Spring is on the Way?!!

This morning I woke up next to a beautiful woman, the birds were singing and the sun was high in a blue blue sky. Now to qualify this former sentence, I wake up next to the same woman every day, so don't get any ideas, but it was very peaceful nonetheless.

I am ready for spring, so when I started to work on a piece for Blanket Magazine, I had robins on the mind. Robins are supposed to be the sign of spring, which is only complicated a little by the obese robin that has been hanging around outside of our house for the past four months. And yes obese is the right word. He is the built like a linebacker, or like one of Emmit Smith's offensive lineman.

Anyway, for the communication issue of Blanket Magazine, I incorporated a tin can phone and robins. Hope you like:

That's all for now. Be sure to check back later this coming week. I'll have the complete show preview up for Blue Bottle, my Avatar piece for the Hive and the beginnings of the pieces for my feature at the Hive going down in May.

Peace
-Mike

Crazy Productive Day

I did not wake up today expecting to finish two pieces, but that is indeed what I did. I'm amped. That officially leaves me three pieces, all of which I've started, to work on for my show to send out next week. I am so far ahead of where I usually am by now.

To top it all off, I love the piece that I'm posting, and it has purple in it. Real purple, not burnt siena and ultramarine blue. This is the first time that I can recall using this much purple since college (6 years ago shhhh).

What do you think?

I promise soon it will be something different than robots and birds. I have one piece with just birds in it, a show lined up for my birds with birdhouses theme, and a couple ideas for pieces involving my kitties.

If you're interested I did a WhoHub interview which you can view here.

Until then.
Peace
-Mike

Almost there.....

And then Darth Vader will cut me down with a tie fighter.

In all actuality, the show is getting closer every day, and the work is getting closer every day as well. It really is a pleasure when it works out that way. I slept in a little bit this morning, which may have helped my productivity, because when I started painting at 11 the vision was clear and the brush was definitely doing what I wanted it to do.

So here is a painting long overdue:

I had been working on and editing "Let the Funk Flow" for so long that I eventually had to set it down for a couple months. Today I picked it up and let it go. I think it turned out really well, and makes a nice tight addition to the Digesting Duck show.

I also wrapped up the finishing touches on a piece last night. You saw the original a couple days ago:

"Let me Give you a Hand" is a simple piece, but I think it's a nice break in the line up of work. You shouldn't have to dig deep on every piece in the show, and I think this piece is great for a quieter work.

Take care, maybe you'll even see another post from me later today.
peace
-Mike

Only "Air" can help me through monday....

I'm trying hard to make it through my weekend at my regular job. It is sometimes so hard, when you have about a million thoughts about what you'd like to do creatively. This morning I couldn't sleep at all because I was thinking about making "fan packs". You see, I started a business page on Facebook, where people can fan my business. I've been thinking that I want to treat it like a fan club, like in the old days when you could become a "Misfit fiend".

So I want to put together a package with a sticker, a magnet and a button along with a card that welcomes you to the Lewis Acrylics fan club. Definitely goofy, but really what is the sense of a business if you can't keep any of your sense of humour. If this sounds like something you'd be interested in, be sure to leave a comment or drop me a line.

I've also been thinking about the print show that I need to create a piece for. I think I may use this sketch and leave out the cat, trying to blur the lines of where one robot starts and the other stops:

Let me know what y'all think. Have a great monday, and seriously if you have time, go fan Lewis Acrylics on Facebook. You can do it here.

Later
-Mike

"The Feeder" is done.

Yesterday I stayed in the studio all day. I left for a couple minutes to check the mail at about three, and went to Bullwinkle's at around ten, and the rest of the day I was in the studio painting until my little fingers were popping.

This was incredibly productive. Yesterday I finished "The Feeder" which I had anticipated would be one of the last two pieces that I finished for the Blue Bottle show. I also pulled three more pieces into the almost finished category and completely redesigned a piece from an earlier show that I just wasn't pleased with to fit in nicely with this show. A good days work really.

Here are the spoils:

I am in love with this piece. I feel about it the same way that Stephen Carpenter of the Deftones felt when he was asked about "Around the Fur" after it came out. I've been listening to our album on repeat. Sometimes I make something and I have a hard time believing that I made it afterwords.

Anyway to the second piece for the day. The complete redesign:

I shaped the bird out a little more in this piece, took out his perch, added a robot, and am working on the waves to try to get them a bit more interesting and perilous. I've been flipping the Juxtapoz featuring the work of Corey Arnold and can't get over the massive waves in his photos off of Alaska. At its best I would like this piece to have a little bit of that gusto.

I'll be back later. There is a ton going on. If you're on Facebook, be sure to go fan "Lewis Acrylics" Thanks.

Peace
-Mike

Pushing my limits under serious duress

My show is fast approaching, and true to my usual form I find myself creating new pieces instead of finishing all of the work that I have been doing. That is not to say that I have ditched all of my pieces. I am just beginning to edit myself, carefully selecting what should stay in and what no one should ever see.

Today was a productive day. I started to paint over a piece that had failed a long time ago, and really brought some angles into the composition, making it much more successful than the first try. The color in it is really starting to lean towards non linear, and really nonsensical, but I like weaving this abstract and figurative puzzle:

This piece was also cool in that I was able to research power lines, cross arms and phases today. There is a lot of really interesting material online about power lines and how they work.

The second piece that I have to post today has really come a long way from the original. I removed the bird and decided to play more with the unraveling tape instead. It feels much more elegant and a little less contrived. Well, I guess its as elegant as a robot with a tape deck for a belly can be anyway:

I have more things to post, but it's getting late, so I will post the rest sometime tomorrow. I will also be putting all of the finishes into an album on my flickr account so you'll be able to see the virtual show.

Later
Mike

Painting to Mike Ness

I've been getting really into Mike Ness's solo album "Cheating at Solitaire". Tonight I was feeling it pretty good, and my stroke came surprisingly well after a lethargic day at work that I thought had created the perfect numb that I would never come out of.

I did, and the result is a piece that has been reworked to make it a little more dynamic:

So far it is pretty successful, I think. But I had to stop for the evening out of fear of overworking the left half of the birds' face. Now that I'm looking at the digital image, I realize it may be there already anyway.

Until then folks.