Welcome Everyone!
The best solution for presenting my work online seems to be a combination between a blog and website. Located within the website structure are various libraries of finished images as well as the appropriate texts that correspond to this work.
Scratchpad is the blog component of this site and has a different set of functions. First, it has the ability to allow insight into my working process. Scratchpad will show a little about where my images come from and where they end up in the end - some of them will not ever become Art per se. Both my visual research and the random occurances of everyday life will be included in Scratchpad.
The pairing of the blog and website should be interesting. Both are distinctive types of self-publishing with different values associated to each. I invite any questions or comments you may have.
A brief warning to sensitive viewers: The Selected Works category contains content which may be problematic for some viewers.
New Work
Sunday, July 25, 2010 at 09:22AM This is the sister image to Canary, an image I painted back in the winter. Reproducing images has always been a part of my practice, but I've never attempted something like this before. I started with a duplicate print of the one used in the first painting and tried to find a new intention for the subject matter. The reason behind Canary was to attempt a transformation from a woodpecker to a canary, and from dead to alive; I fully expected to fail. I thought I could make this version more alive, but that didn't work either. It took several days for this painting to make sense to me. I switched into black and white, I tried to pull an ethereal light out of the breast, got lost for awhile...
In the end the bird, although luminous, remained dead. And so, this overly pretty painting became about the spectacle of death. And I felt compelled to lie about the form and my intention for it.
Moth (Liar), Oil on Inkjet Print, 2010
New Work
Sunday, July 18, 2010 at 12:01PM I've been using images like this in my body of work for a couple of reasons. For one, it's a kind of play - with aesthetics, with sarcasm, repulsion and attraction. Also, it allows me to break open the imposed rules that govern a 'series' of images. The corraling of meaning into a thesis-like platform, while somewhat necessary, negates the ability of an audience; it breaks down the look-think-feel mechanism in the individual. Basically it's boring. It sounds stupid actually, but after I finish a painting like this I feel I have 'permission' to go deeper into the intense subject matter that is the real basis of my research these days. One puppy, three guns, one puppy...
Bait (Heaven) Oil on Canvas, 24" x 24", 2010
Study
Sunday, July 11, 2010 at 12:43PM I've been in the studio quite a bit this summer so far. I've got a few new pieces and plans for several more. For the last year I've been painting for deadlines but now that those have been completed I can return to a slower pace. I've begun to recognize the value of the painted study. A preliminary painting has the ability to work out the details of colour and composition. It can also contain the vitality that is needed in the finished work. Perhaps most importantly for me, it can tutor one in the ability to recognize when something is finished. This is, without a doubt, the hardest part for me.
This study is part of my series, 24 Frames, and also connects to some of the reading I'm doing regarding anti-visual philosophy. Most of those that have seen it can't get past the gore and I can't blame them really. I primarily see the tradition of still life. Mostly though, it's a painting that looks away from the viewer.
Study: Enucleation, Oil on Board, 12" x 12", 2010