I Feel More Alive than I have for a While.

When I met with my studio adviser a week ago, he suggested that I try to make things in cardboard. I am a good student. I try to do what I am told, or what is suggested to me, but really the poor man has just had to deal with me floundering for the past 2 months. First I started off with a plan that incorporated mail art, but conceptually had not thought it out at all, second I started working on trading cards and those are coming along slowly, and lastly I started working with pipe drawings on blocks of wood.

This week has been incredibly intense. I spent Monday and Tuesday going through books getting a better idea of the Fibonacci sequence, the golden section and proportions. I started to read about mail art and what it meant conceptually and I started to think about the mapping systems that we use all over the world. I went to the studio and everything seemed incredibly disparate, and even now that I am typing this and riding high on some creative emotion, it may still be disparate, but things seem clearer than they have in a long time.

Today I was looking at the block pieces that I have been working on that my professor suggests looks like a game, which frankly the only game that I think is being played is me trying to get by in grad school. Like my friend Paul suggested though, "Now it's War". Do what you want. Anyway, I am being tangential; I was looking at the blocks and started to think about my chaos pieces and how they were just constructions and I thought, "I need to make more structures". So tonight, I sawed, I hammered, and maneuvered a new piece. I am excited about it, and to feel excited about something that I've made at this point is amazing. So much criticism has occurred that I forgot what it was like to enjoy my stuff, but now I remember again.


Hopefully you like this and I am not just blowing smoke. Many who like Mike paintings like this. It takes up the entire studio floor. Oh and please, if you live near me and you are tearing down something made of wood, can I have it? Thanks.


The images are not great. I'll upload some better images when it is light outside and I don't need to use a flash. Hopefully you at least get the idea.

The other exciting thing that I have been working on is my new "Coffee with Mike" project. I am asking people all over the country to make a map to their favorite coffee shop and to then send it to me via snail mail and then I will send a drawing back in return. In fact I received my parents' maps in the mail today with a pound of coffee. Amazing. Here is my quick map.

If you are interested in the project at all you can check it out here on my flickr page. This project is not limited to folks that label themselves as artists. I am truly interested in everyone's maps. Neither of my parents are artists but their maps were absolutely beautiful.

Anyhow, I think that's it for now. Go Giants.
Peace
-Mike

La la la, 1st post in October....Do dee doo dee dooo

Um, September wasn't very productive. Whoops. I've spent a lot of time in my head. Got back together with my ex, broke up again with the ex. Proposal for fall semester was turned down. Had to rework it. trying to get back into it.

That all said. It has been a great month. I did my first illustration for a newspaper. The Bollard in Portland, ME features a calendar made by me this coming Thursday. I am stoked with it. I think it turned out well, and although it does contain robots, it also has a squirrel, so I am not entirely relying on my a two character scheme anymore, which has been a large source of my mental insecurity with my work recently.

Here tis:

I've also been photographing the found wood that I have in my collection as a way to try to determine what exactly it is all about. I am not sure that I have figured anything out yet, but I got a pretty cute photo of my cat on top of one of the compositions!

And lastly, I did in fact finish a painting in the last week and a half, but it's the last thing I've managed. I am still not quite right in the head this month. I don't know what is going on. Think I am letting the emotions hit me a little too hard right now....

How is that for some old skool Mike. We're talking circa 2005. Grad school is hurting my head, but I really can't complain. Most days I am learning a lot, and the others I very well could if I would chill out a little bit more.

I'll be back. I swear. The project that I'm working on is cool and I am certain that I will be working on it a lot soon. Feeling better, just a bit stressed.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike