2012

My apologies if this is all over the map. It's just some of my hopes and fears for the future.

2011 was gone in the blink of an eye.  I hope 2012 doesn't go that fast especially if it's the last year of our existence.  I don't really think that's the case.  I do hope things drastically change for the better.

  As we usher in another year I find myself in the usual predicament...am I going in the right direction with my art?  Do I want to change my style, even what medium I use?  Usually when I try this it's a major waste of time and I go back to what I was doing before.

  Isn't that what we do as artist?  Isn't that how we grow?  It sure doesn't feel like it most of the time.  It seems like 1% of experimentation is fruitful.  Is it worth it to try new things when the success rate is so low.  I guess it is...for some of us anyway, but how will we know if we don't try.

  We have to take that shot.  Where would we be if Picasso or Pollock hadn't?  My art doesn't look anything like theirs but they are some of my biggest inspiration.

  When I was younger it seemed like no matter what my mood was it only enhanced my work.  Anger made my work more powerful and dark.  Boredom made me more creative.  That's not the case anymore.  Now I can only seem to paint when I'm somewhat happy or content.  Part of my problem is the internet.  We didn't have it when I was younger.  When there was nothing else to do I either drew, read comic books, or watched TV and I didn't watch much because we only had 3 channels.  Star Trek reruns and Saturday morning cartoons were all I watched so not a lot of TV.  Now it's too easy when I get home from work to open up the laptop with the intention of being on 30 minutes or so then working on my art.  30 minutes turns in hours then I'm too tired to do anything else.  I guess my New Years resolution should have been more self control.

What if the Net or maybe even the Grid went down in 2012?  It would suck but it would release a lot of us from it's grip to pursue what we was meant for if there wasn't roving packs of maniacs trying to kill us.  I'm an information freak and the internet is just too convenient for me.  I used to go to the dictionary, encyclopedia, book store, or library, now I can do it even better without having to get out of bed.  Kind of cool but kind of sad.  

You've probably heard that everything has been done.  Surely not, but there really hasn't been anything that unique done with art in 50 or so years in my opinion.  Could that be a sign, an omen? Maybe the big change would be a new Renaissance of art, a new beginning among other things. I don't know, wishful thinking I guess.

Let's look to the future with hope instead of dread. Instead of looking at it negativity let's look at it with positivity.

Street Art

I've recently become interested in Street Art specifically Wheat Pasting.  For those that don't know that's where you draw or paint usually on thin paper at your home or studio then take it to the site and paste it to the surface with a 50/50 mixture of wheat and water.  One of my favorite Wheat Pasting artist is Swoon.  

She has a very recognizable style.  I'm partial to her newspaper work because I used to paint on it but instead of pasting mine to a wall I mounted mine on Masonite panels and instead of wheat paste I used acrylic gloss medium.  I like when the print shows through the work.

I would love to try this sometime for the exposure but would probably be too nervous of getting caught unless I had permission to do so.  It's kind of a shame though the closest thing to street art here is "F**k You" spray painted ever once and awhile under the bridge or on some abandond building.  It's a small southern town and pretty closed minded.  I don't know what the law is here covering graffiti but as backward as this place I wouldn't be surprised if it was the electric chair or public hanging.


I would be interested in hearing your story if your from a small town and are a street artist.

Merry Artmas

Today is my day off and I sit here wondering what to paint or draw.  The local quarterly Art Walk was the beginning of this month and was kind of a bust in my opinion.  It's not so much that I didn't make a sale but that the Christmas Art Walks are usually the busiest and it was one of the worst turnouts I remember seeing.  We had a record amount of artists showing just not that many people coming in to look.  Anyway, I did get a couple of invitations to show my work at other businesses.  One of them I will not have the time to do and the other I need to check out before I make any decisions.


Update (a few days later)....things have come to light since I started this.  The other contact seems to be somewhat unstable so I wont be messing with it.  Artists are known for being crazy but in my experience people wanting to represent artist are just as crazy if not more so.  Oh well, other opportunities will come.  

Merry Christmas.

What happened to the the Super Artist?

It doesn't seem that art or the artists producing it is near as popular as they used to be.  I mean we have famous artists these days that few have heard of but no superstar artists like there used to be.  Look back to the 50's when Picasso, Pollock, de Kooning, and many others were the famous artist, just as big as the movie stars of the time.  They appeared in Life Magazine and the front page of the newspapers, were mentioned on the evening news.  I even saw a clip of Salvador Dali on a game show.  

It was a time when almost everybody heard of these people.  Look at today's most well known artists.

The top living artists as of June 8th 2009

Jasper Johns

Bruce Nauman, Lucian Freud, Richard Serra, David Hockney, Cy Twombly, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Tracy Emin, and Damien Hirst

Unfortunately Lucian Freud died since this list was compiled.  I bet if you ask the average non-artist who any of these people are they wouldn't have any idea yet 50 or 60 years ago most people would probably know who the top three were of that time.  Try it.  Ask random people who Jasper Johns is.

You hear even less about pieces of art than you do about the artist themselves.  The only times you seem to hear about a painting by people that aren't into art is when someone does a highly controversial piece.  I like a good controversial work of art but not when it's done just for the sake of getting attention.  It should say something more than just "look at me".  Where are today's Guernicas, the Screams, and Starry Nights?

With the internet you would think that art would be even more popular but it's not.  Is the information super highway helping art, distracting from it, or not having any effect at all?  I'm able to connect with other artists all over the world that I wouldn't have been able to many years ago but does the average person not think about art as much?  It seems that way.

Maybe I'm wrong about this.  I live in a small town and cultural dead zone.  Let me know if I'm wrong.

Like a Phoenix Rising from the Ashes

It's amazing how much you can forget over a short amount of time if you're not careful, especially so with art.  Part of the reason I got into a rut with my painting was because instead of experimenting I fell into a groove that I became comfortable with.  Without realizing it I eventually became bored with it.  I've been working on a commission off and on for the past four months, becoming more and more bored with each session.  It hit me what I've been missing for so long, it wasn't a challenge and therefore not inspiring me anymore.  Like I said in an earlier blog 2007 was my best year for painting.  I was on an adventure with my art that I eventually fell out of.  Yesterday I rediscovered what I had been missing.  It almost felt like I'd been reborn.  I'm at work right now and I can't wait to get home and get back to work on it.  It's been along time since I looked forward to working on a piece instead of dreading it.  It feels great.  The person I'm doing this commission for is probably wondering if I'm ever going to finish it.  It will be soon now.  Even if they decide they don't want it it will still be worth it just for the artistic rebirth I've experienced with it.  I've discovered that the longer you don't paint or experiment may cause you to forget things and bury them with repetition and useless information making it harder to recover them when you start painting again.  The artistic path is filled with many pitfalls but the few moments of insight are bliss and well worth it.  I feel like a Phoenix rising from the Ashes.

Alex Schaefer's "Bank on Fire" Paintings.

Alex Schaefer's bank on fire work heats up art world  http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=50457

I'm really excited for this guy and like the meaning behind his paintings.  I'm not familar with him except for what I've learned from this article but from what I gather he's planning on doing a lot more of the burnning paintings.  I hope he means a series of them and not to just paint banks and other buildings on fire for the rest of his career.  It's sad when an artist finds something that's popular and sticks with it for the sake of sales instead of experimenting, trying new things, and moving on.

I like his work.  He doesn't get bogged down with too much detail and uses what looks like the perfect amount of texture.

I look forward to seeing what this artist paints in the future.  Best of luck Alex Schaefer.

   

a Painting in Progress

Here's a peek at my creative process

for the media, by the media

Acrylic on panel

48" x 48"