tired

I was up at about six thirty this morning and it looks like it is going on two now. I finished my proposal for grad school and then went to work on a painting for the Hive's global awareness show. Of course I have to be in that one. With the subject matter I am usually using, how could I not be in it. Then I went to the cow for a while and then right back to studio until about one or so in the morning.

So this is the first actual painting that I've finished in my tribute to Marvel comics "What if?!" titles. I think of this series as "What if Al Gore is actually right about global warming and the polar ice caps are really going to be gone in three years?!" I know that sounds a little skeptical of Al Gore, but he's a politician. My dad's been telling me since I could walk that politicians are no good. However, I can agree with not polluting for obvious reasons.

The next piece in the series I think will be a panoramic painting, probably twice as wide as this sketch, with power lines just peaking out of the water. I need to get off the kick of violet green swallows. I think the last three paintings I've finished have had violet green swallows in them, and it is really time to stop.

but....

...thankfully, this sketch which I'm using in a painting that is almost done, has a goldfinch on the branch. In fact I should be done with that one tomorrow morning. It's almost there. All that is left is to bring the color up on the bird, which will be quite simple. When that's done though, I'm not really sure which piece I should send to the Hive.....

Oh well, better to have too many than too few.

until next time....who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men


the shadow knows

muhahahahhahaha!

My cat and I just took a nap...

Riley's pretty much the man and he sleeps in boxes, what more could you want out of a cat......


So I'm a little groggy. It's been a busy week and a half or so. Last wednesday Beth suggested I apply to MCAD(Minneapolis College of Art and Design). I've been wanting to go there for a while now. So I applied and I've been trying to get about three months worth of preparation for an application done in a week. It's always been my style though.

In the meantime, I've been doing some more work in the sketchbook, including a new bird and robot combo. After not doing those for so long, it's easier to come back with new and different looking birds and robots.

It certainly seems like a long time since I originally worked up a robot and bird together. This is a little more complex than the beginning, but I still have some fond memories of the beginning.

I've also been working on different ways of incorporating the tv with teeth into my work. This one is kind of like jonah and the whale, except there is no whale.....

So my niece, Patience made that color behind the bird. She didn't use all of the paint on her pallet, which is not really a surprise since she's seven, but I thought it was a pretty nice job on her part.

more to come soon. I am almost done with another bird in the post polar ice cap world piece.

Birdhouses, Speakerboxes, and where the two may meet

So I've been doing a lot of work in my sketchbooks lately; trying to figure out what to do with two speaker boxes that my friend RC gave me. Also, since recently getting an internet connection, I've been researching different grants and programs for artist retreat and what not. The fact that New Hampshire is somewhat of an artist retreat by default doesn't really hinder things either.

I have, I've previously relayed, become quite obsessed with birds of late. I have a collection of bird books that seems to ever be growing and becoming more and more dog-eared(it's a form of love right?) This said, the idea of crossing birdhouse with speaker housing isn't too much of a stretch. The only problem for these research institutions could possibly be "why?".

I'm thinking double doors where the speaker would be, opening like a grandfather clock. No cuckoo out of this one, but more a bird being amplified. The fight between technology and nature continues. I'm open to suggestion on this one, if anyone feels like offering anything up, be my guest.

This sketch is out of a series that has been following the global warming debates. Essentially, I'm thinking that if the polar ice caps melt, all that will be left will be birds and fish. Hopefully we won't see, but it is interesting creating some pieces with the intent of developing interest in a global issue. I guess some of my work is along these lines, but not usually this blunt.

After the two loaded images, I'd like to just throw out the happy go lucky little guy listening to his tunes in the tree limbs above....

This was a huge sketch for me in my career. At least I think it will prove to be so. It was one of the first times that I took care with the pseudo background instead of just the figure in the center of a piece. I'm not sure if the illo instructors at Syracuse would be proud or not.
I like it though.

I'll be posting a couple more things before the week is over if I can remember to bring my other journals home from the studio. And if anyone has some more ideas about birds with speakers.......maybe you can help me tear the envelope.

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.