Keep On Trucking

Ben Harper - Live From Mars 2 AM Update

2012-02-09T23:21:00.000-08:00

I told you folks yesterday that I would give you a block update. Apparently all kinds of folks wanted to hang out with me tonight, because several friends texted me to come out and hang out, so I obliged. Even the hardest working man in the art world ( that was a James Brown reference, and not, I repeat not, me being cocky ) must take a break sometime, so you get an update at 2 am. That is ok, because I get to listen to Ben Harper's live album while I do so, and it is awesome if you haven't listened to it.

I have been very busy putting together blocks, drawing pipes, painting the negative space. It is taking a while. I am getting quicker with the process, and the studio assistant has been a gigantic help. She is awesome. I can't speak well enough for her. Hopefully she is getting as much out of the process as I am.

It is amazing for me to think about this project. It is so big in comparison to the things that I usually put together, and I am really grateful to have both the venue that will support this type of project, and the time to be able to put together something that is so thoroughly planned. Usually my work does not get to this level. And so, I am incredibly excited.

Here are a couple updates of the blocks.

I have gotten so the drawing itself does not take long all. I want to do a video of me cross-hatching one of these blocks so you can get an idea of what it is like. On the other hand, painting the negative space takes a bit. I have a pretty steady hand, but not that steady. I suppose it is a learning process and a honing of skills. It is great fun either way.

I also put together the piece in the Vertical Pipes series for my chef this week. I have to remember to mail this out tomorrow. I am terrible at doing things on time. I also have to pull together a Valentine tomorrow morning because apparently I have someone dropping by to purchase a couple. Rad.

This second piece was just for fun. I was cleaning my studio today and found a floppy disc that I had originally found while out taking a walk with my friend Russ. It seemed so random and I thought to myself that I had to make a piece out of it. I love it. It is rare that I get to do something off the cuff and intuitive as this these days.

I hope you dig the new stuff. I am very pleased with it on the whole. Let me know what you think, and have an awesome day too!! Until then.

Peace
-Mike

Seeing Multiples

2012-02-08T21:38:00.000-08:00

I have been working. Recently most of the work seems to have been in sketchbooks, but I started to really get into my studio work again today. I am getting very excited about all these multiple pipe drawings on blocks. I think that this project in May is really going to be amazing. I think that over the course of the next couple months that my hand skills are going to improve a bit as well.

Tomorrow when the sun is out, I will take an image of the accumulating blocks to share. I want to see if I can't at least finish 100 in the remainder of the week. I think it's definitely doable. In the meantime I finished another piece in the Vertical Pipes series to mail to my Chef in New Hampshire.

I like this one a lot. Pastel colors baby.

I'm going to be putting together issue #3 of the Pig n Pancake tomorrow or the next day, so please let me know if you are interested in getting a copy of the special Valentines Day issue. There will be a fold out 8.5 X 11 inch V-Day image on the inside of the book, or of course you'll be able to keep the book together.

I hope all of you are doing well and are weathering this very strange winter well. Much love.
Peace
-Mike

Valentines for a Couple Awesome Peeps

2012-02-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

Those who know me well, know that they will be gifted art, a lot. This Valentines season I have been trying to hook up my friends and people that make my life a little bit better with Valentines for their loved ones. It makes me feel good to help other folks out, even though I think the only Valentine I will be purchasing this year will be kitty treats for my boys.

Today I thought I'd share the Valentines I put together for my favorite servers at the Dogfish Cafe.

Hope you like them. I know that I do. Catch y'all soon. I gotta go drop these off and get some half priced appetizers.

Peace
-Mike

Last Second Installations

2012-02-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

I was asked out for a drink last Wednesday night, which seemed fairly innocuous, however, this did not turn out to be the case at all. I was asked that evening to fill in floor space for an opening on Friday night. That worked out to roughly 36 hours to finish up an installation. I was granted the space in the corner where the stereo had to stay for the yoga classes that this non profit holds. Cool.

So I worked together another set of robots, a turntable, and a new write up and went to do an installation. A hip hop show after part was to be held in the space the night of the opening, so I decided that it had to be music related thing. Here's what I did.

I ended up removing the chest plate of one of the "robots" to install the stereo, which I thought was pretty darn cool and I also included some of the Vertical Pipe Series of drawings, which was pretty excited. This made me think that I would actually like to do an entire show of the vertical pipes that covers all four walls of a gallery. I guess it is proposal time.

I also wrote for the second paragraph of my artist statement on this show, one of my favorite lines that I have written about my work. "The Robots are Jamming" is an altar to the audiophile, a monument to hidden successes within obvious failures, and the very future of rock and roll". I like it.
Have a good one peeps.

Peace
-Mike

February TNT Poster

2012-02-05T15:01:00.000-08:00

This month's Thursday Night Throwdown poster was very exciting to me. I have been wanting to push my typography skills a bit more and make them match whatever illustration I happen to be working upon at the time instead of just doing cool typography for in whatever style I please.

I already knew that I wanted to make this months poster about ice fishing beavers. My high school mascot was the Beavers, and I've been thinking about home a lot lately. Along with that I kind of miss regular winter weather this year. I mean, it would be nice to go snow shoeing again and at this rate it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

After I had drawn some ice fishing beavers I started to think about what would be appropriate to accompany them in terms of text. I determined that it would be nice to riff of some old Fur Fish and Game or Field & Stream covers because of an old stack my buddy had of his grandfather's the last time I went home. Upon looking through a few covers online, I decided that my favorite was the old Field & Stream red and black covers. They typography is fairly simple but really cool and if I used that I could line up TNT in red. Awesome. So that is what I did and it turned out pretty awesome if I say so myself.

Let me know what you think.

There you have it. I've started thinking about next months and after talking to Brittany, my art director and favorite barista, I think I am going with a wild west set up, with a shoot out at high noon theme. I should be able to get in some sweet type for that.

For now I'm going to go cheer for my home state for a couple hours. Don't yell at me all of you football hating internet people. It's just a sport after all.

Peace
-Mike

Zines & Things

2012-01-31T14:34:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to make zines forever, and thanks to my friend Pilar I can. Late last week I posted the first issue of the Pig N Pancake. Yesterday I finished up the second issue, which is double the fun and double the adorable. The first zine wasn't quite as cohesive as the second one turned out. I am quite pleased with the way the zines are coming out.

Soon I will be sending out 10 copies of issue 1 and 2 to Drift Station Gallery in Lincoln, NE. Great stuff. That will be the 11th state that I've shown in. I am very excited for that as well. Oddly, I feel like these zines are closer to the integrity that I wish to transcend as an artist than most of my 3 dimensional and illustration work.

Be looking for more soon.

This is true of all of you. Thanks for being so cool and reading on a regular basis. Meanwhile the next image is certainly true of me on a personal level all of the time.

I posted a couple of these to my Etsy page. I'm not charging very much. It'll run you 2 bucks for a zine and postage, basically just enough to cover my cost. I'd really like as many people as possible to get this stuff as it is really like having a real piece of me.

Hope you folks are all doing well.
Peace
-Mike

The Pig N Pancake Zine

2012-01-27T21:08:00.000-08:00

My friend Pilar came over to my house this morning to shoot photographs in my studio. Little did I know that she was going to end up showing me how to do a type of zine that I had never bothered to learn before. I was stoked, and thought, "I've been wanting to do this forever, I'm going to make one today." So I did.

I'm really stoked to bring you the first issue of the Pig N Pancake, which is taken from a restaurant in Astoria, OR. I had saved my coaster from my coffee when I went to breakfast after dropping off artwork for one of my shows at Lunar Boy. Awesome place, cooler logo!

Check out the zine:

I made 50 copies, so if you'd like one, email your address my way and I'll get one out to you! Send your requests to mike @ lewisacrylics dot com. I hope you all have had a great January. Pretty soon and it will be February, which means my favorite holiday. No, not Valentines day, Groundhog Day. I think I'm going to do something special for our favorite varmint from Punxatawney this year, so be on the look out. Til then.

Peace
-Mike

Occupy the Woods

2012-01-25T19:10:00.000-08:00

I'm seeing blocks in my sleep. Even after a little break outside last week, I am still going a bit stir crazy, but that said I am remaining fairly well focused. I am working my way step by step through this thesis project. I think even my last year's adviser would be pleased with the progress that I have made thus far. I realize now how little work I was willing to do for him. No wonder we didn't get along absolutely swimmingly.

Last week my friend Ed called me and invited me for a snow shoe trip. Looking outside today, it seems crazy that that was a possibility as it has been 50 degrees the past two days and we are missing all of the snow that we got over the weekend. However, last week there was just enough snow to go snow shoe in so I worked up quick Occupy the Woods sign and grabbed a trusty squirrel companion to head to the woods.

I love working outside with my artwork. The work is almost never left where I plant it, because my father the forest ranger had the take in take out policy pretty much drilled into my head by the time I was 4. That said, even if these artworks only exist as photographs and stories, I still enjoy them a great bit. Notice too, my friend Ed doing his best Jaque Cousteau.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I have been slowly putting together this thesis. So slowly, but I am starting to see it materialize already. But then when you are spending 10 hour plus workdays in studio, one would hope that you would see some results. I am not down on it though. I still really like the project and it seems to be gaining some more interest as I move from sketches to physical work.

Here is the status of the blocks thus far. They're getting there. I only need about 20 times that and then I will be golden. Can do, can do. More photos of this beast will be coming up soon. I have pieces of the project all over the studio.

On another note entirely, I received a photo from a friend of mine today. She has the badger that I carved in her garden and it would appear that New Jersey has actually maintained its snow cover better than Maine.

That's it for tonight. I have to get some reading done, and I need to figure out what on earth I am doing with this paper. It is interesting, but not palatable yet. I'll post things soon.

Peace
-Mike

Drama & Valentines

2012-01-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

I didn't have a very good weekend. I was taking some personal things way too seriously and then something that actually was serious came falling down like a bomb. It was not particularly fun, but then a good portion of life doesn't fall in the fun category. I am dealing, as is the case with so many other people with far more complicated or dire circumstances that they must deal with.

I did, however, take a few moments to feel angsty and sorry for myself. I'm over it now, but I thought that the drawings were actually quite fun, so I've decided to share those.

That's about enough of the melancholy, self absorbed stuff, though. I decided a couple of days ago that I really wanted to do a series of Valentines. The idea behind these is to not only create some work that will be good to use as a Valentine for your sweetheart, but also to charge the same for an original piece of artwork as you would typically pay for a Hallmark or American Greetings card.

Each of these small pieces is 5 dollars. Let me know if there is something in particular that you would like for your significant other. I've had local commissions of a bowling themed piece and of a Metal themed piece.

Hope you dig this stuff. I'm pretty stoked with it.

Peace
-Mike

Cheap But Handmade Valentines

2012-01-14T21:59:00.000-08:00

This is the first year in a while that I do not actually have to worry about purchasing anything for Valentines day. Usually by about now I am already making my order for roses by now, just so that I don't have to worry about it when it gets near time. As I said though, I don't have to worry about it this year. It feels weird though. I had to spread some love. So here is what I came up with. I am making small 4 by 6 inch pieces with archival clear plastic envelopes. The front is adorned with a Valentine related image and the back is formatted with the Valentine to and from and a small drawing and signature in the corner to mark the piece as authentic. Here is where the giving part comes though. I am charging regular card price, five dollars, for each of these.

This is a little cheaper than I usually charge for a 4 by 6 drawing, but I thought I would give to you instead of to a significant other this year. Check them out and see what you think!

I'm not putting these on Etsy or anything. It's not that I don't like Etsy, but I'm doing this for people that have been customers in the past, people that follow the blog, and friends on Facebook. I appreciate that you people pay attention to what I do. It makes a big difference to be making something for other people verses just sitting in an empty room trying to make things to amuse myself. So thank you. Drop me an email or a comment if you would like a valentine, and if you would like something in particular in the way of subject matter, I am totally into that too. Just let me know.

Peace
-Mike

Busy like Gangbusters

2012-01-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

That's right. I'm cranking it out like Elliott Ness here in Portland town. Last night was so good. That doesn't sound dirty at all, but if you've been following the blog for the past days you know what I mean. I've been listening to a steady diet of nineties alternative, drawing, painting, sawing, assembling and pacing. Everything seems to be coming together. The small bits are making sense with the bigger bits and everything seems to have its spot. I'm a painter again, not just a draftsman, which is great.

After posting the initial sketch of the thesis project, I immediately started shaping panels to fit the design and then painted said panels. I rarely measure, so this process is a little more intuitive than you might anticipate. I like every aspect of the piece to be like creating a painting, not like constructing something from directions. If I wanted to construct something from directions, I would purchase a paint by numbers kit.

Here's the beginning. End to be shared in 3 and a half months.

P.S. I am tired. I look surly, and I would like to leave my house because I am feeling antsy. I promised myself that I would try to stay here though, just to get myself into the habit. It's going to be a lot of work this semester, so I might as well get focused now, rather than waiting 12 days until the semester begins. Above all else, I have Douglas Adams ringing in my ears, "Don't panic".

Peace
-Mike

A Love Letter to Washington

2012-01-12T10:58:00.000-08:00

Today I have spent the majority of the day piecing together a sketch for my thesis show based on the sketches that I started late last night. When I started thinking about my thesis exhibition I really wanted to play up the idea of the machine and the mechanical aspect to making interchangeable parts, but then I went to Seattle again. I can't get Seattle out of me. It makes me feel something that I can't quite put my finger on. It is not a feeling of home, but more this feeling that that is where I grew up. It is as if you spend your first 20 some years under your parents' wing and then you are left to your own means. Wherever you do that, I think, becomes a special place in your heart. Seattle isn't the greatest place on earth, of this I am sure, but it holds for me, my youth, and my hopes for a better tomorrow.

With this in mind, and realizing that although I love analytical processes injected in emotional artwork, I want to keep my final piece more emotional. I am an emotional dude. I was told this last week that I think about my love life like a woman. I don't even know what that means, but it went hand in hand with a comment about me being emotional and moody. I decided to make a love letter to the place that I have the fondest memories of, Washington.

Here is the sketch.

