Merry Christmas: A little holiday humor in my head.

This post is fifty percent dedicated to my friend Kelly Bartell, because she rocks and we always used to talk about how when we were kids we were convinced that mailboxes had teeth. Obviously if you put your mail in you had to move fast so as not to get your arm eaten up to the elbow. Those boxes are some pretty hungry guys.

With that in mind and also thinking about how packages just don't seem to make it to your door, I decided to invite the Troll Bot to the party. Apparently the poor Troll Bot did not get his package due to the carnivorous nature of this guy....

There you go Kelly. Miss you and love you.

On another note, the other day I mentioned that I was going to add some birds with construction helmets to a drawing that I posted. I have indeed done that and started the under painting as well. And so, I share......

Have a Merry Christmas everybody.

Beware the Troll Bot!

Life can sometimes start to travel along so fast and you forget about why you're here, or what you're doing. It's times like these that I find myself truly grateful for Beth. She helps me remember and she helps me stay honest.

Today we were hanging out, both of us hurting a little bit after a Christmas Party that was a little too wild for either of us, and I looked at her and asked her how she was able to put up with me when I was just a whiny little kid coming fresh out of college. She told me that my sense of humor is apparently what saved me.

So tonight as I was sitting down to do a drawing quick before bed, because frankly between Xmas shopping and recovery I had zilch time for art today, I started to draw out a humorous robot. I have been so caught up with serious robots for this show, and then I stopped and thought, "what is so serious about robots with massive teeth?"...

Beware the Troll Bot....

And lesson learned, enjoy your tasks, and be true to who you are. Have a Merry Christmas.

Keep on Put-putting.....

I would like to say that I have multiple pieces in completion all ready for your viewing and that pretty much every show that I have on my plate is nearly done and all completely professionally framed and ready to go. However, that is impossible since none of that is true, but I do have some in progress work for you to view again.

I started laying the foundation for "The Feeder" and it is coming out pretty well so far. I have the robot pretty much set and all of the birds with a quick wash. Remarkably the background and foreground are in a stage that I might call near finish. It's looking good so far though. Check it out...

I'm liking it. Give me thoughts, if you dare!

I also have pulled this flying robot stereo piece nearly to finish, which is pretty cool. I have been adding to it when I need to finish up paint off of my palette. One of these days I'll post a photo of my palette. Ridiculous is probably a pretty descriptive word for it. But without further adieu.....



Hope all is well with everybody through the holidays. Be careful, avoid massive snow storms and most importantly, have a blast! To the relatives and friends who might be reading, I wish I could be with all of you.

Peace.

A Day off and a hike.

I have a day off for the first time in eight days. It is so nice. You have no idea. This morning Beth and I hiked up Rattlesnake, which was quite interesting since it was all ice and whatnot. The climb up was much easier than the sliding down. Poor Beth got her knees all mud too. I was amazed I didn't fall, especially since I started to about twenty times. I, however, retained my homo erectus power for the day. Phew.

While I was at work this past week I did manage one sketch that I thought was pretty cool, though to be honest, that and the Catcher in the Rye, which I read were the only things I really achieved this past week. Well that and I cooked a lot of food.

Here's the sketch though. I'm thinking of adding a bird with a construction helmet in the final drawing and painting..... Let me know what you think.

Coffee Works Still!

It is good to know that I am still human. For a while I was wondering if coffee would ever have its effect on me again, but now that it is two am I am sure that it actually does in fact work still. That's great. Perhaps I will have to stop drinking coffee after 11 now.

If nothing else it does give me the opportunity to post this updated under painting. It is starting to come into its own, and seems much better than it was, though at the same time still has a long way to go.

Let me know what you think.

By the way, the top of the piece is not there. I need to scan it in two pieces and since, it isn't even done, I just did the bottom 85 %. I'm digging the arms with different colors though, either way.

peace

and don't drink coffee after 11.

"The Feeder"

Yesterday I took a day off. I went Christmas shopping, I sent out paintings and Christmas cards, and I watched the Islanders get their butts whooped, but I didn't cook at the Pizza and I didn't paint or draw. It was a good day off. Hockey night is the best.

This morning I got a slow start, didn't sleep well or something, but I got up, had my coffee with Beth and moved over to the studio area as she was out the door. I had drawn a hand out the other day, that I liked, and with a sketch that I had done of a robot holding a birdhouse before, I started to work out a funky robot holding a bird feeder. The idea was to have birds flying about the feeder, but ideas like that are really starting to bore me a little bit, so I drew him holding a sack of seed, and well, you'll get the idea.....



