Summer Fun
Walking from the nice air-conditioning of your home or business into the desert heat will make you think the flesh is melting off your face. As soon as you open the door you get hit with a blast of heat that is reminiscent of opening an oven door. Add a breeze to the mix and it’s like you’ve been hit by a blast from a furnace.
Absolutely none of the above was going thru my mind as I painted “Summer Breeze”. I just wanted to have some fun with color and chose this mask for no particular reason. For my color scheme I decided to use the analogous yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green for the first time in years. This was coming across a bit too ‘cool’, so I added yellow-orange to warm things up. To me these colors helped to make this hideous Halloween mask a little friendlier.
I wanted the name for this to be fairly innocuous, with no political, sociological or psychological undertones. So, after many hours of writing down and then eliminating names “Summer Breeze” came to mind and I decided that was about as harmless a name as I’d find. An interesting side note: Some of you may have already noticed that I’d used this mask as a model a few months ago and titled it “Sweet Tooth”. Once I posted “Summer Breeze” on my website I realized they are now side by side - since my gallery is alphabetical. Somehow that just seems right…
Summer Breeze - 30″x24″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 6-27-09
Stormy By Nature
My Greek gods and goddesses series has been in need of a Poseidon, but I was waiting for the right mask to come along. Recently I came upon a door knocker that had a stylized little bronze mask incorporated into its design. After experimenting with several designs, it finally registered to me that this could be my Poseidon. Since in Greek mythology Poseidon always ran hot and cold, I wanted his image to reflect this in my color choices. So, one side of his face reflects red light and the other blue. To balance this I decided on a triad color scheme and used lower intensity yellow in the background. I like how all the elements in this composition push your eyes to his stern yet pouty lip, which reflects the way I’ve always interpreted his temperament.
I started ”Poseidon” using only my palette knife, but about half way thru decided to start using a brush to accentuate some of the details. I also used the brush to smooth out the strokes in the background, giving it a softer, blurrier look which helped to push it back - especially behind the eyes.
Poseidon - 10″x8″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 6-21-09
Curtain Call
After lighting this one from below with an intense light source, I wanted to create a ‘reason’ for this light. What better than a cloudy sky with the sun trying to explode thru? I then flipped the sky and made it appear that the mask was above the sky and looking down, giving the mask an almost supernatural feel.
My son, Eric, picked up on that supernatural feeling and wanted me to call this one Alpha and Omega. But, my wife, Laura, did not want me to (in her words), “put a face on God”. Her take on it was more hollywood, or someone on a stage in the limelight. So I settled on a title that I felt was a perfect compromise and yet has a really cool abstract nature to it.
An interesting side note: I see this painting as happy and friendly, but my daughter, Christina (10), says “this one is scary and evil” (thankfully, no nightmares…). I absolutely LOVE how everyone takes something different from each of my paintings. It’s like these masks each have a life of their own and speak to each person in a totally unique way.
Curtain Call - 30″x24″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 6-13-09
Just a Rant
OK, I’m sitting here trying to come up with an exhibition guideline to justify getting an individual art exhibit opportunity in a local gallery and everything I come up with just sounds like so much bulls**t. To top it off I just got my 10th straight rejection letter/email from a juried show and I’m feeling a tad frustrated. What made the rejection even juicier was the coldest, most insensitive rejection email I’ve ever received.
Early this year I got accepted into 3 shows in fairly quick succession and was feeling pretty good about my work. Since then it’s been bam!, bam!, bam!, bam!, bam!, bam!, bam!, bam!, bam!, bam! and I’m feeling just a bit punch-drunk. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really proud of the work I’m doing and will continue to do it because it feels right. But, how do I get it to punch thru? And, how do I put into words what I do as a whole? Describing individual pieces as I finish them is relatively easy. It’s the overall synopsis which blows my circuits. To be honest, I really just want to paint and blow all this other crap off, but I know it’s a necessary part of trying to get my artwork ‘out there’.
OK, I got that out of my system and I actually feel better now. I leave you with the 3 paintings most recently rejected:
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- Now I'm Free
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- Stormy Monday
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- Cult of Personality
I realized after I posted this that one of the rejected paintings above - “Cult of Personality” - was actually accepted into a juried show earlier this year. A bit ironic, wouldn’t you say?
Over the Rainbow
“We’re not in Kansas anymore” is what my wife, Laura, said as soon as she saw the early stages of my most recent painting. Without realizing it she had given me my title. Of course, I didn’t tell her what it would be until it was finished.
I had been working on the concept for this painting for a while, but had not come upon the right mask until I got an email recently from my online art buddy, Renuka Pillai. She had just been to the Fowler Museum at UCLA and taken several shots of masks they have on display there. Thankfully, she thought of me and passed her photos along. This one jumped out at me and I knew immediately I had found the mask to finish this composition. I’m not sure what country this mask comes from originally and would welcome anyone’s insight.