Don't let the sketch fool you. This piece is a huge undertaking. The speakers are actual speakers, not a painted representation and each one of those little blocks will be a little block. I might even use more blocks when I am not feeling lazy and drawing all of them. I haven't figured out yet if there will be robots at the wall underneath this structure but I think that there will, and possibly a record player playing PNW music. I attach everything that I remember to the music I was listening to at the time, as you have probably guessed from my blog titles.

I hope you dig the sketch. If you are near Portland, ME, I hope you come to see the final in May, and I hope that there is a place that deep down inside you know you love so much that it can bring tears to your eyes just thinking and dreaming about it.

Peace
-Mike

It's 2 AM & I'm Listening to the Pumpkins

2012-01-11T23:23:00.000-08:00

This past week I took a little trip to Seattle in order to re-fuel myself. I missed my friends. I missed Elliott Bay and I missed the Olympics. I wanted rain in January. I wanted forty degrees. Seattle always makes me feel like an artist. I don't understand the town one bit. Perhaps it is the street art, though really I think there is probably better street art found in NYC, or maybe it is the people but I can find anti-social people just about anywhere. What is it? I don't know, but I'm ready for some things now.

I spent the trip filling out another set of drawings in my sketchbook for Transient. I have almost all of that work scanned in. Now it is just a matter of choosing what format I want to put that work into. I am not sure what would do it the most justice or if that really even matters. Maybe I just need to get it out there and what will be will be.

After getting back, I've been immensely tired. I didn't catch my creative stride until I bought a pound of coffee today at about six. I made coffee. I felt better. I worked for eight hours, even if it is not an acceptable shift by factory hours.

I have been struggling with the idea for my thesis project. I thought that it might be heading into that area of too formal for me to enjoy. While on break tonight I started flipping through Jeff Soto's Potato Stamp Dreams and realized that I was avoiding painting still. Everything has been a drawing, which is awesome. That allows me to finish more work in a program focused around finishing a lot of work, but I want to paint too. I love paint. I love brushes.

That is where I am at now. I worked for the next four hours making sketches. They are quite elaborate, a combination of both the original thesis idea and my favorite two pieces from my first year in the MFA program. Best of all, I think that perhaps this kind of work could get me a show in all of the galleries that I though would never touch me with a ten foot pole. That would be cool.

Here is a teaser. I'm tired and didn't have the energy to scan in all of the sketches. Tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be time. It will be awesome. I hope it is awesome for you too. I know it will be awesome for you too.

I'll explain all of this in further depth tomorrow. Until then, get some sleep.
Peace
-Mike

Updates from the road

2012-01-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple more of the pieces that I put together for friends in Seattle. I'm very pleased to be in the town and dropping these off. I am even more pleased to be sitting outside of Victrola coffee blogging it up in the sunshine. So this is the rainy city, huh? Just like I remembered it. Mercurial.

I've also while on this trip been putting together a series of drawings that will be compiled in a second edition of Transient. The first is in the works early next week and I think the second will probably be done by about mid February. I am trying to be chill about these goals this year. Last year I felt like I didn't finish anything and was super down on myself, then looked at what I had done and realized that that opinion was completely ridiculous.

Anyway, here are the new pieces.

This will probably be it for the trip to Seattle for right now. The rest of my days seem to be filling up quickly, but that is A.O.K. with me. Have a good one. Keep on loving 2012. As Steve McQueen says of the man falling from the ten story building in The Magnificent Seven, every floor down he said "So far so good". If all that Mayan nonsense proves to be true, lets go out with a "So far so good".

Peace
-Mike

Listening to Pulley, Cooking for Colleagues, Visiting My Peeps

2012-01-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow night I am leaving for Seattle for four days. I cannot express how much I love that town, but really a love letter to the town is a love letter to the people IN the town. In preparation, today I put together some pieces for my friends in Seattle who I didn't get work out in time for Christmas. I'm stoked to show up with a stack of art for people. I miss them so much.

Which leads me to a conversation that I overheard earlier tonight...

I cooked dinner for a group of my fellow MFA students tonight and the topic of who we create art for and what the purpose of creating that art came up, as it always does in these types of settings. One of my friends was pushing the point that artwork should be in a Utopic setting created by an artist trying to work out the answer to a problem or the means of understanding something, but not to make something that is considered cool or beautiful. Perhaps there is some truth in this, but I think that the greatest challenge of an artist is to make something that people do find cool. Perhaps this is a useless goal, but the feeling that I get when I see a person "get" something and think it is cool or actually burst out into laughter, I feel certain that this idea that the artist is meant to be in solitary creating work simply to satisfy his or her own needs is complete crap.

I love the people I've met. Admittedly I make artwork for myself, but in the end I want it to be COOL so that those people will enjoy it, because then we can share. We can share in the creative act. We can create the story together. We can be a community. I can love them for them and for their ideas and they can love me for me and my ideas.

I'm done ranting, but I'd be interested to hear what other people have to say about this. Perhaps I am harping on something that isn't even really that apparent. Here's a couple of the pieces that I worked up for my peeps in Seattle today.

Cool or no? I'll let you decide, but I didn't make them because I thought they were pointless.
Have a good one. Hope the New Year is treating you well thus far.

Peace
-Mike

More Limited Run Zine Action

2012-01-03T06:18:00.000-08:00

I am so pleased that I was able to be involved with my friend Sam Mercer's first poetry feature. Sam is very creative young poet who creates individual experiences at his poetry readings by asking the audience for a key term or phrase and then creating a unique freestyle poem. As he was creating his merchandise for his feature it seemed fitting that all of his work was hand written and varied slightly from book to book.

I was glad to offer my services in both illustrating the covers and binding the books. They are available by donation from Sam or myself, though if many more sell, you may have to wait for the next run. Keep up.

This was a very fun little project to work on and it made me realize exactly how easy it is to make a zine. I always over-complicate the matter by trying to make something too produced. Expect some more limited run zines from me this year. I like the idea of making books that are not all the same but are all titled the same. I also think that I will be making some more standard zines.

Hope you like them.
Peace
-Mike

Impromptu Awesomeness

2012-01-02T18:07:00.000-08:00

Today I was sitting at the coffee shop and my buddy Sam looks at me and says "I am the feature poet at Mama's Crowbar tonight, I have to go home and make merch". My immediate response was to ask him if he needed some cover art for his hand written small run zines.

I put together five covers. Here is the first. I will share the rest later as I am running off to see Sam's feature.

Pulling Through With the Wee Hours

2011-12-26T23:40:00.000-08:00

I worked at the restaurant all weekend. It was awesome. I love my chef and my co-workers. They are great great people, but when I leave my job I am so exhausted and ready for bed. Add a 2 and a half hour drive to the end of work and I am pretty much lost to the world for the next 24 hours. Such was the case this weekend.

I was sitting at my kitchen table eating lunch today wondering if I was ever going to finish anything today. I cleaned up a little around the house, which I guess is worth something, but I have 2 illustrations that I need to finish this week as well. It was at about lunch time when I realized that it would do me no good to attempt to do more work for clients after working an entire weekend. Hopefully this is a sign of logic to come. Tomorrow I need to wake up and work on illustrations, but after a night of working on my fine art stuff, which is more cathartic and less focused around communicating a specific idea, I feel more prepared to do so.

I am also pleased to have finished up another 15 or so pieces for my installation in May. My thesis project really is a bit ridiculous, so I think any time that I am feeling a little non-plussed with my day over the next several months I will do as I did today and just crank out some more drawings. I am also sharing a couple commissions that I wrapped up at the end of last week today.

Hope you dig the stuff.

I am stoked to even have gotten moving today. At about 6 I didn't think that there was a hope of doing so. Have a good night peeps. Will talk to you soon.

Peace
-Mike

Just One More

2011-12-21T22:12:00.000-08:00

I've been making a bunch of the Vertical Mixing series for Christmas presents over the past several weeks. I have been absolutely awful at documenting them, but I remembered to document this one. I love the Owlbot. Expect more from him.

Speaking of which, I was approached by an old friend recently and he has Mighty Lark scripts written up. I am absolutely floored with them. He really captured the essence of what I was looking for in that character.

Starting next week, as a result, I will be putting together a full Mighty Lark story to be unveiled, well, whenever I am comfortably through enough strips that I have a buffer. I got burned out on that project very quickly when I was behind. I don't want to do that type of thing to myself anymore.

Thanks for checking in folks and Happy Holidays.
Peace
-Mike

Boston Public School Library Project

2011-12-21T22:07:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the lovely Meighan O'Toole of My Love for you, I was selected to work on a series of illustrations for the Boston Public School's library. The illustrations are used as depictions of subject headings in the card catalog. I'm posting a couple of these now, and will post the rest when they have all been approved. This was a really fun project to work on and I am very pleased to share it with you.

I have definitely figured out this year that I love being an Illustrator. It has been a huge step for me to answer the "so what do you question?" with "Illustrator" rather than "cook". Projects like this one really help me to think of myself seriously though and I am incredibly pleased to be in the position that I am now. I've tried pretty hard to get to this point, but all of that work kind feels worth it when I see work like this in the world.

Hope you all like it too.
Peace
-Mike

Where Do I Start?

2011-12-21T22:01:00.000-08:00

There is so much to tell. I think I will write a couple of blog posts tonight just so there is no confusion between the different ideas and projects that I have been working with. In some cases it seems that the only unifying characteristic is that I did the work to begin with.

It has been a massively productive year. I have no complaints with my work ethic. My writing ethic seems to have fallen a little by the wayside, however. I think I left off on some images of my large scale robots. Each robot served as an internal location in which to frame a group of paintings and drawings.

The rest of the robots looked cool too. I definitely had issues transporting said robots when I was through constructing them though. That said, they apparently didn't read particularly well as robots either, but seemed more like a human-sized shape. I'm not sure if that is really a bad thing either. Below are the installation photos. Only a month and a half late.

These were awesome to work on, but the big problem with them was exactly that. They were too BIG. I hurt my back and neck de-installing the piece and it is still in the bed of my pick up. Hence the thought that perhaps I should make something a little bit smaller.

These guys resulted. At the same time as I started making these, I started listening to the DJ, Cut Chemist, who is the DJ for Jurassic 5. His solo, The Audience's Listening, features a song which repeats the line "The Robots are coming" which was stuck in my head the entire time I was making these.

I was incredibly pleased with the way that these worked out and realized while making them that it really was starting to operate in the same way that my work last spring with the blocks was working. Naturally I decided to combine the two. Soon I will post the sketches for my thesis which demonstrates that synthesis.

Hope y'all are well and your holiday season is great.
Keep up.
Peace
-Mike

Radio Head.

2011-11-08T20:22:00.000-08:00

I am pretty sure that I am not a robot. I am tired. Pretty sure robots don't get tired. Perhaps they can be programmed to get tired though. I can't believe that tomorrow is Wednesday. These days just keep flying by. I worked on two separate robots today. I've determined that I will finish six or seven of them before the end of the semester. That's a lot of work to be pumping out, but what else is this life about anyway? I like working.

Sculpture is a weird thing for me. It still doesn't feel exactly comfortable. I still want to draw and paint things all over everything. I suppose there really isn't a problem in that thinking, but I would like the two to compliment each other, not be a detriment....

So far so good.

These two images are of the Affection Receptor. My adviser has suggested that perhaps I should take out the written text. It may be very altar-like. I suppose, however, that any non-functional statue will be considered a monument of some sort. Are monuments and altars really that different when all is said and done? I am not very sure myself.

I was very pleased to find a use for this radio. It seemed obvious all of a sudden when I was looking at it. I hope you dig it. This is three robots. Four to go.

Peace
-Mike

How Does One Get to Cuba?

2011-11-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

The past several months have been amazing. I have learned a great deal about myself, art making, and the limits that I have placed on myself. Apparently those limits have been too restrictive, as I've been involved with the Billboard Project in New Orleans and have now been accepted to the Mural Painting Bienniale X, in Santiago de Cuba. While attempting to avoid illustration and gallery projects in school, I have been offered as many gallery gigs and more illustration gigs than I've ever been offered in the past. I am truly grateful for what, as I pause and contemplate, I can only consider success. It has been a long ride, and I can't say that I have always used this blog as a positive outlet, but thank you to all of those who have stuck around and made this possible through your support.

Now for completely unrelated items. I have been working on a series of found wood robots with detailed interiors. The effect that I have been going for has been the "ugly" serving as framework for the more refined, or "beautiful". It is not quite as large a dynamic as that world of complete opposites, but there is a noticeable difference in the feeling of the drawings and writing that I have utilized in the interior of the sculptures and the haphazard construction that I have used to erect these robots.

Below is the first robot, which I had already shared sans detailed interior.

The latest robot that I have been working on does not include any pipe drawings but instead contains love notes, however. The robot is titled the Affection Receptor, sports a Bo Jackson ball glove, and has hearts which I removed from a gaudy coat hanger.

Lastly I will share a quick piece that I added to my etsy shop today. I am really pleased with the simplicity of the images like this. It is also nice not to attempt to defeat the line work that I spend so much time working with.

There's more craziness going on. I plan on finishing up the first incarnation of a major project over this week, so be sure to check back soon. Take care.

Peace
-Mike

Viva Lebowski & The Lights Out

2011-10-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

I was asked to do the promotional poster for the Viva Lebowski event at Bayside Bowl here in Portland, ME this year. The event is great. It is essentially Lebowskifest, however that name has been copyrighted by its originators and new Lebowski events are forced to think of new names. Viva Lebowski is great though. All proceeds are donated to a different non profit or individual in need every year, and it was with great pleasure that I could provide my illustration skills to help out that end.

Here is my paper doll poster contribution. Hope you like it.

I also found that a college friends' band is playing in Portland early in November and approached him to see if he would like me to do his flyer. He, thankfully, was all about it. I had done one poster for The Lights Out while I was living in Minnesota but this project is cooler because I actually live in the town where the posters will be hung. As for bands, who could ask for a better band name than The Lights Out to create a poster for? Nobody, that's who.

