Finally back and loving it!

So as any of you who come here with any regularity know, I've moved from the booming metropolis of seattle to the quaint village of Ashland in New Hampshire. And now that I have the internet at my pad again I feel pretty darn good about the whole thing.
Oh yes, I asked beth to marry me and she said yes. Very good news. Most days she even still seems into it.

I have a new studio in my almost a brother in law's basement. Pretty cool. I need more wood to paint on, and I need to build myself another mondo easel, but the room itself is pretty cool. I got a lot of my schtick up in it, and I even have a mouse in there(in a cage) It makes me feel kind of like Batman in the cave with a lot of bats. I'm going to be like the Mighty Mouse of the art world or something.

So anyway, I've got some new stuff for everyone to check out too.

This is the "Birdhouse Jam #1". It actually already sold in a show at the Hive Gallery in LA. There will be lots of birdhouse stuff coming up soon. I've been getting really into them. Beth's parents even got me a book on building different types of birdhouses. I also put up a bird feeder in my yard. Thistle for finches. This being in the country thing has its plus side.

Beth made me another sketchbook for my birthday this last year. This was the first real page I worked up in it. The actual first page was just two flies(the fishing kind). I'm not really into emo. I guess i was sort of suggesting that people that are into emo generally like to broadcast their feelings. My apologies to anyone who may take offense.....

I told you man, birdhouses.....

Ok, so this probably needs some explanation. I've been doing a lot of reading since we've touched ground here. One of the books that I read was a Robert Heinlein all about how if the koreans and japanese got together after the korean war, came over the north pole, and beat the crap out of us, then subjected us to brainwashing. I'm not suggesting that that robot is what I think of when I think of various Asian countries but it is what I think of when I'm thinking about brainwashing. Don't worry. Soon tv's and this robot will combine to take over the whole kit and kaboodle man.

And Lastly, I don't usually use this spot for inside jokes and whatnot, but this is for Kelly Bartell, because I miss her. I don't know why minneapolis has to be so far away!

The Country Cow, NH and living homeless

So here I am. Made it to New Hampshire. I found a job within two days. Not too bad. Working as a line cook at the Country Cow. Not my preferred employment, but at least it's employment. Better pay rate than driving the beer van though. But "a man and his fry pan" doesn't sound nearly as cool as "a man and his beer van".

Anyway I am at Beth's parents house, no scanner, so I guess I'll be putting up some old stuff for the time being. Although I do have one new piece that has been color corrected, so everyone can check out Michael Boston's new piece:


I do have a lot of new work that is going on in my sketchbook and my journal, however, so when I do have a scanner and my internet connection set up at my new place, I will have a whole bunch of stuff to put up. Until then, be well. And if you are in Seattle, run to Latona and buy up the rest of the paintings there so I don't have to have them sent to NH.

Peace

Friends....

It's funny when you decide to move. Funny peculiar not funny haha at all. you find yourself talking to people and realize that you are completely on the same page, and for some reason when you have just a little bit of time left to hang out, you find yourself paying even more attention to a person than you were before.

So here is something that my buddy Paul and I were talking about tonight. American society. The leaders are no longer the people that lead a group necessarily but the people that think for themselves, and don't let precedent or television or the internet tell them what to do....
I'll miss you Paul, as unmanly as it may sound.

Getting Ready to Move and hanging in there...

I've been getting really into smoke coming out of machinery. I really want to do a series of machines with different smoke pouring out all of them, but the more I start with construction equipment and smoke the more I keep adding things; super pleasant things like leveled forests and whatnot...

The only thing that I really don't like about this series idea is the tendency to put the machinery in the lower left and right corners. Perhaps I will start to push myself to put the machinery in the upper left and right. Who knows what I will become obsessed with really. Composition is something that kind of runs in cycles with me. I'll do one thing with a bunch of different imagery and then I will look at it all and it will kind of fit a pattern.

I also had this idea for a Dia De los Muertos skull coming out in the smoke. My grandfather was a grater operator, and I guess that is what I always think of when I think of him. So when I was asked to do a DDLM piece, it kind of seemed fitting.


So here's one of the pieces that I have up at Latona now. I'm pretty excited about it. It's about five feet high, and I cut the stereos out in about two hours one night when I was totally exhausted and probably hallucinating. The birds I was awake for.
Here's an idea for a poem that my friend Mattie was working on. He mentions the sky with a tear. I started to think about it as a tear like in fabric despite the fact that I knew very well that he meant the watery kind of tear.

Slowly but Surely

A couple things to post today. I hope everybody loves Telly Savalas as much as I do. How can you dislike Kojak?


Originally I told my uncle that it would take me two weeks to finish two small paintings for him. Here it is two months later and I just finished the first. The second is nearly done as well. Almost. Only a month and a half tardy. I feel like deadlines were a lot easier to meet when I was still in school. Must be all of the stoner music I listen to.....

Does anyone remember that Tim O'brien cover art for Time, that had Dick Cheney on the cover, with the top half of his head cut off and a bunch of gears inside. I want to do a piece like that that actually exposes Vice president Cheney's brains. Amidst all of the folds I want to paint a bunch of these little tank heads though. It's loosely based on a cross between Kelly Savalas' character in Kelly's Heroes and the Cloud Constructors.

think...
and
Someone give that man a lollipop!
That one is for you dad.

until next time....

Latona, the art sale, and the glorious bucky sinister

So I just hung a little show at Latona, a bar on 65th and Latona. It actually looks pretty good. I was worried. There are so many holes in the walls there, but I covered up enough of them that I think it looks pretty good.

Everything there is priced really well, so hop on in and get it while the prices are hot!

My friend Jill already has dibs on this one, but I completed it just in time to put it up at Latona. I was very pleased with it. Notice that the birds actually look 3d.

I think this might be the first time that I have ever done a piece with just one t.v. in it. At least one t.v. without anything being done to it that is.

And this last image I came up with while thinking about a new poetry book I got yesterday. Bucky Sinister's "Whiskey and Robots".

"...I've seen angels
in public toilets
tying off with their own halos..."

Big Art Sale, Moving, and the Smoke Series

So, this thursday for first thursday I intend to be in Occidental Park selling my paintings for an incredibly reduced rate. I'll be there starting at like five thirty and going until it starts to get dark. Everything would be a deal at twice the price except the snake oil.

Anyway here are a couple of examples of the pieces I will have there.

This piece is titled "Rockem' Sockem' " after the game that prompted so many after it, like hungry hungry hippos and trouble. Actually I have no idea about trouble. The pop-o-matic bubble may very well have been it's own brainchild.

This one is called "Brighter than the Others". This may be the happiest I have ever been with my colors. Hope you like it too.

"The Wind Machine" was part of the Cloud Constructors series. I always kind of envisioned this rock forming out of the middle of the ocean off the coast of Florida, with the machine on top directing all of the hurricanes that run through Florida.



So I am also planning out a series paying incredible attention to the smoke pouring out of smoke stacks. I figure this is a good thing to be thinking about with a huge move across the country coming up again. Only thing you can think of in Gary, Indiana.

Anyway, anyone who is looking for some original work, get in touch with me. It is all incredibly reduced for the next month, and I would rather not have to move any of it with me.

peace

mike@lewisacrylics.com