As you can see, I’ve once again opened up the dialogue about man’s impact on our environment. It’s just a little statement about cause and effect… Didn’t Newton say something about for every action there being an equal and opposite reaction? Just sayin’…
Over the Rainbow - 24″x36″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 6-3-09
Campfire Shenanigans
Remember when you were a kid out camping with your buddies and/or your family how it never failed…someone would decide they needed to tell some ghost stories? They would begin each story in a soft whisper that made everyone lean in to hear. There was something about the flicker of the flames reflected on the storyteller’s face that lent a creedence to the far out and scary stories they would tell. A good storyteller would always build the story to a point where any sudden noise - even just a knot popping in the campfire would cause everyone to jump out of their skins. Of course, then sleep was totally out of the question…
These good times came to mind as I painted “Ghost Stories”. The mask used in this painting is of a very small Geisha mask that my brother, Duane, picked up for me while on shore leave in Japan back in the mid ’90’s. I had started several compositions with her over the past couple years but it wasn’t until I lit her strongly from below that anything ever gelled for me. Of course, I had to take liberties with her color scheme, but would you expect anything less? Also, for the first time in several months I used only a brush with which to paint. The palette knife never touched this one’s surface. I hope you enjoy…
Ghost Stories - 10″x8″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 5-24-09
For those interested, here is the original Geisha mask next to a 12″ ruler.
Birthright
Recently my brother, David, emailed me some photos of masks he had seen at a flea market. One of them was a creepy ‘china doll’ mask with a blue gem teardrop. Once I cropped in tight on the photo the creepy factor was replaced by an innocent childlike look. Immediately I started to ponder what would make this ‘child’ so sad. Then I realized that poor child was coming up in a troublesome time and would be inheriting quite a mess. Next thing I knew I had the world aflame…To engage the viewer in this dialogue I decided to include eyes for the first time in one of my mask paintings. I’m really excited with how those eyes draw you into the composition. I’d love to hear your thoughts…
Birthright - 24″x30″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 5-18-09
Brain Freeze
Have you ever been enjoying an Icee or Sno Cone on a hot summer day and drank/ate it a bit too fast? BANG! It hits you… Brain Freeze! For the next few moments you’re like “OW!”. And, then it passes, so you go back to drinking/eating your refreshing treat, until BANG! it hits again. Oh the joys of summer.
This mask came to me via email from my online art buddy Patricia Arroyo. We met thru artscuttlebutt.com a few months ago and she sent me several photos of masks she has on display around her house. This is the second of her masks to make it to canvas. Thank you Patty!
The base coat for this one was a vibrant green which I textured on with my palette knife and modeling paste. To get the stippling texture I patted the knife up and down across the canvas while it was still wet. I then applied my composition using the palette knife over the dried base coat which shows thru in several areas.
I must give my 15-year-old son, Eric, credit for helping me come up with the title. I asked him what he thought of when he looked at it and he said “The tongue reminds me of when Sis (Christina -age 10) has been eating candy”. That got me to thinking about what else besides candy can turn one’s tongue blue and came up with Sno Cones and Icee’s. Once I said, “what about ‘Brain Freeze’?” the whole family decided that this painting had its name.
Brain Freeze - 24″x30″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 5/9/09
High on Life (Or is it Acrylic Fumes?)
When so much is going on around us that we’re not sure what to do, it’s up to us to find ourselves a ‘happy place’ where we can get away from it all. Painting has been that place for me. But, recently I had allowed stress and worry to enter into my painting time and suddenly it wasn’t fun anymore. My previous painting became a chore and I started worrying that I’d reached some sort of impass. I didn’t even want to start on the next one!!! So, after a couple days of feeling sorry for myself and putting off getting the paints out I CHOSE to paint anyway. I’m glad I did. I was able to break free of those doubts and fears. I was able to recapture the fun and wonder of creating something new.
For this one I chose a Venetian mask which had built-in ceramic ‘waves’ of fabric. I put this over a sky of my favorite time of day - when the sun is going down and God’s palette is at it’s most dynamic and vivid. This combination gave me a sense of a floating on a light breeze without a care in the world. As I was painting, the song “What You Want” by Audioslave came on. The chorus ‘Now I’m free from what you want’ spoke to me and the title of this piece was born.
“Now I’m Free”. It is my new mantra and my latest painting.
Now I’m Free - 24″x30″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 5-2-09
A Fine Mess
So, what’s the state of our environment? What’s the state of our economy? Can we trust our leadership? If I’m not politically correct does that make me evil? Well, to put it mildly, it’s a fine mess we’re in. These were the thoughts I was having as I designed this composition. The dead tree, the stormy clouds, the angst-laden expression of the mask and the color palette were chosen to illustrate these thoughts which became amplified as I tried unsuccessfully to put my vision to the canvas. So, the title I chose is indicative of all of the above - but especially the painting. Maybe I’m just too close to it right now, but I finally just felt it was time to call it done and move on.
And, on that positive note, I give you “A Fine Mess”. Once again I used only the palette knife. The intricate carvings in the mask gave me fits at times, but I chose to stick with the palette knife all the way to completion.
A Fine Mess - 24″x36″ - Acrylic on Canvas - Completed 4-24-09