art gift

What do you give someone who might just have most of what they want? Something they cant readily buy..and thankfully I can make things that have personal value to people...especially when I put in portraits of their loved ones.

My friend Ben (I dont think he spends much time online and doesnt read blogs! Otherwise Im sunk!!) turns...ahem...well lets put it this way..its a milestone birthday. He is having a small get together which will mean his and his wife's cooking (divine) and a lot of good conversation.

Ive been working on a picture for him for some time now... its been slow going because it was interrupted by other things I was doing, but as time neared, I took a few days and tried to work on it exclusively. Now its done and I  am rather happy with the outcome. Lets hope he likes it.

It felt really good making it.

lots of art and not enough posting!

Sorry for the silence...remiss of me.

My friend Ben is reaching an age milestone and I am making him something. He has always been very complimentary about my work and I wanted to give him something that would be only for him.

This is a piece about 14 inches square, it has two doors that open to reveal drawings of his wife and children. Its all made of wood and painted to look like rusty metal.

Meanwhile work on other pieces continues and the local museum and art gallery is interested in doing an exhibition of my serious box works...I only have to make 17 more of them. The curator wants to work with me to develop the theme and ensure it is a coherent concept. Something to work towards!

wheel art icons

Taking a detour today and attending to some other matters like doing up a series of icons which will be cut from vinyl and stuck to the deep dish carbon Edge racing wheels my son bought.

I started with little pictures my sons drew as children and worked them from there. They will be cut from reflective red vinyl like the stuff they use on road safety warning signs and should show up well against the gray carbon surfaces of the wheels.

Fun detour.

handy gadget

This is purposely in a provocative tone...OBVIOUSLY! So many are taken for granted and so many allow themselves to be taken for granted and never awaken from the nightmare.

This image is homage and humorage to this wonderful subject (the last has not been written on this topic either!)

So far a sketch and some ink and trying to see where it is going. Early days yet.

No you wont find this handy gadget in stores or online anytime soon !

the Eyes have it!

I was working on the eye series and got sidetracked by an idea which led to this piece...an adaptation of the eye I was working on. (isnt the ease of digital fun?)

No eyes were hurt or distressed in the making of this image.

Someone to watch over....

Back at the machine again and making an image of a series of eyes as though they were a collection of butterflies in a box, captured on small scraps of paper, the kinds of scraps one finds lying around or beneath the seat of a car when you clean it for the first time in years.

Fun just concentrating on an eye, although there will be a few in a row.

tattoo monster

Its done. I glazed it and did al the last little touches... Now to find a small truck to take it downtown. Lets hope the wind dies down otherwise the painting might end up 200 miles east of here.

Ive been experimenting with rust made by using iron powder and then using chemicals to make it rust. It gives beautiful orange rust....

On another note, the 3 artworks I sent to a gallery in Montreal are on their way back...UNSOLD. The gallery has been less than supportive...seems they charge money to hang the work on their walls and make money by getting artists to hire wall space rather than selling art. Deplorable. They have provided no feedback about any interest expressed or any comments. Huh!

Live and learn.

tattoo parlour picture

A nice local tattoo place opened recently and has bare walls. I had some inkage done there and the guy was very accommodating with his rates.As thank you and some local exposure I decided to make a suitable tattoo place picture. The canvas is about 7 ft by 4 ft.

I wanted to make something that wasnt only dark and horriffic. I  of borrowed a bit from Francis Bacon . I thought to make the monster say something visual and  incongruous. I had a paisley design done there, so thought that a colourful pattern might be a surprising image to have come from the maw of such a monster.

Its a fun piece to be doing and a change from the usual.

Now I have given it a clear coat and will glaze over that to add some depth.

Should be done by tomorrow.

black and rembrandt

Here is the final version of the RPG image. I think because one wants to put in so much, there is the danger of over thinking it and trying to do too much. I think I managed to call a halt to it all in time.

I have an old, large canvas that has been doing nothing...pulled it out yesterday and gave it a coat of black primer... and just started working on it with only a vague notion of where it is going. I want to give it to a local guy who runs a tattoo place. The walls are pretty bare and Im making something I hope will be suitable for a tattoo shop.

Other than that, the garden awaits expectantly... the grass is growing and needs its first mow of the season. I have a few other domestic things to take care of before I get to play on the canvas again. I imagine I'll be in a hurry to get through the chores!

Ji Art

I mean...dare one say it like this? The whole notion of a play on words has become such an incendiary issue... but what else would a holy war for Art be called? Other than Ji Art?

No matter if ons is a committed pacifist or not...Im sure everyone occasionally feels the slightly violent urge to throw something.... so that gets amplified and the next thing it escalates into a larger event... and you are shooting a pen at your paper!

The pen truly is mightier than the sword... especially when swords are so old fashioned and you can draw a small thermonuclear device with a few strokes of a pen! You could even draw a Death Star! (and we all know how deadly those can be!)

So how else does one make an image as self promotional work without the required self parody and the tongue in cheek humour without resorting to something like this?

Its also quite amazingly difficult. The image sort of becomes an investment of everything you want to say and show and you have to guard against over doing it.

Ive created two versions, the first went with colour and I felt it had become too overly sweet and pretty with the rich colour and have since gone back to an earlier version and worked it more in black and almost no colour. Im still a little conflicted, although my first instinct goes with the less colourful version.