that far off, but they sure are flaky at the moment.

Hm.

A big move, and some work - not to mention: KC Quilty.

I haven't invested in a good post in some time. For that I apologize! Busy, busy, busy.

Most recently, I've been keeping up with a move to Providence, as well as getting work together for a Halloween Show in Boston (thanks to all who came out, and sorry to those who missed out for my not blogging about it previously). Beyond that, it's been more of the same of constant and enjoyable painting - not to mention: changing around the format and tone of this blog. Ugh, I hate that word - blog. Doesn't everyone else? Makes me want to puke.

Take a look and tell me what you think...








Here is a change of pace for you: KC Quilty (http://www.myspace.com/kcquilty") is due to release their upcoming album "Clover/Coriander". Here is some of the album art (made by yours truly).




If you like their sound and you like the artwork, jump in and contribute to the cause of getting the album out there! Check out their kickstarter, why don't you? They're close to their goal and can use your help to match and even surpass their goals. DO IT.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/473325289/kc-quilty-needs-1000-to-release-clover-coriander

That's pretty much all I have, for now. Expect more paintings in the near future. The future is unknown. The truth is out there. Here are some paintings to play the entry out:

Paintings from camp, with love!

Pressure-treated scraps, imagined landscapes, and the inevitability of the seasons shaping your work.

After a moderately long sting of working almost entirely digital, I've finally gotten back into sitting down with a pile of scraps and spending an extended period of time painting odd, imagined things of varying importance. This is good!

***

My camp stint is coming up fairly soon - in a month's time or so. Fitting camp into my year this year has been pretty arduous and full of doubts. So, I'm pretty excited and nervous for it, now that it's actually happening.

I'm pretty much spending this very hazy and undefined period before camp to get as much decent painting done as I can. After camp, my future is fairly unknown, so, I would love to come back from camp to a large body of new (and perhaps old) work that I can show. I have to make decisions about how I want to show my work, next time. I have this hesitation for continuously showing my older work. The whole thing starts feeling like a traveling expo.

BLUE YELLOW RED

Here's some of my recent digital work, which is more or less to pass the time and further steer my work around a bit as I plan for the future and get ready to leave for Connecticut in a few weeks.

The decision was not a very complicated or comprehensive a process to come to, but I've been working in what I suppose you could call a series of pieces consisting primarily of red, yellow, and blue. I really like the limitations and generally feel like this kind of paring down really gives me a clearer idea of the tendencies within my own work.

The pieces usually arrive at some kind of finish within a half hour - or fifteen minutes, even. I like how quickly they come about. I feel like there's a better kind of honesty in working these really quickly that, like the limitations of color, allow me a kind of clarity for the whole damn thing!

What do you think?

The arrival of warm weather and the continuation of painting weird stuff...

The warm weather has arrived, just in time!

I must sheepishly admit that it's been a while since my last post, which was probably at some point in January or February. I will be better about this.

I had pretty much gotten into the swing of painting so much in a short amount of time that the idea of throwing stuff up on this blog seemed, unduly, to be something that could altogether throw me off track.

I got carried away!

Sorry!

I feel like I've been taking bolder steps with my work ever since bringing my site together, in the sense that I think that I'm really pushing the bounds for my own sensibilities and likable aesthetics. I'm pretty much allowing fully this process of healthy doubt, where I overuse symbols, try out really punchy and, potentially, annoying color choices, and genuinely try to tie in some kind of personal, social commentary or cliche.

It's a complicated and oft enlightening process. At least, I'd like to think that it is!

Why it is that I feel like this bold process is due, mainly, to my site's completion is something I have yet to really solidify as an opinion, but I think it's just the overall chaos that comes from me trying to place my artwork, specifically with my website, in terms of what I want to accomplish with it.


Inherently, this kind of personal doubt for or double-take of my work has allowed me a kind of frantic freedom, almost, where I'm allowing myself in my own confusion to go crazy with color and form, not to mention the conceptual freedom. The span of time from when I first started on this path of this kind of weird, bastardized, objective-yet-not kind of painting has allowed me to take the concepts to completely interesting or completely boring levels, and I feel like this is altogether rewarding.




I'm beginning to use a more superficial stroke, lately, in the sense that I take these maybe obnoxious globs of paint and fill out areas and shapes almost forcibly, and I don't necessarily attribute that to an unknowing kind of glib tendency as much as I feel like it's the byproduct of working to figure out where my work is going, if that isn't too confusing or obvious!

I feel like my work, in general, is becoming more obvious and maybe more obnoxious than it used to be. I don't mean that as a complete negative, but I'm looking to add more control to my work. There was a time, recently, when I was just pretty much letting the work go where it wanted to, and, in a sense, the work started lending to itself a lot more and became less effected by external, new concepts and ideas.

I consider myself to be in the awkward throes of trying to add some kind of control to the approach, even if it is entirely limited. I hope that isn't too vague.

All of this is pretty much an explanation for how I'm looking to find "a place" for my work, whatever that means. I'm pretty much trying to glean some kind of rationality or reason from an otherwise unreasonable or irrational process.



In any event, I'm looking forward to this summer (who isn't??), but I have a few things that I need to decide on before I can become really excited for it - that's intentionally vague, for the sake of my decision making process!

I always feel like I produce the best stuff when it's warmer out. At least, I've come to enjoy thinking of my work in terms of seasons, especially warm seasons. So, this summer will be no different! Plus, like I said, I says: who doesn't get excited for warm weather?