It was awesome to be able to work on both of these projects! I hope you folks like looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Peace
-Mike

More Partition Works

2011-10-27T10:24:00.000-07:00

I am busting out small works in this partition series, like it were my job. Wait a second. This is my job, isn't it? Awesome. I've been really pleased with the way that these pieces have been working out, so I decided to share a few more.

The first and third images are available on my Etsy page. The second and fourth are more displays of mail art. I am really loving being able to give away some of my work to artists that I respect and people that I love. Sometimes you need to do something like that in order to remember why you do art to begin with, which actually has nothing to do with it being a job, but has way more to do with creating a rich tapestry for your soul. Sorry about the new agey bit there. I can't help it. I've been feeling good.

Posting a couple more things today, but they don't go particularly well with this post, so don't touch that dial.

Peace
-Mike

Mail Art

2011-10-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

While making the paintings that to fulfill the Billboard Project, I started to really geek out on these little drawings and thought to myself that I should just do a bunch more of them. I've been mailing them to my friends because I've been feeling really lonesome for the past couple weeks. I'm not sure that it really helps but at least I don't feel like I am making work for no reason whatsoever.

I think that they will make for a good series when all is said and done. Of course if I continue to mail them all over the country then I won't have any left to sell or anything like that, but I've been thinking that they would be cooler in a coffee table book or something anyway. Possibly with a note of where they were sent or something. I'm not much of a mail artist. This is really just a way to stay connected with all of the people that I love across this nation.

Hope you dig.

If nothing else this project is really helping me work on the ink and color drawing style. Crank 60 more of these out and it will be old hat. Anyway, hope you are all well. Let me know if you need one.

Peace
Mike

Wooden Robots Rule

2011-10-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

I have homework done this evening and I am sitting in front of my computer trying as hard as all get out to think of questions that drive my studio practice, which will then be written at the top of a worksheet that is to be used to build my classmates and my theses. I have written two questions and they seem very pretentious, so I thought that it might help to come over to this sphere of the art world and post a couple different projects that I have been working on. I can't help but think that this is after all my real artistic voice.

A couple weeks ago I took down two installations, threw the loose wood into my studio and jumped in my truck to go work for a weekend. Meaning that last week when I got home there was an incredible mess lying out on the floor for me. Most folks would decide to clean, but I decided to start building a seven foot tall robot out of wood.

It is a very exciting process to sculpt with found wood materials. I feel like I am painting and assembling at the same time, and never do I feel less of a gap between the two processes. I do not concern myself with craftsmanship and try to downplay stability within the pieces. I think, in the end, that this is where the translation between drawings and physical space really occurs for me.

Check out my robot.

The sketch is the type of cartoon robots that this guy is based on. Do you think that it is possible to create a found sculpture that reads like a cute cartoon? How does one blur the lines between cartoon and jagged surfaces? I think I found my second question rooted in those two lines.

I will post again later tonight. I have several small paintings to share as well. IT doesn't seem quite right to show them in the same post as this guy though. They seem rather unrelated even though I know that they inherently are.

Peace

Mike

Television Planter

2011-10-11T23:54:00.000-07:00

I drive a lot between New Hampshire and Maine and while on my drives often think of different art projects. During the last week I was obsessed with the idea of televisions as planters, much like the old paintings I had done with the plants taking over a more technological setting. I think that perhaps in the end this will be very similar to what happens in an apocalyptic world.

The creatures that inhabited this planet from the get go will take over again. At least I hope so. With this in mind I created today's piece:

This piece is definitely a delineation from my more illustrative work but I think that incorporating this with more illustrative work will be very successful. I am looking forward to the idea of matching this up with more painterly elements.

It does make me wonder what in the end counts as a painting, however. This is certainly much more painting than it is reality. Is any environment that is constructed more painting than reality. Questions to be answered in the future but currently I have not the faculty to answer that.

Peace
Mike

The Billboard Project New Orleans - Complete

2011-10-10T18:19:00.000-07:00

Today I submitted my entries into the New Orleans Billboard Project. A good deal of intricate cross hatching resulted in some work that I am very pleased with. I think that this is a pretty fair example of how the two trains of thought that have been fueling my work intersect.

Lately I have been obsessed with interchangeable items as well as bringing the art of cartooning back into my work. I know that here on this blog I have not shared a lot of work that was without its cartoons, but for the sake of school I have been sticking primarily to pipe drawings and found wood sculpture. These two types of work are amazing and I love them, but neither is a path that I am willing to go down without cartoon and painting. Cartoons and painting serve as my nubby, as my chef would put it.

So here are my last two images for the Billboard Project. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I thought this piece was great because it was a series of three dimensional pieces that I used to create a two dimensional plane. The blocks could be changed out to make a different piece of billboard art which is an idea that I am very enamored with.

This one I am very pleased with as well, though for different reasons. This piece I think suggests a bit of a narrative for folks to pick out and I like that a lot. It also is a bit simpler than the first two drawn pieces. I am wondering if that makes it more or less powerful as an image? Any ideas to this effect would be welcome.

As it stands to me though, another successful project.
Til next time.
Peace
-Mike

October TNT

2011-10-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a super long couple weeks, but the drama on the home front is coming to an end and some of the big projects that I have been working on are near complete or already complete. This week I finished up the October poster for Bard Coffee's Thursday Night Throwdown and lined up another project for Portland's Viva Lebowski, which is going to be an absolute blast. I have three more days to pull together my imagery for the Billboard Project in New Orleans, and the semester is just starting to ramp up into something good.

For today I will just be sharing the October poster and the newest robot block that I have completed, though this particular robot block is a lot more than it seems. It is much larger than the other blocks and carries more physical and mental weight to it. So without further adieu.

I'm pretty pleased with this month's poster. It took a little doing to get it to save properly this month, because I've been so stressed out that I missed a step. Whoops.

Now, here's the robot.

That's it for now, but I will be back soon. October is looking pretty big and some emotional crap has been going down too, so what better way to celebrate than with some artmaking.

Peace
Mike

To be Awesome or not to be Awesome, that is a question.

2011-10-05T21:16:00.000-07:00

I am left wondering if today was awesome or just plain awful. I think that I am going to roll with awesome, because frankly today I did awesome stuff in the morning and awesome stuff at night and the mid-afternoon was awful. To heck with it. Crap sandwich, but for real, I made these today, and you can purchase them for five bucks from my friend Melissa, and that is awesome, because you can support me and my friend Melissa who is the awesomest.

I am stoked. This has been something that I have wanted to put together for months. So, awesome. They are available currently at The Studio in Laconia, NH. Get them while you.

In other news, I am falling seriously behind. It's called work and I have way too much of it to do right now. I was feeling bummed about this a little while ago, but you know what? I need that to keep me going. I realized I was feeling crappy about other stuff and taking it out on my artwork and you know what that equals, crap sandwich. Solved. Moving on and making some stuff that I am in love with. I will share with all of y'all soon.

Get Up.
Peace
Mike

Skate Decks

2011-09-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

I am working on art for skate decks tonight and it's pretty exciting since that is the first thing that I attempted to do when I graduated with my undergraduate degree in illustration. I think I know less about Illustrator now than I did then, but I think I know more about art and illustration now, so this should be interesting. I'm wondering how much of the Illustrator I will remember as I move along here. Some of it comes back relatively fast while other aspects I am sure will take me an entire evening to understand again. It is a worthwhile venture though. It is also a venture that people who don't know all of the details will say things like, "Why don't you already know everything about the program since you are an illustrator?" or "You should understand all of the tools at your disposal", but I think that equally important is probably the fact that I understand how visually I can create an image far better than I could when I was 22. So I guess all things considered, I am glad to be operating the way I do now. I'm going to make this work, because I want to, and I may need to, and frankly, it would be nice to finally have that job at the design firm, whether it be "selling out" or any of that b.s. I would be happy for that sale if it were offered to me. Check out the original sketch. Tis one of those awesome marble boards.

Wish me luck. I would like more of this type of work. I think it would be good for me, and it might even make my parents rest a little easier, which after all of this time would be an incredible blessing.

Big ups!
Peace
Mike

Re-Visiting & Re-Purposing

2011-09-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

Large scale installations constructed out of wooden elements lead to lots of wood scrap, and when your main painting ground is random wood scraps, that is a very good thing. While I was cleaning studio recently, I found a project that I had started several years ago that is actually quite similar to the totems that I had started this spring. Pieces of segmented 2x4 were shaped into blocks, painted in pastel and adorned with robot heads. I would then stack them at random, allowing people to play with my work as they wished.

It is shocking to find that what you took a year to muddle through in an academic setting is actually something that you had already figured out and forgotten about. Does this mean that I have actually thought of no new ideas while in school? This is quite possible. In fact it is beginning to seem quite probable. As I know that I enjoy working, and have considerably in the last year and a half, I wonder what it is that I need to do to step out of this box that I have created for myself.

That all said, I enjoy this little box. I don't think I am completely ready to leave yet. These robot blocks are pretty great too.

I think that this re-purposing is probably one of the most enjoyable parts of doing the work that I do. My favorite question is probably, "well this is strange looking, what can I do with this?" Oddly, now that I think about it, that may be an answer to a question that they have been badgering me about at school. All the more reason to have a blog, I suppose.

I have also started working on the third piece for my Billboard project. This one is a little more along the lines of what I was working on during the summer. The pipes are interesting still, but I like the addition of some random color as well as moths and more sporadic hatching to move the viewer around the picture plane.

There will be more color eventually as well as more pieces added to make it fit the dimensions of the billboard better, but for now I am pleased to be working through a couple more issues with the whole process.

Stay up.

Peace

Mike

Day of the Dead

2011-09-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

I also thought that I would share my Day of the Dead piece for Lunar Boy tonight. These are actually separate drawings, but it seemed easier to post as one photo. Yet again the hatching and painted negative space.

Hope you dig.

That's it for now.
Peace for real this time.
Mike

Billboards

2011-09-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

This semester of school I have made a major decision, and it boils down to this. I will not be making work solely for my betterment as a student. I have worked too hard and too long at creating relationships with galleries and artists to stop for the sake of my education. With this in mind the first project that I am working on for my present study is the Billboard Project, which I will be participating in. I have two images ready to be used on a billboard in downtown New Orleans. This is great not only because of the immensity of the project but also because I have never shown in the state of Louisiana before. This exhibition will knock of the tenth state in my goal to show in every state in the union.

I have been sticking with the crosshatching and negative space painting method for a series of pipe drawings as my first go around. I have found that as I paint, I often lose some of the energy that my drawings possess. I am sure that the same energy can be achieved with paint, but I think with a little more focus on the drawing I may get myself to a better place than I have been recently. Then, hopefully, I will be able to return to the painting with a fresh mind and the capability of making it more loose and expressive. With any luck these qualities will come out as free as the drawing and not appear contrived.

But enough of that. I have drawings to show you, or are they? I don't know what to term these pieces. They do have paint on them. How much paint is required for it to be a painting? I suppose I am merely defining the characteristics of my drawing so it would fall into drawing. Thoughts?

I am not sure why, but sometimes the cheapest materials are the most fun to work on. Chip board takes an ink hatching really nicely, and lets be honest, there is little that acrylic paint won't adhere to. I am very fond of this piece. I enjoy how the color of paint is not so different from that of the board surface. It is subtle but not without contrast.

I am not sure that I am as big a fan of this particular color combination. Perhaps I should have gone with more of an off compliment green. There is a lot of pop in this but that blue seems so solid even here in digital form. I am also not so certain that I appreciate the large swatches of pipe drawing as the more segmented piece.

I have more to share in the near future. This blog was far easier to keep up with when I was not in school. Frankly the scanning alone is often forgotten at this point, but like I say, I want to be doing more projects for me. It is good for my sanity, and as an anti-depressant.

I hope all of you are doing rad.
Peace
Mike

The Studio Installation is Nearing a Close

2011-09-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

It has been a great week working in The Studio. Melissa McCarthy is an amazing hostess, our awesome DJ Kyle dropped off some great tunage for the opening, and I have been working for three days straight to try to put together an interesting visual mash-up for the citizens of Central NH. The Citizen of Laconia printed a photograph today of me installing and all around this has been a pretty tremendous experience.

Here is what the installation looks like right now. I am really only waiting for the paint to dry on the small table top. Imagine with me if you will that the receiver is on top of the orange and pink blotch in the center of the the black table top.

Here is a little close up of some intimate hatching in the middle. There will be several more of the bears tomorrow for people to remove from the pegs and use if they so please. It's like a weird masquerade ball with Kyle's music jamming.

Just a little further out so you can see where the speakers lay in this equation. I spent a ton of time with the pipe connection in that lower right corner. Weird. The panel next to it took a quarter of the time but I like it a ton better.

That's it for now. I may post some images from the opening tomorrow depending on the turn out. Also there may be some images from Saturday's opening at Artstream Studios in Rochester, NH. My glass jars are on exhibit there. Stop by if you have time. Five to eight-ish at both establishments.

Peace
Mike

Working at The Studio

2011-09-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

It has been a super busy week. I have two openings this week, an illustration that I need to work on, and an open studio event at the Studio, 84 Union Ave, Laconia, NH. I am very pleased with the progress which the installation has shown thus far. As I sit back and look at the installation, I also realize that I am making work now that I was completely incapable of visualizing years ago. Perhaps this graduate school thing is doing what it is supposed to do, and perhaps I am getting older, more comfortable and more relaxed in my work. Perhaps it is really a combination of the three. No matter how I look at it though, I can see progress. There is still a long way to go. As an artist, is it possible to think that there isn't someplace to go? If you've made it, then what is there to work for?

I pontificate, so here's some images.

It's crazy, but I realized that I am a.) not nearly as afraid of heights as I used to be and b.) it is far easier to find a groove on a ladder when you put something in your hands that you feel completely comfortable with.

I am very pleased with the movement in this corner. The gaps seem just as important as the positive space. I like the idea of negative space serving a role as a conscious element.

I found a real use for the panels from my installation at the end of summer intensive and I think I understand both the characters and my artistic identity issues better for having let myself dwell on the subject a bit.

The messy work area. Found the table top at the back in the trash this morning on the way into the Studio. How appropriate?

On the ladder again.