I am quite pleased with this robot and bird combo. I am starting to hit my stride a little more on the Blue Bottle show. Thats good. Maybe I will actually have the show done early enough to actually frame everything well this time. ( Have to, actually) Still the less stress the better.

I'll be posting again very soon. I have a couple under paintings that are almost to a level that you can tell what is going on, and when they have reached that point you will see them. Til then....so long.

Sending out Christmas Cards Lewis Acrylics Style

Today I was handed the stack of Christmas cards that I had to write on, which in my head was a task that I wanted nothing to do with. This was not so much because I didn't like or want to talk to all of the people who these cards were addressed to, because frankly I did like and want to see and talk to all of these people, but Christmas card writing is time consuming and you always want to say more than you end up saying.

Unlike other years, however, I sat down with the cards the day that Beth handed them to me and started to write out my half. Trust me, when she gets home and she doesn't have to wait until the week before Christmas, she will be stoked that I am, in fact, normal. Actually, no, more that she won't have to wait for her boyfriends Christmas cheer to come out.

(The battle continues)

Anyway, I got to Michael Boston's card and I thought to myself Michael Boston needs a new painting and I have just the thing. When I was preparing for the Concord Arts Market, I was a little lackadaisical with some of the pieces that I threw together, and I never really finished this bird in the derby piece. Today I did. And I like it so much better than I did before.

Check it out......


And don't be surprised, if you are on the normal christmas card list, if you also get a little painting. Stranger things have happened......

Eye and the Universe?

Today I started to work on a piece for another Hive Gallery group show. From the original perusal of the show details, I had determined that the works were supposed to resemble some kind of drug induced feeling, but at the same time a book, "Be here now" was emphasized. Upon a little more research I found that the "Be Here Now" book was actually a guide to figuring out ones own way of enlightenment and benefiting the world. To some, I figure this could involve some drug-induced phenomenon, but perhaps not for everyone.

With the new thoughts of enlightenment in my head, I returned to a sketch that I had originally done for a book with Ivy. The sketch depicted a woman with a solar system within her chest cavity. It was kind of a reflection on the String Theory, everything infinitely big is also infinitely small principle.

I changed the character to male, because the author of the book was male, and I wanted a more haggard persona anyway, Here tis:

What do you think? This is really only the second painting of a person that I've even put up on the blog this year. Speaking of which, I wonder if that is some Freudian way of saying I have trouble with society? Something I'll definitely be looking into. I'll keep you posted.

On a completely different note, my lovely lady friend is a severe thriftstoreaholic and today she brought home a terrific find. It is now in our bathroom, and it makes me very happy. I leave you with the three innocent criminals.....

Still trying to figure out why they are all wearing pjs when it looks like they are supposed to take a bath. Must be a PC thing........

Later

The Legend of Smoking Stack and Chimney Swift

Ha, today was a good day. I finally finished what was supposed to be the first piece in my Blue Bottle show. It came together much easier than it began. I really can't explain the block that I experienced earlier this year but I am happy to say that it is finally gone and far from me.

This piece was difficult to work with because the board that I found had some mysterious substance in it that made the paint seep into the wood. I ended up priming some of the board off with vinyl paints to seal off the seepage, and then my color started to take. The vinyl paint really works great in compliment to the acrylics. They mix together very well too.

This is more of a redo than anything else, I guess. I had put together a painting like this for my show at Gallery 070 on Vashon Island, but the composition was odd (it was a tall skinny board)
and there was a weird ceramic bit on the wood that didn't take paint well at all.

The piece sold, but I wasn't very pleased with it. This one I am a little more pleased with though. I really tried to work some compliments in here and pop some parts of the work, hopefully avoiding some of the flat that comes when I make too much color happen.

On another note, I drove to Rochester, NH yesterday, where I booked what will be my third major show for 2009 at Artstream Studios. So that will make one dual show at Blue Bottle in April, a show at Artstream most likely in May or June and a final show at the Hive sometime a little later in the year. We haven't worked out the details on that one yet.

No matter how you look at it though, next year is shaping up to be big, and busy. Keep checking back. I am actually in a position now where it is a moral imperative that I keep finishing paintings and sketches.

Peace.