gettin my love on

At the 5th Annual Portland Loveshow.

This year I submitted the painting I did for my Nana after she passed away in 2008.

I posted a blog about it when I finished it last year, which can be read here.

It took me a long time to be ready to paint it, when my granpa died the year before the painting came fast, this one was slower, needing more time to sit and be nurtured - which seems so very fitting for a person who was always there with a hug or a kind word or a batch of cookies.

Elegy: for Nana, with Love
Oil on Canvas
36"x48"
2009

Show details:
For the 3rd year, I'm participating in the love show. I haven't been quite on top of getting the word out, but there's something like 350 artists participating, so I'm guessing it will be a crazy fun filled opening and you should come.

Opening Reception

February 12th, 2010

Olympic Mills Commerce Center

7pm-12am

Free! All-Ages!

Olympic Mills
107 SE Washington Street,
Portland, OR 97214

sometimes I love my job

Its winter in Portland, which means lots of gray, rainy days where there's no real light. Its hard to get motivated to leave the apartment, and get to the studio. So I'm a bit behind in posting here. Today there was blue skies and I loaded the dog in the car and drove to the coast to get inspired. I walked the beach at Gearhart and found the boatyard in Astoria and took lots of reference pictures. I'm in that creative place that is hard to document. It involves a lot of thinking. Work has started on another large painting, re-invigorated with salty air and a little bit of sunshine I plan to have more finished images to post soon.

140 sewn paintchips

As I've been working on both the sewn paintchip project and the silverpoint drawings, I've slowly realized that they're part of the same body of work. I've got the first draft of an artist statement started (see bottom of post). 140 seems like the right number of paintchips for now. I've got about 20 more finished (some repeats), and for as much as I'd like to have all 350. The paintchips I've been using are no longer available at Lowe's. So, for now at least the paintchip project is at a pause. I've still got some for sale at etsy.

nested: paintchips

variable dimensions aprox. 40"x45" as shown
2008-2009
thread, paper

nested: paintchips (detail)

variable dimensions aprox. 40"x45" as shown
2008-2009
thread, paper

Artist Statement:

I am inspired by the tension found in the convergence of new technologies and traditional art making techniques.

I've long been interested in how information is visualized - data mapping, cartography and infographics have been sources of inspiration. This body of work is an exploration into the ways in which identity is formed and changed by the convergence of new technologies (such as social networking), the natural environment, and relationships. I am fascinated by the ways Internet and social networking have transformed the ways which people communicate both on & offline. This transformation leaves me nostalgic and drawn to making art that is labor intensive in mediums such as hand sewing and silverpoint.

With the silverpoint, I am drawn both to the quality of the mark and the history of this method of drawing. These large scale silverpoint drawings, through their use of intersecting fingerprint-like shapes, explore the relationship between the unique and the group. The clustered nature of these drawings also evoke the networks, or clusters found both online and in nature. The individual shapes in these works are reminiscent of repetitive ovular shapes frequently found in "natural" organic forms such as fingerprints, tree rings, and mussel shells.

This idea is also explored through a series of hand sewn paintchips. Each paintchip features sewn concentric circles that call to mind nests and serve as a metaphor for the idea of home; exploring the nature of home and identity and how this is formed and informed by relationships and environment. I am particularly interested in the ways in which identity can vary between mediums such as the difference between one's online persona and identity in person or at work for example.

Both the silverpoint drawings and sewn paintchips also explore the relationship between the individual and group through the use of unique multiples. The groupings suggest the ways in which people are both part of many different yet intersecting groups, and the ways in which we seem to naturally form attachments and groups with people or things that can be both alike and yet different from ourselves. This phenomena can be observed in the natural environment but is now also evident when viewing online groups and has become more apparent as sites like Twitter and Facebook have expanded the ways in which we form connections. There seems to be both an enlarging and narrowing aspect to this way of communicating, and this body of work grew out of my interest in this subject.

new silverpoint

Here's the hopefully finished new silverpoint drawing. The 3rd I've completed so far this size.

untitled V (silverpoint)
30"x26"
2009
silverpoint on paper

untitled V (silverpoint) (detail)

30"x26"
2009
silverpoint on paper

a new painting

I've been neglecting this blog a bit in the past month for time in the art studio. I'm working on a proposal for a show that will include the silverpoint and paintchip images, and I've finished a new painting. I'm going to do a few different posts, but here it goes.

new painting:

by land & by sea

11"x17"
2009
oil on canvas

detail views:

by land & by sea (detail 1)
11"x17"
2009
oil on canvas

by land & by sea (detail 2)
11"x17"
2009
oil on canvas

112 and counting

This week, I got back into the swing of studio time by lining paintchips up end to end on a larger wall. There are 350 different colored paintchips, and i've sewn nested shapes on just about 1/3rd of them so far. When I started, I never thought it would turn into such a large project, but I hope in the next few months to really have a wall covered in sewn paintchips, arranged in some logical way. Right now they're arranged numerically by the top stripe color. Its got some starts and stops, some fairly substantial gaps, and strangely quite a few repeats...but its an interesting way to ascribe some order to them without arranging just by color. I think its mostly working, at least as a starting point, and I'm hoping once I'm finished that there will be an interesting gradation achieved by that first striped line.

On to the pictures:

what a difference a professional makes

This morning on my way to work, I picked up my silverpoint drawings from a professional photographer. I really struggled to get the detail and correct color on my own, and really don't have the necessary camera/lighting to capture images with this much detail. Dave at Perceptual Intent however, knocked it out of the park. Its nice to finally feel like I can really share these drawings online. So, without further ado.

untitled 4(silverpoint)
silverpoint on paper, 2009
40"x26"

untitled 3(silverpoint)
silverpoint on paper, 2009
40"x26"

untitled 2(silverpoint)
silverpoint on paper, 2009
24"x18"

untitled 1(silverpoint)
silverpoint on paper, 2009
24"x18"

In related news I'll have work up in two locations for the month of October. Selected paintings from the series "heart loot: and other small stories" will be on view at the Ginger Salon (pearl district location) thru November 2nd. Also, two of the above silverpoint drawings will be included in the Marylhurst University Art Alumni Show October 17th - November 25th. Opening reception is Friday Oct. 16th from 6-9pm.