I'm listening to some old Rancid, settling into working on this illustration, while I wait for my girlfriend with her cat snuggled up next to me on the bed. Tomorrow more time at the Studio. If you're in the area, stop by. But for now, chilling.

Peace
Mike

Prints - AKA Cheap Art.

2011-09-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I begin installing at The Studio in Laconia, NH. On Friday I will be rolling out a limited run of prints of my new painting Love Me, which goes right along with the show, which is titled, Love Me. The prints will be available at The Studio, however, if you've gotta have one, they will be signed and numbered and matted at a whopping 15 bucks. Email me and I will set one aside for you if you like, though if I've gotta mail it, I may charge a couple extra for shipping.

Here's the piece. Pretty cool I think. The big one has changed a little for the show as well.

Also, I will be updating the blog this week while I work with photos and perhaps videos of the installation in progress. This project should turn out to be totally dope and I'm pretty excited by it.

Be sure to check back.
Peace
Mike

Masks for the Studio Project

2011-09-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

This morning I was reading the Design Sponge's newspaper, a new project that the folks over at Design Sponge have put together. It is quite good. There was an article about Hess surfboards, which interviewed the owner about his shaping of custom surfboards. For some reason it occurred to me that I really wanted to shape wood today so I started to think about a project that I had had in mind to make masks. I had originally planned on making them out of card stock but wasn't particularly into the idea of having them printed and cutting them out. It did not seem hands on enough, however, shaping them out of wood sounded great.

I got started on them right away, and although they seem to be a bit small right now for the average human face, they still look pretty much like what I had wanted and I think with a little editing they will work well as masks too!

Check them out.

I have not decided whether I like them better painted or cross hatched. I have heard opinions to either end and I like them both. Hopefully folks will feel inclined to use these bad boys at the opening.

Come check out the show as I install next week at The Studio. Play with a mask, make me take a break, whatever you feel like. It should be a good time. Catch you folks later.

Peace
Mike

The Studio NH

2011-08-26T14:27:00.000-07:00

September 6 through 8 I will be assembling my biggest and best installation of the year at The Studio NH in Laconia. From 11 to 4 each day the public is welcome to come and see me setting up what is sure to be the best piece of the year.

Thanks to Melissa McCarthy, owner and artist extraordinaire, at The Studio for the opportunity to work in this manner. Over the next week I will be adding images of pieces that I will be including in the assemblage. For now, here is the promotional card.

I hope some of y'all can make it out. If you can't make it out for the assembly, be sure to hit up the opening. I hear that there will be a dj spinning some random noise and hip-hop dream.

I'll be back.
Peace
Mike

Kahbang Festival

2011-08-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

Special thanks go out to Angela Warren who hooked me up with an exhibition opportunity at Kahbang Festival in Bangor, Me this past week. It was great to get an installation out in the real viewing public. Reception of the piece was pretty fantastic as well. It was also great to get to hang alongside fellow MFA'ers Kim Vose Jones, Julie Gray and Shirah Neumann. Here's a couple shots!!

Here's what the outside of the Gallery looked like.

Haha, and here is my narcissistic shot of the door.

And this is what my crazy pipe installation looked like. Be on the look out for more of these crazy things in the near future. I think I will also be sharing some sketches for the next one. Til then.

Peace
Mike

Good Lord am I Behind with Updating

2011-08-15T13:06:00.000-07:00

Today I finished a project for Artstream Studios upcoming Toy and Game show in September. It is a series of jars containing marbles adorned with a cute and/or fuzzy animal. It was partially based off of Barry McGee's liquor bottles and partially because of the scene in Amelie where the fellow has the flashback about the fateful day where he wins and then loses all of the marbles during recess.

Oddly enough the mouse is my favorite of this little series. I like drawing creatures with no legs. And my cats like the idea of a mouse with no legs too. They are lazy little buggers.

This was a fun project. Be sure to drop in in September at Artstream Studios in Rochester, NH if you happen to be in the area, and if not you'll be able to purchase these guys off of their website. I'll keep you posted with those links.

Got some stuff coming up here. I'm going to have a one man show in Laconia, NH next month as well as the Toy show and I will also be in the October Day of the Dead show at Lunar Boy Gallery in Astoria. I'll keep you posted. Til next time.

Peace
Mike

Installing in New York - The Ghostly Heart Atelier

2011-06-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

On the 12th of the month, I headed out to Lowville, NY where I was to put together an installation for the Ghostly Heart Atelier. The next 3 days were filled with thermoses full of coffee and sack lunches that my mother made me, and steady work in a 3 1/2 foot by 6 foot space creating a site specific installation. My original ideas for the space bordered upon incredibly offensive to the populace, which my mother was quick to point out. Unlike instances in the past, I chose to listen to what she said and create an homage to my father and grandfather. My grandfather used to drive into the Adirondacks from his home in New Jersey in order to hunt and fish. My father trekked from New Jersey to Wanakena, NY where he went to Ranger School. He later became a forest ranger in northern New York.

Generally my work does not address these two men, but since I was making a piece in the same area that I grew up, it made sense to change that. I painted cartoon portraits of my grandfather, father and myself wearing checked woolen jackets and tuques. I used found wood that had weathered and carries the same sort of patina that my entire home area boasts. I also incorporated empty ammo boxes and a few squirrels. No matter what you are hunting it seems you see more squirrels, unless of course it is squirrels that you are hunting.

Below are a few images of the installation.

I was very pleased to include the ammo boxes and very interested at how they interacted the same way that the block constructions had earlier this year. Yay for rectangular prisms.

Squirrel glamor shot. He's so perty.

Here's the image of the portrait of my grandfather as well as the country portion of the hand-painted text that I incorporated. The installation is titled Going up the Country after the Canned Heat song of the same name. This text was included from the upper left hand corner of the wall to the center.

It was very nice to get some real time in painting on this installation. I've been painting the entire time that I've been in graduate school, but it seems a little more obvious when the final product so very much features my brushstroke. The stroke also seemed to mimic the paint on the walls that was chipping.

There will be some more images coming. I took some better photos that I will be scanning in soon. Tomorrow the summer intensive starts. We'll see what we can get done then.
Peace
-Mike

Don't Badger Me!!!

2011-05-26T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ha. I started drawing badgers today and I've been giddy ever since I started. There is something totally honest about letting yourself personify a new creature that makes you giggle to begin with. I can't help but think of my friend Emilie talking about badgers being violent and nasty, coupled usually with a Big Lebowski "nice marmot" comment.

Anyway, after drawing a few out, I started to sculpt one out of bass wood. I thought that I would just get the rough cut done tonight, but I actually made it pretty far into sanding as well. I am very pleased that I am able to keep relatively the same degree of simplification to my characters in 3-dimensional form. I was concerned that the figures would look too much like a box and like I had simply done nothing to the blank from when I picked it up at the lumber yard.

So here tis.

Let me know what you think. Is it badger enough? I love it currently, riding that 1 A.M. high, like I've been working on it for 7 hours.

Also on the docket today were a bunch of sketches to begin thinking about the 25 framed drawings that I will be doing for Susan at Artstream Studios in Rochester, NH. It's so nice to be able to work with her again. She is a wonderful shop owner.

At the bottom there you can see the first badger. It got more and more ridiculous as the day progressed. I am really excited about the simplified human figures, however. In the past my people have looked more complicated than my animal creatures and this just seems unnecessarily complicated.

Hope you like the new stuff.

We'll keep you posted.

Peace

-Mike

Better Late Than Never?

2011-05-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

This morning I finished a piece that I started last November or December. I don't even remember anymore. At the time I was very excited about the action of the piece and not so much about the background. Some time in graduate school had me questioning making meaningless illustration and I just ended up stalling, setting the piece down, and eventually forgetting about it.

This week though, I cleaned my studio, and in cleaning my studio I rediscovered the piece and started to think about the background as another piece entirely, a piece really which may be more important to me than the main character action, so I finished it. And I like it, and I am excited with the possibilities, though the eventual outcome I do not think will have anything to do with this particular product except for maybe as a catalyst. Good stuff.

I started a poem about this background. I'm not much of a poet, but I think maybe a project working back and forth between literary and image based artwork may be in order. It could end up being really cool and for that matter I have absolutely nothing to lose now.

So here we go.
Peace
-Mike

Now that the Rapture is Over - Moving Forward

2011-05-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

Today was a beautiful day. The sun finally came out, and I managed to finish 4 out of 7 of the illustrations that I am supposed to complete for an e-book. Nothing too exciting but hopefully some cash pretty soon. Once I got a little bit done on that I was able to work on some projects that I have been meaning to get to. The first project that I wanted to get to was the June calendar for the Bollard, a local newspaper here in Portland, ME.

I think I will always be submitting this to Doodlers Anonymous's calendar contest for the month of June. If it won it would be the feature doodle of the month. I think I have a decent chance with this bad boy so here goes nothing.

More work coming soon.
Peace
-Mike

Rapture Me this Rapture Me That

2011-05-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Will the world end in roughly thirty five minutes? If it does I will have gone out listening to Ben Harper and typing up a blog post. There are worse ways to go. Good luck to you in maneuvering zealots tomorrow.

That said, I am very excited to begin relaying my ideas for a site specific installation at the Ghostly Heart Atelier, in Lowville, NY. This is a very special project and work for me to complete not only because it is a chance to do an installation, but it is also in my hometown, where I thought I could never do anything artistic. So I get to tackle two birds with one stone. Awesome. I also have gotten one of my classmates from MeCA interested and he is making an installation as well. Now that is really awesome.

First off here are the first couple sketches that I came up with for the space.

The community that this piece will be immersed in is a hunting, backwoods, farming culture. As I recall there was little for entertainment in the area besides barhopping and hunting. Farming and farm related industries, like milk and cheese and maple syrup are the primary industries in the area. Also of importance are dealerships of farm equipment and off-road equipment.

These three images are of the interior of the space. I was impressed by the claustrophobic nature of the site. It mimicked the way that I felt while living within that community, and that seems pertinent now as well.

This door is not only awesome but also speaks to my reluctance to voice my opinions in that area of the country. I was so closed off from the public when I lived there because I thought that no one would understand my points of view. I now realize that this may not be as dramatic a difference in ways of thought, but this piece is about fifty fifty about me and about my hometown.

Hope you are getting excited. I know I am. Beware of zombies tomorrow.
Til next time, if there is one.
Peace
-Mike

Sketches for Children's Awesomeness

2011-05-19T17:19:00.000-07:00

I am working on a project that has been on the backburner for a couple years. It is a relief to finally be taking some time for it. After a lot of thought, I determined that it didn't make sense to try to carry a full time job during the rest of school. The first year went entirely too quickly and I don't think that it will benefit me to keep working through the second. So that said I have been able to devote a little more time to projects that have been left by the wayside.

One such project is a children's book that I have been meaning to work on with an amazing writer whose name will remain unspoken until more work is done on the book. For now I have some character sketches for you to view.

I am really enamored with these two sketches. The second one is a self portrait as flying squirrel, which just make me giggle like a school girl. The first was an opportunity to do something with a squirrel besides just having him sit on a tree limb. Versatility is the name of the game.

The bunny is really supposed to be cute. Super cute. So cute it makes you kind of feel ill, like if you have way too much chocolate or banana cream pie. I might need to make him cuter.

This last one is a two headed beast. Well yes there are three heads, but what I mean is it serves as sketches for character studies of two dimensional creatures and I am currently sculpting this totem out of bass wood with the help of a set of chisels or two that my father donated to me.

There's a lot going on. I'll be back soon with some more images. Til then.
Peace
-Mike

Coffee. MMmm Yum.

2011-05-03T15:23:00.000-07:00

It's a lazy cloudy day here in Portland, Me. I love cloudy lazy days. I worked my first shift at a new job, and was supposed to meet a fellow to go over some illustration work, but resolved myself to do the work by email instead and save the dough that I would have spent going to meet up with him.

I am also through with school for the time being, so it is time to get going on some work that I have had lined up for a while. I will be exhibiting a little mini show of paintings and drawings at a local coffee shop in Portland, Bard Coffee, which is going to be great. I haven't shown at a coffee shop in a long time. I think this will be much more low key, which I am all about. Also, I am starting to talk with a wicked poet about doing a book again. I sent him a quick text with this image to show that I was ready. Thought I would share it with all of y'all.

I'll keep you posted on these new projects. I think they are all going to be fun, which is something that I haven't been doing much of lately. Fun illustrative awesomeness. Fine art is cool and all, but illustration is fun. Just a word to the wise. Have an awesome Tuesday.

Peace
-Mike

Assemble

2011-05-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

I have been attempting to wrap my head around the work of Deleuzze and Delanda, in attempts to understand better the concept of society as assemblage. I reasoned that if I understood the social constructs indicative of the assemblage that I would then comprehend the creative process as assemblage. It is now evident that I use accumulation of pictorial elements as a way to organize my memories and as somewhat of a visual diary. I draw comparisons between disparate systems of operation, and am perhaps guilty at times, within my reasoning, of oversimplifying things.

At the end of the semester this spring, I completed two installations.

Re-using the head.

Yup, squirrel on a stump.

Disconnected plumbing in the brain! That one may just need to be a painting painting. I love how blurred out the no parking sign gets when a camera flash goes off near it as well.

I'm going to post some of my other totems soon. I actually have images take already. The head installation with pipes is essentially a modern assemblage totem. I have been so into totem poles lately it is not even funny. Although to be honest some modern totem poles are pretty funny, so maybe that is an incorrect statement.

Peace.
-Mike

Far Too Much to Do & Far Too Much to Share

2011-04-24T04:48:00.000-07:00

It is the twenty fourth. This year escapes me. I have four more days of first year graduate student status before I cross the threshold and begin the downhill slide into an MFA in studio arts. These are exciting times. However, there are still a number of people looking for me to do my old work, which I think will inevitably be crossing paths with the new work, and this has made me one stressed little monkey.

But, things are looking good now. I need to pull together a small show for a spot in my hometown, which is great. I have never shown art in Lewis County. I am working on a piece in exchange for a new American made Fender stratocaster, which is very exciting, putting together a small group of works for Bard Coffee in Portland, working up some more pieces in a series of paintings for a commission, and trying to work on a couple illustration projects. I am feeling a bit busy, but it is a happy time.

I'm posting a couple images of my most recent installation. It is really a portrait of an artist as you will see. I'm pretty excited about it, but I am far more excited for my newer ideas that have come of it. Stay tuned, at this rate, I'll have something new up in a couple months or so. But no, in all seriousness, I'll try to get some sketches up soon.

This is really a kind of a continuation around the room of the piece that I showed a couple months ago. I have gotten way more into the making of this piece than I was though. I think that the artist manning the stereo and thinking about a big black cloud is right where I am at. Like I said, a self portrait of the artist.

It has been good. Things are coming together. Answers to questions that I hadn't even considered are becoming more and more readily available. I am feeling good. More to come.

Peace
Mike

Being More Thoreau

2011-03-27T12:12:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I visited the site of Henry David Thoreau's shack on Walden pond with a good friend of mine. A small vacation in Seattle means that you don't see the images until now, but I didn't figure that anyone would mind the wait.

I am incredibly interested in the persona of Thoreau. The man stated that he thought that the working man was miserable and that you should just go do whatever helps you subsist. Interesting in theory I suppose, but it does seem relatively impossible in this day and age. And also, it is worth noting that while he inhabited the cabin, friends would bring him food and drink. He was not completely living off of the land, no, he was really just avoiding the tax man. I think that in late March and early April a lot of us can kind of appreciate that mentality.

But the way that I have been thinking of Thoreau is as an icon. He is an icon of thinking above work and of attempting to experience things to the fullest as an individual. These are things that I feel my wooden block project is starting to hint at, so I decided to share my blocks with Mr Thoreau. I am sure that he approved:

This working outdoors thing is pretty cool. Not quite used to it yet, and really trying to keep out of my own way creatively lately but we will see what happens. Talk with you later.

Peace

-Mike

The End is the Beginning is the End

2011-03-11T04:30:00.000-08:00

Thought I would start off the morning with a little Smashing Pumpkins reference. Apparently they were in conversation twice yesterday in Portland. The question of "are they still relevant/cool?" came up. I don't really know, but I still dig some of their stuff. So anyway, moving on to artwork....

This has been a super difficult semester, unlike the last one that was super difficult, wait. Ok, so no change on this front really, but I'm starting to create some very different, though fundamentally me, artwork. I decided to share the component installation with all of you. It is in progress, and I am just starting to get more excited with the process so we will see what happens with it in the near future.

This is not the most crystal clear image. That is something that I will be trying to work out a little bit in this near future as well. As I create better images of the work I will definitely be sharing a little bit more.

Until next time though, be safe, and for those of you on the Pacific, be extra safe.

Peace

Mike

Prosthesis - A New Illustrative Work

2011-02-28T20:49:00.000-08:00

I have been commissioned by a friend from the coffee shop to fill his living room wall one piece at a time. When looking through the site he was a particular fan of the After the Ice Caps pieces. I was pleased to hear this as that gave me a great excuse to work with water again. So today when I was at wits end trying to deal with graduate school schtuff, I whipped out this piece. I was completely drawn in, which is great, because the work for grad school has not been doing that. I need to figure out what it is that makes that line for me. I think that the block project does have the capability of getting me excited but depending on what people say about in my online forums for school, I either ride really high on the idea or beat down on it. Currently I'm feeling a bit negative about it. But all in all, if I can just respond by doing an illustrative piece that I am pleased with, I really can't complain. And now I am looking around studio at unfinished works and thinking about wrapping those up as well.

Here's the piece that I did today. What do you think?

I am excited as well for the upcoming pieces that will connect to this one. It is an old concept that I worked with several years back, but one which I never developed to complete fruition, so this should be pretty good.

For now, I am pleased. I need to do more of this to keep me happy. The seriousness that they push at school seems so oppressive, and I am a pretty cheery guy most of the time. I hope you all have a great day! Do something that makes you feel awesome, as a favor, for me.

Peace
-Mike

I'm Totally Nuts For You

2011-01-26T22:06:00.000-08:00

All of you. That's right. I love you, and all of my other friends, and my cats and just about everything on the planet. It's great. Except maybe snakes. Snakes scare the crap out of me. This is my piece for the
"Lovers and Haters" show at the Hive Gallery.

It's good to do one again after a little while off from these group shows.

I have some more stuff to blog about soon as well. Actually the images are already scanned in and everything, but I am 90% certain this blog is going to be moving to Lewis Acrylics dot com soon, so I haven't been adding as much as usual since I will have to export all of the posts to the blog over there. I will give plenty of advance notice so you can change your pointers though.

Hope you have an awesome January 27th.
Peace
-Mike

The Jar Project is Complete

2011-01-10T09:09:00.000-08:00

I am finished with the Jar Project. I feel quite good about the finished product too, which is great. I received the final checklist and reminder list and saw that the jar top wasn't allowed to be painted, but I also notice that we are supposed to remove all labels from the outside of the jar, so I just sanded off the paint, because Smuckers insists on emblazoning their jars with their logo all over the cap as well as on the paper on the jar.

I also added a small handwritten biography to the underside of the jar cap and repainted Cuddles himself so that he shone a little brighter in the glass jar. I think it looks pretty great. Check it out!

And here is another view from straight on so you get a better idea of the colors used.

There she be. More to come soon. I've got some more in the works and I'm pretty excited about it all. I am also going to be teaching a class of fifth graders soon, so we'll see what comes of that as well. For now I must go, it is nearly impossible to type with a cat sitting on your hands after all.

Peace
-Mike

The Jar Project: Goals Reached in 2011

2011-01-06T14:46:00.000-08:00

The Jar Project is a show that as I have informed you will be at Whitney Art Works here in Portland, ME. It will be the first time that I am showing in a well recognized East Coast gallery. I am very excited for the opportunity.

I thought that I would begin the year by showing a little bit of the process behind this piece. I had intended to use the overlapping blocks like I described earlier. I set out with 7 or 8 painted blocks and looked at the different compositions that I could make with them, thinking that I would only incorporate the blocks in the final product. I wasn't really into the final piece with that in mind, but more into the process, which from the perspective of the post-modernists may not be a bad thing, but keeping in mind that this is a project about jars and things that are kept in them, it seems important to think of the object within the jar and therefore this post-modern thing just won't work on this piece.

So I said to myself, self, I need some cartoons in this bad boy. My friend Mattie came over and I started drawing out a squirrel for the inside of the jar. Later that night as I was walking home I found a piece of what I assume was a cross on the side of the road at some point, but had found its way to the road way. The piece of wood read "Cuddles / We Love N Miss You / 1 - 2008 to 8 - 2010. It's kind of a sad thought, but really got me thinking so I started working with this:

I decided to add some direct references, another block and to paint the lid of the jar and came up with what I presently have. It interested me to put the monument of a pet within a glass jar much as we keep the living animals in captivity within a glass jar, cage, or at least our doors and windows in our houses. Anyway, here is how the piece currently looks:

I am not sure at this point how close to done the piece is. I kind of feel as if I should paint the squirrel more, but I am not sure that it is necessary. Either way, I think the piece is a big step for me, and I am excited with the results.

See you soon.
Peace
-Mike

The Jar Project

2010-12-27T18:06:00.001-08:00

I am going to be participating in the Jar Project, a local show here in Portland, ME this coming Spring. The show is being held at Whitney Art Works, which is really exciting because it is the first non-boutique style gallery that I will be showing in since I showed at Gallery 070 back in 2007. The show will be comprised of approximately 50 different artists, so I am sure that my piece will not seem incredibly large or anything, but I am still excited about it.

Thus far I have been really stuck on one of my wooden productions inside my jar'o'art. Here are the painted blocks thus far. I figure that if I find that I do not like this particular set up I can just make this into another one of the trim pieces and then move on with a different Jar Project. I have until the end of the month after all.

Here are the blocks:

I thought this line of blocks actually looked kind of cool not even in the jar yet. I still want to incorporate some kind of graphic element as well, but I am not sure why or how I intend to do it yet. This is an ongoing debate that I have with my adviser at school.

We'll see what happens. So far so good. At least some different things are happening. It'll all connect in the end, I'm sure.

Peace
-Mike

Fractions of Image Plains

2010-12-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

If you've been following my progression over the past several months you are aware that I have been seeing everything in rectangles and hard edged shapes. I have been putting together some installation work and many sketches for future installation work. Most recently I have been thinking about models for larger pieces done in complete obsession as a finished work. This is more about my obsession recently with Jim Houser and with touching upon some old imagery and thoughts in my sketchbooks. It occurs to me that I wasn't wrong that I was just too immature as an artist to create some of my ideas from earlier years.

I have been cutting and painting trim scraps and thinking about placing all of this business as a new sort of trim around my studio. I do not know if that is a deep enough intent for the academic art public, but I plan on running with it for a while and failing if need be. I've determined recently that I want to fail more. I do not think that I will be as successful as I would like to be until I start to go out on a limb a bit more often and attempt to fail. Failure is key.

Here is the first bit of trim work in the form of a complete piece that I have finished.

It is the top trim of the room. I decided to trim the double doors leading out of the studio first. This is the view that a normal height person gets of the piece. And here is the view of a really tall person or me on a chair.

Failures on this first attempt include:

the wire.
the head work in the back and the trim aren't perfectly married yet.
The layers do no fit together smoothly.

I am looking forward to fixing these issues. So here I go, Charles Mingus on the radio, saw in hand. Best of wishes to all of you for the rest of 2010. 2011 is a new year with new posts, new art, and perhaps new sensibilities. You never know.

Talk with ya later.
Peace
-Mike

Of a Tree a Squirrel and Me.

2010-12-21T06:19:00.000-08:00

I am very excited to show you folks the development of this new piece! It is hitting some of the same notes as the head installation but feels more significant to maintaining my identity as an artist over the last decade. All of the seriousness of art theory and and art classes, intent and content and practice have me thinking, and what they have me thinking about is joy. I've been making artwork for years, and I think the reasoning behind it was best put by a zine writer that I once read. "We Were Ugly, so We Made Beautiful Things". This is not to say that I think I was ugly, but rather to say that I felt edged out of the norm as a young adult, and that has forever shaped who I have become. I am rather a soft personality, and I love to make people laugh and smile. I do have "intellectual" things to say at times, but it is good to sit back, and realize, that I make things to help you my viewer and me, myself, to communicate, and hopefully to share a laugh, or a smile.

So now, after that preamble it might look like I am trying to pull the wool over your eyes while I make a piece with no substance. Not true. I think this one is going to be great, and has a lot of inside meaning to me, which I've determined over the past six months of school, never really needs to be shared, because you will read it how you will read it, and I don't want to mess that up. Everything means something different to somebody else.

So without further ado, here is the original sketch:

In keeping with the shapes from the last semester I want to use the different panels as different textures in a painting. I have been really into these textures but at the same time have no desire to re-create textures using a paint brush. It is more interesting to me to obtain the textures in a found material.

The tree does look a little different than in the sketch, but I've been thinking of the actual production of the pieces as a little more liquid, so that doesn't really bother me that much. I think that I am attempting to approach a little of Barthes' concept of Greek Rarus, or the concept of using chance and dispersion together to enhance the art making and viewing process.

And here is the squirrel that I carved. I am very excited to be doing a little bit of this again. I don't think that I have worked on anything like this since my show for Gallery 070 on Vashon Island. I really like it. Hopefully author and reader agree!

Gotta finish up some Christmas shopping and go see a good friend I haven't seen in a while, then it's back to painting and maybe some late night gift exchange. Have a good holiday!

Peace
-Mike

On Sunday Morning I met a woman named Julika

2010-12-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning the MECA MFA students all piled into a very small studio atop a lighting fixture store in Williamsburg in order to peruse the exquisite work of Julika Rudelius. She spoke incredibly eloquently of race and money and power, and also of the social male. She claimed that men in this time are equally if not more concerned with their looks than are their female counterparts. As a moniker, she dubbed them "Dandies".

I have never aligned myself with this sort of man. I am more what my very good friend refers to simply as "a dude". And so I decided to make some work about the subject, about how all people, men included have their anxieties, their situations that they just can't handle, the shortcomings and inadequacies that are what make us all human.

So with the head project still pumping through my veins, and a new goal in mind, I started thinking on the bus ride back from New York. Here are the results of my thought. Finals will follow in the next couple of weeks.

The text in the one on the left reads "emotionally fragile". It's funny when I start to admit to myself that I do have my emotional tirades on paper, that it feels so much better. I think that most people do though.
I really like this second one. I think all these text pieces should be accompanied by men with Sam Elliot staches.

So beat. Time for bed. We'll have to chat again soon.
Peace
-Mike

I tip my hat to you

2010-12-08T19:38:00.000-08:00

I've been working with some new hat sketches and some new sketches for installations. I am still fighting to include a graphic element in all of the installation work, despite the fact that professors claim that the work is stronger without it. But I wonder if it is worthwhile to be strong work if at the same time it loses the piece that is fundamentally me, the author. How do I reconcile cutting myself completely out of the piece? I don't think I want to, so I'm not going to do it.

New sketches, graphic element included:

This piece I think is going to include a head and a hat rack with several different hats on it that people will be able to take off of the rack and apply to the cartoon's head. I am not sure if people will really feel ok moving the hats, so if you have any suggestions on how to make people feel welcome to move the artwork around, let me know. I figure it is kind of like clothing for paper dolls, but wooden.

This is a more formalist piece that I have been thinking about. I am not sure that I am really into it, but I like the idea of a history and a texture through the wood. Not sure where it is going beyond that though.....

Lastly, I've been thinking a lot about where the art comes from lately. The material collection grows more and more interesting. I think that I am going to try to document where I get all of the materials from in the future for an added layer of history. I am after all relatively obsessed with maps.

Hope you folks like the work. I'm pretty pleased with the revelations that I have had of late. Hopefully it will equal some good work for all of you to view as well soon.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike

The End of the Semester...Installations & Such

2010-12-05T12:42:00.000-08:00

This semester was absolutely crazy. It was a mental marathon and one that I will take the full 6 weeks to recover from and I think. For the next couple weeks I intend to focus on some more illustrative fun work. Watching Beautiful Losers today, cemented that thought for me. In 2004, when I bought the book, it really changed the way I created, how I felt about my work, and where I felt I fit into the art world. It did wonders for the development of my artwork as a viable option for shows and illustration work.

I would like to pursue some more work in the illustrative vein and really concentrate on the vitality of that cartoon imagery, hopefully pushing it into the installation work and not leaving the two mutually exclusive. Someone told me earlier in the year that everything that I do is connected, even if the only connection is that I did the work.

The last piece of school was by no means finished but I believe it was still a step in teh right direction. It was more interventionist in nature, and left a great deal of room for improvement, which I found to be a relief and not particularly a crutch. A good feeling.

I have also started sketching out more involved environments and more detailed installation pieces. I think that the endpoint of these pieces will be more sculpture than anything else. We will see.

This piece I intend to make in the round, preferably to be displayed in the middle of a room. I am not sure that I will be painting on any of the pieces, or at least whether there will be anything representational on the wooden parts.

This piece I would like to make into more of a fete of engineering excellence. The thought of balancing the large piece on a small fulcrum is immensely interesting to me and makes me think of the problems I used to give myself when trying to work with Legos and Lincoln Logs when I was a little kid.

But for now. Illustration. Cartoons. Whatever I feel like really. I might even play some guitar and exercise some hobbies or something. I'm going to get another coffee.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike

Installation, A Comic, and Things Left Unsaid

2010-11-19T10:21:00.000-08:00

Last night I had to put together the installation with some level of finish. I was very pleased with what occurred. I know that when people see images of it sometimes it doesn't appear to have changed much, but in my head it has changed so much and the small things that have changed and the bits and pieces that have been added really make it work for me. It has been an incredible lesson as well. I've learned that this is what I've been trying to create for several years now but haven't been able to. It almost seems like that realization is what graduate school is all about anyway, so maybe this school thing is a complete success.

Anyway here's a panorama of the installation finish as it stands now and as it was critiqued.

I also finally figured out a method of hanging and creating a piece out of a few boards that I have had grouped together in my head for ages now. They are interchangeable. I am toying with the idea of hanging the piece and inviting people to move the boards around. Let me know what you think.

I really like this piece. Though I would like it even better if the room that it is currently hanging in didn't absolute exude office space. That's it for now though. Starting to catch a little cold, so I think I will go take a nap and enjoy my day.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike

May the King of Gloom Be Forever Doomed.

2010-11-17T19:23:00.000-08:00

For some reason tonight I felt like going back to freshman year of high school. I'm pumping a little Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It's odd, but I feel like this album should have been played in heavier rotation after the whole break up this summer. Ben Gibbard definitely had the corner on that market, but I view Mellon Collie with far more nostalgia. It makes me remember, a lot. Which leads me to the piece that I am working on now.

THE INSTALLATION

The installation has been a long time coming. Ever since I first purchased the book Beautiful Losers in 2004, I have wanted to make pieces similar to the large installations by Barry McGee, Thomas Campbell, and Phil Frost depicted within the book's beautiful pages. For some reason, whether it be space issues or just the daunting task of changing my entire course of working, I have never done it. Until now. I am finally working on my first installation and it is, albeit not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, a start.

First Incarnation:

The head was actually far easier to hang than I had assumed it would be. A timely trip to the hardware store and two picture hanging kits later and the head and the original set of surround pieces was up. Unfortunately with this one I felt the head and it's neighboring blocks were too crowded. You can get a better idea of what I mean from this angle.

Admittedly, I just wasn't pleased with this crowded approach. While I feel the claustrophobia is very important, I at the same think there is a tight line to walk here. Too crowded will not do. So I tried to air it out a bit, and I'm liking it better...

And here is to the right side....

I really enjoy how the two pieces of raw found wood when placed in juxtaposition to my painted elements look painted. Also the tone on the two pieces is very similar to the wall and starts asking some interesting questions that I have had of late about art within the cube. It was also mentioned to me tonight that I should really show up to a construction site and make one of these. I do not know if I am up for this guerrilla art making ideal, but I do enjoy the idea of this type of project being site specific and located outside.

Well I've bantered enough for one night I think. I'm going to go jump in bed before 11. You have no idea how rare that is.

Peace
-Mike

"The Days are Just Packed"

2010-11-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

There is a peaceful calm in the air. Finally. I find myself going to bed later and rising earlier. Things are far from perfect. I am currently working on several projects and none of them are really going exactly how I had planned, but I am pleased that I am doing them, no matter how they turn out. In fact I am viewing failure as a means to an ends now. I am not sure that this is such a radical change from the way that I felt before this term but it is good to realize that it is the way that I feel. (also of note, apparently I can type while looking out the window now, very cool)

I am amazed with where I am now. I had never thought that I would be in this kind of atmosphere, where intellectual thought is encouraged and where I am surrounded by some of the most amazingly intelligent and gifted people that I have ever met. It is a pleasure to have this opportunity, and I am finally feeling well enough emotionally that I can really appreciate that. Also thank you US government for your loan assistance!

But I blabber.

Today I received another map in the mail. Slowly this project is building up some steam. I am loving it. This one came from Massachusetts, so now I have 4 states and 1 province represented. So exciting! I have not scanned the 3 most recent maps yet. They are forthcoming in a tremendous display of scanning endurance, but for now, here is a little teaser.

This project is so cool. I am very pleased that people are getting involved. And please, once again, I am not concerned with how "artistic" the maps are. That is not the nature of the project. If you are interested in sending a map, please do, without any concerns of having your artistic abilities judged. Here's the address to send to:

Mike Lewis
28 Gilman St. Apt 2
Portland, ME 04102

Keep in mind, that each person ho sends me a map is going to be receiving an original map drawn by me in return. Seems like an easy way to receive some free art and to continue getting to one another a little better in this world that is so digital-centric. Don't you think?

Hope you are all well. Have a great day.
Peace
-Mike

The Head Project: Keeping it Real.

2010-11-09T20:32:00.000-08:00

Today I spent several hours in a coffee shop making sketches for this piece that I am working on. The head structure is becoming a much larger project, which somehow when I was originally putting it together I suspected would happen. Basically what I have determined is that I am going to put together a cross hatched support using shingles that mimic my line worked cross hatching with the big head in the foreground. The sketch comes out looking like this:The shingles that I have came off of the roof early this fall, which means that they are in pretty rough shape. It's not like anything that comes off of this house is in particularly tip-top shape. So we're talking a little dry rot and some brittleness, so screws seem right out. Even though drilled holes seem to go fine, the expansion that the screw would make out of the hole seemed like a bad idea, so I decided to join each piece using a loop of wire. Here is the beginning of that:

The shingles seem to be holding together well with the wire, and the wire seems relatively non-invasive to the flow of the wood. There is not too much shine, and not too much weight added. I think it will work out well.

I also managed to piece together the face with strips across the back today and added the first eyebrow shape. I went with finishing nails as I liked the repetition along the brow area.

This project is going better than I had really suspected it would. I am very pleased because the other options that I had worked up for myself in the studio were just so lacking in hands on time that I couldn't get into them. This is meaty enough for me to really get into and it is more personal than a lot of the projects that I develop as well.

Hope you like the progression and hopefully I have more for you tomorrow as well.
Til then.

Peace
-Mike

Listening to Me

2010-11-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

When I did my last experiment for class, the first artist that my professor mentioned was Barry McGee. I was impressed that judging from the other artists that they usually compare my work to that they would be aware of Barry McGee, but I am glad they are, because I remembered a little bit of what I used to like to do before I became surrounded by academics and their well educated language. It is difficult to feel a part of it. I really have never been one for using big words just for the sake of using a big word. If the situation calls for it then I will use the appropriate term but I am not married to the verbose.

Anyhow, I am being verbose and tangential, so let me get around to what I was getting at. I've been working on some constructions lately, as you could see from my last post, but I really wanted to be making those same pieces but with an influence gained from street art and the west coast scenes, not from a NYC scene that I feel has been dead since the dawn of post-modern art.

That said, here is the piece that I have been working on. It is part of a large installation that I have begun to formulate. Hope you like it. It's definitely the biggest head I have ever painted.

That's all I have for now. More to come soon, has to be, my professor is coming a week early this time. Til next time.

Peace
-Mike

Typing with a cat sitting on the keyboard is hard.

2010-11-01T00:09:00.000-07:00

Good morning. This past weekend has been a whole lot of busy. I started playing with a punk band again, I carved a sweet cyclops pumpkin, I cooked crab and clam cakes at my friends Halloween party, and I painted, a lot.

I am very into this new painting that I am working on. I had actually hung the piece as an under painting in the MFA show at the end of last summer at MECA but when I picked it up from the show, I realized I couldn't actually stand the painting anymore, so I painted over it, I drilled a hole in it and I installed a faucet. I like it, though I plan on constructing a better way to hold the faucet in the painting.

I am really pleased to be working with these constructions again. I will probably catch some flack from my professors for abandoning the conceptual project that I have had going, but over the past couple weeks I've realized that I need to be happy with my work, even if others are not.

I've also been working on some new drawings incorporating pipes. It has been suggested that the way the pieces are drawn out on small planks and blocks of wood makes the piece appear to be a game. I am not completely upset by that, though really, I feel that it speaks a bit more deeply than as a game, but really that is the least of worries now that I have so definitely absconded from my Fall Proposal.

Sorry for the glare. It is tough to take photos in the studio after dark. Only one overhead bulb and a lamp that is a bit too strong for what I need. Hopefully you get the idea though.

Go Giants!
Peace
-Mike

I Feel More Alive than I have for a While.

2010-10-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

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

Buttons!

2010-08-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to do buttons for a very very long time. Guess what. I am sick of waiting. Tonight I ordered two sets of fifty buttons. I am not sure how much I will be charging for them. I think maybe 2 bucks each, though that again brings up how much it will cost to ship them. Probably not too much. They are 1 inch buttons. But anyway, the moral of the story is, I am making buttons, and that makes me very very happy.

Check em out, and email me if you'd like one. I hope you'd like one!!!

I love this painting, so I decided it would be a good first button! My friend Jesse from high school has this original. I hope you folks think it is a good starting point.

I had to warp this painting a little bit in order to make it fit to a button. But I found that I really liked the robot a bit better when it was a little fatter anyway. What do you think? Skinny or fat? I assure you this is not any kind of politico argument developing, merely a curiosity about the robot.

Lastly here is another robot wringing out a cloud. Hope you dig it. I was very pleased with the drawing. Still not sold on the paint handling. I may work into it again.

I'll catch you cats later. NH weekend, so no posts from me for the next few days. Have a good one, and enjoy the last days of summer! I sure will.

Peace
-Mike

The show is en route

2010-08-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

Sending out a show always feels like jumping off an emotional cliff, like so:

The show is finished. Finally. The different gears for operating in Illustration and Fine Art mode become more and more difficult as I attend this graduate school. It is frustrating though, because I feel like the answers should become more clear, not less clear.

Anywho, here are a couple last minute pieces that I compiled for the show. Hope you like them.

Just a simple little guy here. I needed to develop a companion for Rita. She was lonely and nagging me. Never mess with an overactive Pigeon in need of a man.

This guys just a chill little angular man. I was thinking of Damon Runyon short stories and how Big Julie would look if he were to be a bird. I wouldn't mess with this one. Just saying. He's got 13 arrests and no convictions.

This poor dude is completely confused. He doesn't even know who he is. Surely he is completely into existentialism and Sartre. He can't even figure out whether to talk into a word bubble or into a tree. So strange.

Ahh the trapeze artist. Do you think it would even hurt him if he fell though?

I am in such a strange mood tonight. I think I need to go to bed. It was a very late night getting everything together and then an early morning packing the boxes. Be on the lookout in the near future, I have three commissions that I am working on this next week as well as the Day of the Dead show for Lunar Boy in late October.

Catch you cats later.
Peace
-Mike

Summer Semester is Done

2010-08-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

My documentation this summer hasn't been great, and I apologize for that. Think with me for a moment if you will that I was merely conducting a true performance piece where the subject was of complete disappearance. Or just think that I had about a million disparate thoughts crowding my head at any given time. But tonight, tonight is Robin Hood and a pot of coffee, call my parents and call it a weekend. Tomorrow begins the first full week in the new kitchen job, which is great. Full from scratch kitchen. I am learning a lot and loving every minute of it.

But I digress. Here are a couple images from this summer that were actually for class and have nothing to do with the show coming up.

I picked up this chair the first day we were at school. I love it. Everyone in my program, however, thought I was a little loopy from the get go. I carried it from a tour to a meeting that we were having on where to get studios. It was more comfortable than the chairs that they were sitting in though. Just saying.

This is where the water system pieces started to head at the beginning of the summer. I kind of lost track with it after this, but I think I'm going to come back to it full force soon. Anybody know where to score some old pipe?

This is officially my first interventionist piece. It was brought to my attention afterwords that most likely it would be more successful if it looked more like the real sign, but I dig it. Haven't figured out my support for it yet, but this project isn't completely dead yet.

And woooooord. This is what I wanted to do when I got to school. Straight up. I just finished another one today as well. I am loving the mismatched constructions. Explanations later people, don't rush! They are coming soon enough.

For now, the Beta Band has me pretty chill and I'm drinking coffee at nine o'clock. Good times. I have more stuff from the semester and quite a bit to do before I send a package to Cake Spy next Saturday, so be looking. Til then.

Peace
-Mike

Oooh Yeah

2010-08-09T05:27:00.001-07:00

Aaah. I am so far behind in the art world. I need some serious catch up time. Unfortunately, I do not think I can make my opening in Seattle, but at least it looks like I will have paintings to send. Still, I am always bummed when I miss out on a trip to the Emerald City. Especially when I am only doing it so that I can have a job. But when I heard the relief in my mother's voice that I would have to work and wouldn't be able to go spend more money on a ticket, I realized that conservative is probably better in this instance. So I guess, if you are in Seattle, please go to the show, perhaps I will send a card board cut out or something so you can meet that, or maybe next time.

