Saturday, January 28, 2012

Stanton's Garage

In the Summer of 2010, I had the pleasure to act as Set/Lighting designer for a Decatur Area Theater Association (DATA) production of "Stanton's Garage" - directed under the late Miss. Leigh Davis. It was performed in the Gateway: Morgan Theater in Oberlin, KS. We had a very small budget and had to use only paint and flats that existed. I can inform you that this set cost about $50 to produce. I am afraid I only have a couple pictures, as my other's have gone MIA. Tragically, the photos of most of my set work has vanished. As that is... indulge.


Friday, January 20, 2012

A Tree

Yes, a tree. I was recently commissioned, let's be honest... asked, to build a changing tree for my church, as a visual aid to the pastor's sermon set. I was of course ecstatic at the opportunity. The tree is made out of rusty chicken wire, scrap wood, old sketches that I couldn't stand, leftover paint and napkins. I should have taken a picture of the various stages of the tree's development, but tragically I didn't. I do have some process shots as well as the final stage of it's development.


This is the skeleton of the tree, and yes it is hard to see among the myriad of books and odds and ends I have in my room. What can I say? I'm an artist!


This is after the wire was attached and the initial layer of paper mache was being applied.


Here the texture paper mache coat is being added to tree.


This is after the initial painting and the napkin "leaves" were added. You can see that the tree stands a little over 3 feet tall and is about 7 feet across. Yes, I am thrilled as you can see. Have you ever heard of building a ship in a basement, and the problems that can occur? Well, that is the story of my life.


This is the final stage of the tree's development. The death and resurection of Christ opening the door to our future lives as a heavenly family. This was very visully powerful because for the last few weeks the tree would be loosing leaves, down to it's barest twigs and would even be shrouded with black cloth. To end so suddenly with such a burst of color and joy was, well, hopefully meaningful. The project was incredible fun!

Illuminated Manuscripts

At one point in my career, I became infatuated with illuminated manuscripts. And although I loved the inherent religious implications and symbolism with said manuscripts; I twisted them a bit and added some tarot symbolism to my own versions of illuminated manuscripts. If you were unaware,which I wasn't for quite a while; illuminated manuscripts were not only made for beauty, but rather as teaching instruments to those who could not read. On that same note, tarot cards use pictures to help us better grasp some possible universal meanings from the conversations surrounding a tarot reading. I thought that these two things formed a happy union. Unfortunately, I can't quite recall the stories and morals I was implying while creating these sketches.


Pen, watercolor, ink on sketch paper. I really wasn't too impressed with the coloring. In fact it quite offended me. Live and learn.


Pen, watercolor, ink on sketch paper. You can see that this one has a bunch on hatch marks, representing words that you can't read. This would force you to interpret the images alone.


Pen on sketch paper. I was very pleased with this one. So pleased in fact that I was terrified of finishing it for fear of ruining it. This piece makes me wish I had studied printmaking. I feel it would be rather successful as such.

Regarding 2010 Post of Graphic Novels - "Insurrection"

Earlier (back in 2010) I stated that I had begun work on a graphic novel. The name of it was "Insurrection" by Adam Spanier. In the end I would become overwhelmed with the project and abandon it. Below are a sampling of images from the concept stage.


This is a partial rendering of the head corporate conglomerate hive. Pen on sketch paper.


A page from the graphic novel to be.


Yet one more page. Both of these are quickly sketched in pencil on sketch paper.


A concept car for the project. Pencil on sketch paper.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

A Delicate Bit of Brain-Food

As I was reading through some articles on ArtForum, I ran across an article for Ira Sachs' "Keeping the Lights On", a short film feature to be showcased in the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He had the following to say:

"...not to be careful, not to be precious, to be messy, and not to worry too much about what your parents might think. A really important part of being an artist is trying to forget your mother, on some level."

In an interview for YouTube on behalf of Sundance he would also say the following, "Art is not a confessional."

Although this concept is not a new one, it reinforces concepts that were presented to me through my peers and professors (back in the day). Although art MUST be personal, it cannot be so private in matter that it cannot be thoroughly discussed, or objectively analyzed. I believe that this is a very real canyon in my natural art progression. Now... to build a bridge.