Working

The people of Portland, ME haven't seen much of me lately.  I have been holed up in my house for the most part over the past week.  I am working six days a week between teaching and a deli position.  The rest of my week can easily become preoccupied with reading, painting, and writing, all of which seem to have eclipsed my traditional social life over the past several weeks.  I am, frankly, becoming tired of being on show at all times and just want to get some work done.  I have started searching for more open calls, some residencies, some new illustration work.  I like my teaching, and I enjoy my art work, but the restaurant and deli work has to go unless it is at a super class joint where I can really work up a good looking plate.  Plastic disposable containers just aren't my bag.

There are a couple things on the horizon.  First I am proposing a two person show with my good friend, Julia, for which I have been trying to put together some new work.  The intent of these pieces is to paint/draw machinery which implies motion and sound.  I am not sure how successful they all are yet, but it is an entertaining and challenging goal which allows me some room to discover new and untapped creative resources.

The piece to the left stayed as is.  I really like it.  I will be painting up the background a bit to give it a color to pop off of but it is for the most part very much done.  The piece to the right was not sitting right with me last night, nor was it really feeling very good this morning and so it has seen several incarnations since this image, the last one in the image below to the left.

I can't really say that I kept much of the original.  The piece to the right is still in the drawing phase and I think will include more arrows like that first piece to the top left.  It is good to work with this old machinery again.  I enjoy the movement that becomes implied by the connections between parts.  I really hope that as I develop the series I can make marks that indicate movement.  For now, I guess the pieces are what they are.  Hopefully Julia and I get our show, though.

In other news, I have been invited to create four pieces for Artstream Gallery's 10th Anniversary show.  That is super cool and I am very much looking forward to being involved.  Last but not least, the Yancey Family Sugar Bush has asked me to redesign the labels for their maple syrup products.  I am really excited to work on that project as it is both interesting and nabs me some syrup.  Double bonus.

I hope you are all doing well.  Catch you on the flip.
Peace
Mike

Maybe it's too late....

Or maybe it is too early.  I've been on a weird hiatus from making work.  I've been thinking a ton, working on some illustration projects, taking some drives, hanging out with some friends.  The idea that everything that I have ever needed to be more successful was really in my depiction of my present state had never really occurred to me, but as I was sitting with my friend Ben tonight, I realized that that was where my only downfall had ever been really evident.  Persistence and work will pay off, but the attitude in which you communicate that work to other people, the attitude with which you approach the inevitable pitfalls and tribulations will be read into.  They will strike a greater chord than some of your positivity, because unfortunately everybody knows negativity and has a quiet, defined box in which to store it.  Negativity is easily dealt with, even if dealing with it is merely to ignore it.  Positivity is a difference in perception, sure, but also a difference in understanding and communication.  More to come later....

For now, here are a couple projects that I have been working on while I have been mistakenly telling people that I am not working that hard.  I have been working.  Hard.

 These second two images are idea sketches for a text solution to a new market in Portsmouth, NH.  I am honored and excited to be working on these.  I hope you like them.  The "A", I think is slated to become a tent and the bricks in the other two letters are to become more like that in the "A."

My head is whirling, but I am too tired now to do anything about it.  Here's hoping to wake up a little sleep deprived tomorrow.  It seems sure to happen, really.  Thanks for reading.  I really appreciate it.
Peace
-Mike

New Years and Slow Starts

I am terrified.  Change can be a huge blessing or an absolute anxiety bomb, and this time it has ended up being a gigantic anxiety bomb.  It's a ridiculous situation to find myself in.  Good things are on the horizon, but I don't understand them, don't know what to do and don't know how to proceed without feeling a little bit lost for a bit.  I'm going to be a teacher in a little less than a week.  I am going to be looking at a class full of students telling them how to illustrate.  I'll be relaying the finer points of illustration, the ideas which I most want them to glean from my speech.  I can't even spell without a word processor underlining my mistakes in a curly red line.  Oh my.  I feel overwhelmed, but, I know, that at the same time, it will be totally okay.  I'll do fine.  I won't know what I am doing, but I will fumble my way through it as well as I can, and most importantly, I will get better.  It is a new era.

With that in mind, I have been spending the first week of this year hiding from the very things that make me happy.  Over the weekend I finally put together the first Thursday Night Throwdown Poster of the year, and between yesterday and today I put together the first major piece in the commission that I am putting together for a clean energy man that frequents my coffee shop.  I have been a ball of stress but am finally starting to ease into the gotta do it mindset.  Procrastination with me is a science.  I need to worry about something for ages before I start it.  Thank the lord drawing feels so right and can make all of these ills slowly pass.  Drawing is my golden ticket. 

Here is the poster that I put together for the TNT this month, courtesy of an awesome dream by one of the employees at Bard.

 Here is the first piece that I have put together in a while for the commission as well.  I have been struggling with the ideas surrounding the connection of the pieces.  This method finally made sense, although I will most likely need to modify some of the measurements, etc.  It is still a step in the right direction.

That is all for now.  There is more stuff on the horizon, but I really need to get some lesson plans written up before I can spend much time working on them and ruminating on what they mean.  At least there is more to come soon.

Peace
-Mike