Anyway, here is my piece for the beer show at Lunar Boy Gallery. It is totally late, but at least I like it. It's a play on the Kool Aid Man in case it isn't obvious.....

Summer is winding down. I will have more time for all of this, and less time spent reading about beholders and absorptive subjects. I look forward to the possibility of being on here more.

Have a good Monday.
Peace
-Mike

Free Drawing Drawing

2010-08-06T11:52:00.000-07:00

This weekend I am running a promotion on my Facebook page for a free drawing. Post your favorite color and why and I will throw everyone's name in a hat and have a friend select someone at random. The winner receives a free framed drawing that I will send out on Monday. The winner also gets to choose whether it is a robot or bird drawing! Check it out. You have to play to win, right?

Here Tis

Til next time
Peace
-Mike

Right On

2010-08-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

I really need to get some more work done, but I've been in this strange realm where I am not finishing much. I guess I'm doing better than I'm letting on, but I wish that I had more done anyway. I did pull off a painting in roughly a half hour today though. Talk about old school.

This one is almost done, but I am just not with it enough to render tiny birdies. I think I need some groceries so that I can eat something real. It will help my awesome rendering energy. Starting to wan, you know.

Here is my half hour painting. I love this robot, and there is no intent whatsoever, so I guess I won't go showing it off in crit at MECA. It would be good to develop an intent for these guys you know. Just safer when it comes down to it.

I love this painting though. And Jeane told me to keep painting cartoon work and painting based on old literature today. It was odd to hear the other half of the coin after this entire summer of crazy content.

Anyhow, I don't know where this is all going. I'm happy with these two pieces though. Hope you like them. Have a good one.

Peace
-Mike

PS I get a new cat tomorrow!!!!!

Robots Love Cookies

2010-08-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

So I looked at the calendar today and had a mild panic attack. Needless to say graduate school has eaten up a lot of my creative time and I have put myself in a position where I need to finish some stuff and fast for the show in Seattle, and I think I have maybe a total of two days before I get a painting out to Astoria as well. I thought I was doing pretty well too. I guess noticing before they have to go out is better than noticing after they are supposed to go out.

All in all, figuring out that I need to get trucking has gotten me into a couple quick little robot paintings, however. And I do love some small quick robot paintings. Check em out.

I had done a couple sketches in the recent past of flying robots. I think the next couple pieces are going to have to involve interacting with something else though. Perhaps a bird or perhaps something completely different. We'll see.

It has been so long since I've painted one of this type of robot. I really miss the soft looking robots. I hope you all are happy to see one too. I don't know. I feel like I'd like to do some more. Kind of my emotional state robot you know?

And last we have a robot eating a cookie, because robots love cookies. Nuff said.

Peace
-Mike

So how many of you remember these guys.....

2010-07-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

So the last couple days of class I have found myself doodling a lot. I have doodled a whole bunch of cool stuff, and the coolest thing that I've been doodling is monsters. It has been so long since I've drawn monsters on a regular basis, but I dig it. Miss it. All that jazz, you know?

So here we have it, one robot painting for this fall's show and a monster drawing. Just to give you an idea of the time in which this guy came about. I was listening to a very long winded speaker and my monster was much more attentive than me. What can I say? He was repeating everything that he heard. Here tis:

He's happy though. Really. His race shows both teeth when they are happy and no teeth when they are unhappy. Don't let that frowny looking face fool you.

And here is another small framed piece for the show in Seattle. At this rate the walls will be absolutely crowded, just as I had hoped. I want everybody to be able to walk away with something this time.

Hope you like it. Hope you had a good Tuesday. Not going to lie. I certainly did. Til next time kids.

Peace
-Mike

Bootleg Animation Time

2010-07-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

Graduate school is intense, and for the most part, they would prefer that I don't paint here. Apparently they take that performance and installation as more valid than painting and sculpture as truth. I have to admit that that frustrates me a little. Though in two years I may be a performance and installation interventionist and look back on this laughing. Who knows? But I like paint.

Anyhow. I have one new painting to share today and a mock up for an animation. I hope you like them.

Another piece for this September's show. I've been really digging doing the simple little guys in direct contrast to the thinking that is required of me in class. If only I could figure out a way to explain making cute things in an educated manner. That would be fabulous.

And here it is, the mock up for a future animation. I swear that it will get a bit more involved, for right now I am still trying to learn a bit more of this after effects thing. So keep your eyes pealed for new developments.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike

Tweeting on a Regular Basis

2010-07-17T17:56:00.000-07:00

Nope. This is not about Twitter. I use Twitter but that is not what I'm talking about right now. Earlier this year I made my first mobile, and this week I decided that I really wanted to put a couple of them together for my show this Fall. I cannot say that I really have time to put all of that together but, I do not mind the extra work. It keeps things interesting.

I hope people like these. I sure like making them. Sorry I'm not more verbose right now, grad school is kicking my patookis. Blogger doesn't like my spelling of patookis. Tough beans, Blogger.
Here the latest mobile.

Enjoy.

I have a whole bunch more stuff that I should get around to posting. Really, one of these days I will scan it all in, and when I do, you will experience some serious sensory overload. Until that time comes, relax and enjoy your summer.

Much love and respect.
Peace
-Mike

One Crazy Summer

2010-07-05T04:13:00.000-07:00

It has been. It's been one wild and crazy ride thus far. School is an amazing place, with so many books and teaching resources, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to be here. I have not been scanning in any of my work, so I don't have much to show today, but I do have one image of the mobile that I have been working on. Admittedly it is not the greatest image, though you'll at least be able to get the idea of it.

It was not that well received in critique, which is a good thing really. I haven't been pushing myself nearly as much as seems necessary the past several years. Perhaps I can get my artwork to a better level finally.

There will be more to follow.
Until my next date with a scanner....
Peace
-Mike

Treading Pigment

2010-06-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

I am officially chest deep in acrylic paint at this point. I feel so busy, though most of my work has been placed upon my shoulders by me. This coming Friday marks the commencement of a new stage of my life, and I am not certain that I feel completely prepared for it. This fall marks a continuation and perhaps a culmination of everything that I have been doing for 7 years. I speak of course of graduate school and of my solo show at Blue Bottle.

I know that I am supposed to learn in graduate school and that there is no need to "be" a complete product when I show up, but I do, however, want to be in a proper state of mind, ready to learn, ready to paint at warp speed, so I have been practicing and reading and trying to expand my mind. The next 2 years will be the most rigorous of my life thus far. I am certain of that. My natural inclination is to take this sort of atmosphere and focus on it, and convince myself that I am behind and then focus on it more. I know this, this is who I am, and I am so looking forward to this.

In preparation of some new concepts that I have going on, I taken the train concept a little further. In sketchbooks it has gone still further and more paintings and perhaps combine paintings will be coming to fruition shortly. Here, however, is the beginning:

Admittedly this is not the greatest photo, but you get the general idea. It is all based off of the cover illustration that I did for OVS magazine, which by the way should be available for purchase from ovsmag.com very soon.

The second piece that I have for folks today is another from the series for "Wings of Fury". This show is really turning into a marathon for me. I'm trying to finish as many small and relevant pieces as possible and it is making me focus more on the elements of art and production value than I have in the past.

On a personal note. The reason I call the solo show at Blue Bottle a culmination of the last 7 years is because, when I started this, 7 years ago, I was submitting work on consignment to Blue Bottle and wanted very badly to have a show there. I felt that if I did have a show there that that would mean I was finally successful. Well, I guess this September under those beliefs, I will be successful. But as one race is finished the next starting line is waiting right around the corner.

It has been a long crazy ride. I am sure it will continue to be so. Here's hoping that it remains interesting for all of you to stay on the train.

Peace
-Mike

A Quick Update

2010-06-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

I have been working feverishly enough that I am having trouble keeping track of time. Here is the fruit that I bore so far today. Hopefully I can do some more after I am done with the day job today. Sometimes I feel so exhausted afterwords that I have nothing left.

I think this is done. Not sure yet. I'm going to sit with it and see tomorrow. But for now, it's at least come a long way.

More to come soon. Keep checking in people.
Peace
-Mike

A Study in Miniature: Continued

2010-06-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

The onslaught of small paintings continues. I am really digging working tiny. I've been working on small paintings for the past five years, but these are tiny paintings. I love it. It really allows me to focus on character more and plot less. Plot is great, but I'm feeling more interested in 1 shots right now. The goal to completely litter the walls of the Blue Bottle, I think is completely attainable.

Here is a piece in progress. I drew it out a few times before I arrived at this particular composition, and I'm glad of it, because I think it is more successful than when I started.

To be honest, I don't think, I know. The original was truly a concept drawing. So static. I'm glad that Beth advised me to sketch more. It has really helped.

I love the simplicity that I feel I can get away with in these smaller pieces. There are a lot more in the works. I don't think any of them are going to cost more than 50 bucks either. So those of you with a budget like mine, that have been wanting a piece, pay close attention to the Blue Bottle website once September rolls around.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike

Staying the Course

2010-06-07T09:45:00.000-07:00

It has been busy in Lewis Acrylics land. Very busy, and it is time to catch folks up just a little bit. First off, the Goonies Reunion show in Astoria at Lunar Boy Gallery was an incredible success. I sold both pieces that I had hanging in the show. That's better sales than I sometimes manage in a solo show. There are still some great pieces available in the show though, so be sure to check out some of the other Artist's work here.

Second. Paying for school is crazy beans. I've had trouble convincing the loan company that I live where I say I live. I thought that this was because of my PO Box, but now realize that originally I had started looking at MECA while living at my old place in Ashland a little over a year ago. MECA still had what seems like an address from months ago and were in turn sending the wrong address to JP Chase. It goes without saying that that wasn't going to work, but now everything is fine and in a mere 2 weeks I will begin attending classes at MECA. Woot!

Third. I have 2 weeks until school, which leaves me a very limited time period to finish my show for this September, but I have been putting in a grueling effort and think that I will manage just fine. Last night I pulled together 3 small pieces. I've decided to keep most of the paintings in this show very small and to do a lot of them on paper in random thrift store frames. Barry McGee style. If you don't know Barry McGee, check him out on PBS's Art 21 site. He's amazing.

Anywho, here is the first piece.

This is Rita, who I painted in a more transparent acrylic manner. It's kind of nice for a little change, and gives me a chance to do some ink work, which I haven't worked on since the first time I was in college.

I call this one, "Here to Save the Day". I'm having a bit more fun with the actual paintings of the Mighty Lark now. If you're interested at all in the Mighty Lark too, there is a comic that is going along with this show in September. Page 2 will be going up tomorrow. Mightylark.blogspot.com

This is Albie, Rita's hubby. I'm really enjoying trying to carry my characters a little further here. Albie is a carpet bagger, hence the derby and the carpet bag.

There is more to come soon. Stop back often.
Peace
-Mike

Catching Up...

2010-06-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

I am starting to gain a little bit of momentum. Slowly but surely I am digging my way out of this hole that I've created for myself. Sometimes I bite off a bit more than I can chew. I will be the first to admit that.

I've settled up with MECA, though seeing the numbers in front of me definitely made my heart take a flying leap and dropkick my brain, but I've survived that and have moved on to the creation of more work.

Today was the first day of the "Wings of Fury" saga on Mightylark.blogspot.com. I am stoked to be working with the Mighty Lark again, and am progressing much more smartly with the web comic this time. I already have the first 3 pages drawn out, but am posting 1 a week. Just to be certain I don't miss a week, and that there is a little more suspense and room for revision. The show that is going in tandem with the comic has also taken a very positive turn.

I have started working a bit more feverishly while at the easel and the results have left me immensely pleased. Here is the first piece that I cranked out with a bit more energy:

The scan is not great, but you can get the idea from this image at least.

I've also started doing some really small pieces for the show. The majority of these are going to be on paper and framed, Barry McGee style, crowding the corner of a wall. I want to really unload a lot of paintings on the Blue Bottle this fall. I have so much pent up nervousness and energy, it seems better to unleash it on art. Here is the first out of that series:

I am really stoked about this little paper piece. Beth made me draw it several times before the finish. It was flat and awful with a decent concept, now not flat and awful and I am very pleased with it.

Lastly, I finished my Sean Astin portrait for the 2nd piece in the Goonies show. Now I just need to pack the box and get it out.

Awww....Mikey. Now that I look at this piece a little closer, I should probably have put the inhaler in, but as it is I am pretty pleased with one of the first portraits I've painted in several years.

For now that is it, I must get back to work. So much to do and so very little time.
Til the next time.

Peace
-Mike

Finished

2010-05-19T10:20:00.000-07:00

I finished my pieces for OVS Magazine today, which is really great since today was the last possible deadline that I had to finish my pieces. Whoops. Buuuut....I think the pieces are really good. I am very excited about one of them. The other three are pretty cool too, but the one is a combination of things that I have been trying to get at for a while, which leaves me immensely pleased.

Here they are, best first, to my least fav last. Just to show off.

I went to school for illustration, with the intention of starting a career in sequential art. Needless to say I have not really done much with the sequential art. But this is sequential and my style. I heart it.

This is an old idea, but I never had the skills to pull it off the way that I had wanted to. Now I think I've finally captured it. These Sharpie pens really are awesome. I've been able to get blacks that I've never gotten before.

And here we have some more of that loopy line that I attribute to the use of the Sharpie pen again. I really like the way this tool handles. I feel it brings out the best in my inking.

Last but not least:

Peg Leg. Poor bird.
Til next time.

Peace
-Mike

The Escape of One Eyed Willy

2010-05-16T10:29:00.000-07:00

This year is the 25th Anniversary of "The Goonies", and I have been working on a couple pieces for the Anniversary show in Astoria, OR, at Lunar Boy Gallery. I had been working on a couple portraits, one of Sean Astin which is coming around, but decided that I would like to do one of my quick landscape style pieces with One Eyed Willy's ship.

It gave me an opportunity to do some cartoony water again. I really enjoy painting waves and breakers, as long as there is no necessity to make them realistic. Hopefully you folks like the piece as well.

Pretty successful, I think. Having seen this beach, I can say that it is one of the most amazing sights that I have seen on Earth. So it seemed natural for this image to kind of stick with me.

