New Work

Ive finally been painting again. I bought some Masonite to work on, and ideas to work with, so off I go. This is the first of the recent masonite paintings...others are in the works. This was kindof an exploration in texture....fun times.

This is what I made Whitney for Valentine's Day. It is a Kurt Vonnegut Jr. quote...one that she loves, and a portrait of the man, himself. It was all made from stencils, and the spraypaint and varnish from it made me sick all week. But, she likes it, so it was worth it. 

Be good everyone, and thanks for looking!

I'm Back Mutha-Uckas!

I've just emerged from one of my worst depressions in a while, which in the scheme of things is nothing compared to what a lot of my friends deal with on a daily basis. Nihilism just doesn't feel right with me. This depression coincided with an artistic lull, and by the time I got back in the studio I felt like being more experimental. This is what happened:

"Christ Died for Your Chocolate"

here are some details:

This is a large scale (about 2 x 5 feet?)  multimedia piece consisting of acrylic, latex, bubble wrap, charcoal, chalk pastel, polyurethane, spray paint, and a milk chocolate flavored cross. This last bit seemed super sacrilegious when I saw it at the local Dollar Tree, so I bought two. Feeling blasphemous after having listened to the audio version of Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion," and watching various documentaries featuring Dawkins,  I felt like the time was right to use it. 

This is, as you may have noticed, a break from my more recent work. I think it will be to my advantage to not box myself into a "style" at 22.

The Six Thousand Dollar Painting.

It was brought to my attention during my final critique several weeks ago with two of my instructors, that instead of churning out a bunch of "$600 paintings," I should focus my energy and make a few "$6,000 paintings." While the analogy doesn't sit well with me, and the instructor apologized several times for it, he got his message across. This is the result of condensing my efforts over the course of a week into a single piece. I started last Thursday, and finished this morning. It comes in at about 60" x 24" and consists of Latex, acrylic, sharpie, spraypaint and oil on MDF Panel. And before you ask, the answer is no...this does not actually cost six grand.

Here are a couple of detail shots:

Happy Creating to Everyone!

Kevin.

New Year's Eve

I just finished a painting for a silent auction to be held at the Art Amiss NYE party. This is it. The theme of the party is "blue masquerade," so a stipulation of the painting was that it had to be (predominantly) blue. Also, it has to be 12" x 12". 

So, maybe 2008 has not been all it was supposed to be. Not everyone had a job and made a baby, but there were some good things:

-I got married

-I netted a (small) profit on my art

-I (sortof) helped elect a great presidential candidate

-I finally got to declare a major

-I got a studio

If only someone would write a prophetic song outlining all the wonderous things that will come to fruition in the next year...(That's your cue A+).

Kevin

Inchies

I made some inchies. If you didnt know, they are one inch by one inch works of art. These are all collage, and the one third from the left was scanned sideways. Take a look.

Christmas Fail

Because we are broke, we can't buy presents for people. Whitney decided to make cookies, and I was planning on doing a series of acrylic paintings with stencils of a picture of us on our wedding day. People would like that, right? 

Things I should have realized before delving in:

1. No matter how much I want this to be screenprinting, it is not.

2. To cover twenty four sheets of 18x 24 paper requires a lot of paint.

3. If a painting doesn't "look like" someone, it is a failure to most people. 

4. It is not screenprinting.

5. Drawing Paper, when covered with acrylic washes will curl like nothing else.

6. This is not screenprinting.

Several hours into the project, I realized it just  wasn't gonna work, so I bailed. I will probably use some of the stuff later, but who knows. It's the thought that counts, right?

May everyone's Xmas be merry and severely lacking in chair throwing and fighting over ham bones.

Sixteen Weeks of Satan's Spawn

Seriously, that's what it has felt like. But, this semester is done, and I am alive. All is good.

I went in for my final critique yesterday for my special project class. For a little background info, I initially proposed that for this class I would have to complete at least twelve large scale paintings. My teacher totally shot that idea down as unrealistic and lofty. For the final critique, however, I hauled in twenty-three pieces. hah....lofty, my ass. 

Here's the most recent of the work I did, it is all water based stuff on paper, some collage as well.

This is based on the character "Ivan Ilyich" from Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich." An existential crisis takes on a whole different meaning when it's being had by a seven year old girl.

Now, for the next few weeks, all I have to do is go to work twenty hours a week. This will be an epic break. 

Have good day, everyone. I know I will.