Hey- facebook wouldn't let me upload more images to my albums, inexplicably! I don't understand it...

In any event, here's some of my stuff from the past couple of days.

I should have a statement, soon. I'm still thinking about my work and my opinion of it, as well as taking into account how that opinion has changed over time. There are elements of mystery for me with my work, where I'm either not entirely sure of some of the things that I do or am altogether doubtful of whether I'm doing x thing for y reason, if that makes any sense. Thankfully, I'm starting to work most of that out, and I'm starting to realize some of the tendencies I have with painting and where I can categorize those - whether they be legitimate and intensive or floppy and uninspired.

I can say this: I feel like I'm using the trends in my work now more to allow for this seamless progression of symbols and personal "fads" I guess you could call them. I feel like there's more of a focus now on systematic applications of paint and systematic adherence to either typical compositions or atypical compositions. I'm also dealing a lot with random lines of colors, but that's fairly obvious, I guess...

There's also a piece in this batch that I'm fairly confident owners of corgis, specifically, would find interesting!

The process continues!

We have a new president!


Take care,

Andrew

New work -- 7January, 2009

Just a brief uploading of paintings.

I feel really great about this especially new work. I feel like I'm painting a lot more than I used to, if that translates well enough. I feel like I'm cutting the binding threads on a lot of the conventions in my work that typically lent to itself. I like my work lending to itself, to a certain point. I feel like it allows for a certain kind of evolution within the work, but I don't like when it stagnates, basically. That makes me feel like I'm being lazy with it, and painting is my least favorite thing to feel lazy with.

I'm experimenting with a Pthalo blue, too, I should add. I've basically stuck to various kinds of cobalts and ceruleans. So, the change is refreshing. Mixing the blues is awesome, and mixing Pthalo with white is pretty electrifying. We'll see how I feel about it, ultimately.

I also have some irridescents that I'm playing with, but I don't have any of that up to any confident speed. On that note, I should also say that found some incredible leafing pigment. It's almost invariably toxic, and potentially full of lead. I'm extremely hesitant to use any of it, and I think it needs an oil medium, anyways.

Here's the work! I still have to work out my thoughts on the figures, but I really like them. I use this stupid, white outline, and then fill in the blanks with this kind of sloppy rendering. I'm more interested in applying something so complicated on the horizons I've kept empty for a while. It's pretty liberating...

New work -- 4 January, 2009

2009, already? Yipes!

With that realized, though, I've started trying some new things with some of the old things with my work.

After my recent, small show, I started getting the feeling that I'm gearing up to, in some form, work "larger" - whatever that means for my work. I might take it to larger surfaces, larger schemes and complexities, more generalized or specific themes, etc. or just a huge combination of everything. I'm starting to break from my norms of application. Now, I really want to start exploring with my concepts - maybe start exploring with NO concepts.

All of that really ties in with what I want to do with my work, ultimately, for the time being, which is a difficult enough thing to deliberate, on it's own. What's my motivation? - etc.

Also, for anyone who missed the announcement in December-- ANDREWMARATHAS.COM

Which reminds me! I'm also refining my statement. I truthfully loathe the one that I've put up as a placeholder, but, at the same time, I'm still, as I said, trying to work through why I do the work that I do. What are my motivations, now? I know what they used to be, but it's important for me, as most of you know pretty well, to constantly scrutinize the "why"s.

In any case, let me know what you think about this newer stuff. I should mention that I've decided to use this blog as a messy depot for all kinds of images of my work - the finished scans, the "I made this", handheld pieces, etc. etc. I think it gives a more full impression of the whole thing.

I should also advise to click the images for a larger version, as some of the extreme verticals are nearly impossible to accommodate in blog format. The files themselves are big.


Take care,

Andrew

Hi!

Admittedly, I've been pretty lax about updating everyone with how things are progressing,...

...but they're progressing well!

Expect an official, aptly-named website!

For your excitement:
andrewmarathas.com

***

In any case, here are some of the things I've been working on. I'm hunkered down in a basement, playing around with different things and working at vastly different scales. The large fish number is about 2.5x4 feet, if you can believe it.

I'm more or less painting, while at the same time working on tying my site together. It's proving to be pretty cumbersome a process - in a good way! Basically, I'll be working on the site - specifically, the gallery sections - and I'll be inspired with a new idea from my paintings or other artists' websites or anything really, and I'll want to bring it all back to square-one - either that or I'll just start painting too much, and some of my older stuff starts to drift off as being irrelevant. I don't think it's irrelevant, really.

Anyways, here it is:










Take care,

Andrew

So, here is more flash work I've been setting up as samples for curious kids.

The process of sitting and drawing with a tablet is fun, and it's great for working around with color with a strange sort of throwaway feeling to it (in the sense that, if I don't like it, I can get rid of it easily enough).

I miss painting with this frequency, though.

More to come...


Take care,

Andrew