That's it for today. Who knows, maybe I'll fix the Sean Astin portrait or maybe scan in the drawings that I keep assuring folks I will scan sometime soon. Either way, I'll see you when I see you.

Peace
-Mike

The Finished OVS Cover Illustration & Other News

2010-05-14T05:01:00.000-07:00

I have finished my train piece for the cover of the May issue of OVS Magazine. I am very pleased with the way that it came out. The magazine will include an feature interview with me, which I was quite honest with, hopefully people will enjoy that. I still need to provide 3 pieces for the interior of the issue. I'm trying to find some things that "speak" to what I do as an artist. Any suggestions?

Here is the finished cover piece:

I'm usually not done with any black and white piece until I add some cross-hatching. It is kind of my signature at this point.

Also I've added some older paintings to my Etsy shop in the past couple days, besides the $10 drawings which are all still available. Check it out, there's some good stuff for good prices.

I'm also working on a sticker project which I would like to implement by mid month next month, which will give me a sticker to provide to anyone who orders a painting. If there is money left over then I will be pursuing a button project as well.

Stay tuned for more details. Until next time.
Peace
-Mike

A New Pen and its Results

2010-05-09T08:28:00.000-07:00

While at home in New Hampshire this past week, I picked up one of my lady friend's awesome sharpie fine point pens. I have been using Fabercastle fine point pens for a while now and have never really like them that much, to the point where I've started using a Bic pen for basically all of my drawing and shading. However, the sharpie pen is absolutely awesome.

I put together 3 new drawings this morning and inked my big train piece a bit more. The train piece is not ready to show, but the three bird drawings are. The three drawings are also available over on the Etsy Shop for 10 bucks each.

Here they be:

This bird is my favorite. I love the shape of his head compared to the shape of the wing, and oh so easy to get some loopy line work in. I love my new pens.

Another bird and headphone piece. Been kicking it old skool this month.

My birds are almost always giddie in my mind, so I decided to make a frustrated bird. A range of emotions is always better right.

Anyway, hope you like them, and will be back tomorrow with some more stuff. There is lots going on. Til then.

Peace
-Mike

On Procrastinating, Trains, and a Generally Discombobulated Sensibility

2010-05-03T19:49:00.000-07:00

I am in Portland. I have set up my studio and set up my scanning station and pumped up my air mattress. My clothes are neatly filed away and I have a new very awesome teapot and flamingo shower curtain. And so the summer begins. It is still nearly two months until my residency for MECA starts but I am here five days a week while working a day job and in New Hampshire three nights a week, hanging out with my lovely lady. Phew. So far everything is going pretty well, though tomorrow I need to get a couple jugs of water because I am dying of thirst, but on a more artistic basis, today I cranked out a sweet pen and ink drawing.

Check it out. I am totally obsessed with trains and with boomboxes so when I was in NYC this last time, it was not a stretch of the imagination for me to think of the boombox train.

So here it is:

What do you think? I think I might like to use it for my OVS cover that is coming up, well assuming that the OVS magazine hasn't been put together in the time that I have been moving....Haven't heard that that was the case, however.

Also, my Feed Your Soul free print is up and available on Indie Fixx now. So anyone who would like some Mike Lewis art, head on over and get a print free. Free! Sorry got carried away. In case you don't remember it is this piece:

Pretty cool, huh. You should go get one. It's free and available here.

I got some more stuff in the works for this week, so I hope to get some more things up later on. We'll see what happens. Until next time.

Peace
-Mike

At it Again!

2010-04-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Time is slipping out of my grasp it would appear. On the list for today is to check out the Goonies from the library today, paint, draw out the cover for a magazine, do the pencils for the first couple pages of "Wings of Fury" and just generally start to get things more in order for my move which basically starts happening in two days.

Craziness. To top it all off, I was in no mood to work on any of the projects that I am supposed to work on today and started ripping into this bad boy. Though now that I think of it, I think I am going to do a black and white version for the cover of this Poetry and art journal that I am supposed to do the cover for.

What do you think? I think it would make an excellent black and white image. I need to come up with some stuff for this black and white publication. Mostly I work in color. Not too many pen and ink drawings this day that are complete pieces. But I think this and a couple sketches for pieces that were similar would lend themselves well. I'll keep you posted as to what I end up doing.

On a completely different note, my cat was a total love bug today. It really helps to have a creature to take your mind off of the stress. Thought I'd show you just how big a fan of Cezanne he is.

Jasper really prefers planes that don't line up from one side of paintings to the other. I think it's because his eyes are so shifty, but whatever it is, at least we dig some of the same art.

Anyhow, I'll have some more serious posts soon. Hopefully I don't continue to procrastinate.
Til next time.
peace
-Mike

200!

2010-04-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen, can I get a drum roll please. We have made it to 200 posts on the Keep on Trucking, Man and his beer van blog. It has been a little over three years now and the blog is doing well. There are a lot of new followers this year and I thank you profusely for your support and for those of you who have been reading from the start, I know who you are, I love you, and thank you with a big, warm, fuzzy Mike-type hug on top.

Ok. The blubbering is coming to an end. I have said that along with the 200th post comes a limited edition print. I am fairly new to printing, actually brand new to printmaking so the edition is a little more limited than I had anticipated, however, I have two prints that look like this bad boy below. The deal is this: They are free! How do you get one of the two? Leave a comment by midnight on Friday night and I will draw names from a hat to see who gets one. You will have to of course leave your email address in the comment so that I can get your address to send your print out, and I promise that I will not be flooding you with any mailing lists or anything like that. Just a print!

Here tis:

Also in celebration of 200, I've made two small paintings, which are both for sale at $40 each. Drop me a line at mike @ lewis acrylics dot com if you are interested in one of these.

This one is titled "Jamming in the House". It comes from an older series that I thought would be nice to visit for my bash.

This piece is titled "Old Skool Song" and is also from a different old skool series, that I thought would be good to revisit for the 200 celebration. Hope you like these two. They are both 5" X 7" and a deal at twice the price. Just email me or send a pay pal payment to the same address and I'll send you a sweet little old skool Lewis Acrylics piece.

Coming up we've got some exciting things going on. I have been invited to be in the 25th anniversary of "The Goonies", a show at Lunar Boy Gallery. I'm very excited for two reasons. 1.) It's the Goonies, need I say more, and 2.) I get to work with Deborah Starr of Lunar Boy again. She is just such a pleasure to work with. If you don't know the gallery, you should really check it out.

Next up, I'm working on a movie poster, a feature for OVS Magazine, and last but not least, I am getting ready to go to grad school. It is now just two months away. I am certain that this will all be amazing. I will be sure to keep you updated on the new work. Thank you for coming back, thank you for following, and please have an awesome night.

peace
-Mike

Countdown to 200!

2010-04-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

The 200th post to Keep on Trucking is coming up incredibly soon, and in commemoration of a project that I never thought would even last this long, I am creating a special print run. I am making five prints that I will give away to 5 people at random who comment on the 200th post. That is not this post, but I figured I would show you the sketch of the print, because I am excited to give back a little bit and very excited about the drawing in general.

So here's the initial sketch of the print.

Be sure to stop back next week on comment on this upcoming post so you have a chance at being one of the lucky five. And thank you to you all for checking out the blog on a regular basis. It is much appreciated.

Til next time.
peace
-Mike

The Next Stages of Plumbing

2010-04-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

The Plumbing series continued this morning. My walk through the woods on Monday completely changed my position on where I thought roots and trunks belonged. There were so many trees with strange shapes bursting out of the ground. So I've been working at dropping the plane which the trees are coming out of.

Check it out.

I am really digging the color in this piece. I think that this will most likely come back to earth tones, but the greens are providing something good to do some scumbling over.

Second I've started thinking about the different ways to make these pieces more 3-d with the capability of more interaction with the viewer. Here is one of my first attempts.

Basically just a cube, but I'm thinking that I may put the different layers on a swivel so you can line up different shapes of tree piping by turning each piece, sort of like the kids books with three different panels making up a face.

still working. stop back later and see what comes up next.
til then
peace
-Mike

The New Mighty Lark Mini Comic

2010-04-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

It has been quite a while since I've worked with the Mighty Lark. Shockingly people have noticed that he disappeared. For those who were concerned that they might never see the little bird scrapping with robots again, your concerns can now be alleviated. This morning I roughed out the first full mini comic featuring ML and a bunch of power line eating robots.

The drawings were coming to me easily in the sketch stage, which gives me great hope for the upcoming final drawings. I've also figured out that I will be posting this comic in installments on the Mighty Lark blogspot too. I'm going to give it a couple weeks until I have the first few pages and then begin posting on Wednesdays every week until the Mighty Lark show in September at the Blue Bottle in Seattle. At that show, I will be selling physical copies of the minis.

Here's a couple of drawings so you can get the flavor of what's coming up:

One of the beginning scenes here showing Mighty and a carpet-bagger pigeon. Think the pigeons name is Lenny. I really want the bird interactions in this comic to be reminiscent of the characters in a Damon Runyon short story. Those of you who don't know Damon Runyon. Guys and Dolls was based on the characters and short stories created by Runyon. The books are way better.

I'm really excited about creating this book with a more horizontal format so I can get some big sweeping images in. I think it will really help convey some tension in the book without getting people too on edge. It is just birds and robots after all. We're not talking about going hunting with Dick Cheney.

And here we have ML's ode to MJ.

I love it, so pleased to be able to use this in the book. Hope you like the sketches. I'm looking forward to putting together the final and sharing it with you. That will be over on mightylark.blogspot.com.

Until next time.
peace.
-Mike

The First 2 Successful (?) Prints.

2010-04-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

So here we have it. This past week I constructed a printing press with my fiance's father. It is a high quality piece of machinery involving three pieces of 16 X 24 inch plywood, two long 2 X 4's cut up, a piece of maple for a cross piece and a 2 ton car jack. The press, miraculously, is a success. I, I am finding out, am a novice at the art of printmaking. That said, this whole process, has been completely and utterly awesome.

I have been etching into plexi glass plates and making small, 5 X 7 inch, prints. At first the paper was too wet, and I was losing the image to smudging and then I have been etching too hard and making some super huge grooves that are not printing well, but the one spot in the following prints gives me great hope, because it is exactly what I am looking for.

Check out the two semi-successful prints that I made this afternoon:

The print to the left was the first print. I liked how the line came out, but I was looking for a bit more atmospheric shading. So I added a little cross hatch in the second and found that the light cross hatches actually came out clearer than any other aspect of the print. And so, I think I have finally figured out how to obtain the quality in the prints that I am looking for. We will both see tomorrow when I post the results of my findings.

Today, I also took my street scene painting that I have been working on to a new level. It is nearly complete, and very successful thus far. I am extremely pleased with the result. The aim is to finish it by tomorrow so that I can take it to see its buyer.

This may be the first piece that I have ever put together with five people in it. And remarkably, I cam coming to enjoy all five of the figures. And to anyone who is upset that this piece is already spoken for, I would be glad to take a commission on another similar piece, because this has been an immensely interesting and enjoyable project.

Well, that's all I've got for today. I will try to make it back tomorrow with the finish of this street scene and with a higher quality print.

Until next time.
peace.
-Mike

Tree Plumbing

2010-04-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have lost my internet connection at home for a little while, but have now figured out a schedule using my public library to update Keep On Trucking, which is good because I have a lot to share these days.

I have been working extensively on the plumbing in the trees series. A few hikes in the New Hampshire wilderness as well as a keen interest in the piping around me has honed my focus to a more earth tone approach and less busy pipework. In my observations I have noted that most pipe work is relatively limited. There is not a lot of excess pipe work. Perhaps it is the expense of materials and a matter of flow, but no matter, I have decided to carry out the same sort of structure in the piping in my trees. Trees are very efficient life forms, so I feel I should keep their piping to the point and keeping flow.

The earth tones have also allowed me to focus a little more on form and to keep the pipes feeling as if they belong to the trees. The wild color palette seems to throw the tree off from the pipes. I really don't want this, I want the two to feel fully integrated. Here are my results for the week. Let me know what you think:

I am really pleased with the leaf life structures of the negative space in this piece. The simplicity of the branches has felt good to me as well. However, the pipework may still be a little to complicated. I am still working that out in my head.

I am much more satisfied with the leaf area in this piece. I feel the color really plays well against the drawing and with the overall yellow of the rest of the works' ground.

I have also started working with the pipes and the universe drawings. This is still in the fledgling scale but I anticipate spending most of the summer working on this series anyway, so I am not too concerned with that. I feel that this work will be more complete when the viewer is amidst the elements in the piece. Big plans big plans.

And there you have it. I hope you like it. There is so much work to do, so I wouldn't be surprised to find these posts a little more regular coming soon. I have a lot of small projects that I have put off that I am now finding some momentum for, so be on the lookout.

Until next time.
peace.
-Mike

The New Lewis Acrylics Store

2010-03-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

It has been crazy in Lewis Acrylics land. This past week I got my first two days in a row off from my day job since the 31st of January. I can't believe that 2 months have gone by so fast, but now I'm coming down from the winter job and trying to find something until I start graduate school in June. So I thought one of the coolest ways to do that would be to put together a Google store for Lewis Acrylics. It was really easy and I'm pretty stoked about that.

If anyone wants to check out the store, there are a lot of paintings at incredibly reduced rates, and since it's through Google Checkout you can even use a credit card and all of that jazz. You can check it out here!

I think it looks pretty slick. Hope you like it too.

In other news, I am starting to work on my plans for my summer projects at MECA. I have sent in the enrollment check so it seems final. Next thing is obviously to start sketching out the main projects.

This sketch is going to end up somehow being the centerpiece for a major show coming up that I will be working on while at school. I don't know if you will be able to tell the grandiose nature of it from the sketch, but in my head it is all starting to come to life. Check it out, and drop me a line with your thoughts.

Well, for now, I've got a bunch of work to do, so I should get going and starting working on some more stuff. In the meantime, help out a starving artist and pick up a painting, and for those of you with incredibly limited budgets like mine, there are some plans for some super cheap stuff going up in the store soon too.

Til next time.
peace
-Mike