Art House Procrastination-book Project

Wow. The deadline for the Art House book is really coming up fast. I sat down with the book today intending to knock out a good portion of it, and I ended up with some drawings that I was quite pleased with, though to be honest, I didn't work as quickly as I needed to. Oh well, I may have to work some late evenings to finish on time. Pretty much par for the course in my world.

This sketch was really tipping my hat to Michael Nobbs. If you don't know Michael Nobbs, you should really check out his work. He has an exceptional way of documenting every day life, that I really would like to be able to bring into my work.

This sketch is really nothing new for me. The last three years have been dominated by pieces like this, and I love doing them, I really do, but I do wonder if I end up pigeon holing myself too much by doing so many of them. I guess when I am old I question whether I want to be known as the "bird and robot guy", or the "guy who draws the Mighty Lark" or what. Then again, there is also the question of whether I want to be known or not anyway. Fame seems appealing, but you don't need to look any further than Kurt Cobain or Jimi Hendrix to see that it is an unnatural way to live, that induces extraordinary behavior...

Fortunately, I think I am safe. There are far less super famous artists than musicians in this era.

I know that this guy kind of looks like an old man, but I really was thinking about my buddy Grover while I was drawing this. I don't even think that Grover smokes, and he's not old, but something about this guys' walk and his posture made me think of Grover. That is the best part of drawing if you ask me. When I get some really great memory in my head of some person or event and I get to relive it for a while. That is why I love art. Uh oh, did I give the secret away.
Hope the magic isn't gone now....

So Anyway.....
peace
-Mike

Sitting Pretty - A Tanager on a Derby

Today I started to paint my Bee Here Now piece, but realized about half an hour into it that I needed to work out some of the kinks in my acrylic paint application. It has been about a month since I've really sat down and had time to work with paint. Moving and the new job have kept me somewhat in check, but now I am getting some time to work on things. Either way, I realized that I needed to work on my application and get my stroke back in its rhythm.

To do this I started to rework an older sketch that I had on board but which hadn't even received the full benefit of an under painting. The idea too, is a little bit older. I first put this sketch together in 2006 and painted the original in the same year, but was still in my phase of work where I finished everything with a hard pencil line, leaving all of my pieces a bit too shiny.

While I was working on the piece, I was thinking about that hard pencil line though, because when I used that line I didn't have to worry so much about contrast. Now that I have stopped using that line it is much harder to work a piece with contrast because my palette is so limited. So with this piece I was really trying to push my color a bit more to make up for some of the loss of contrast, and considering that I hadn't even pushed paint in about a month, I'm very pleased with the outcome.

Suddenly I have the desire to work with people again. Ever since I visited MICA with my fiance I have wanted to start working with people again. The birds are fun, and I love doing them, and in fact it almost feels like I am painting old friends, but with my people I can really work out how I feel about the character a bit better. Exaggeration is so much easier to use to prove a point. But anyhow, I digress. I hope you enjoy the painting, and I have a couple more in the works, so hopefully there will be something else up for you to look at soon.

Peace
-Mike

Art House Sketchbook Project

I've gotten a pretty slow start on the Art House Sketchbook Project. What with it being due by the fourth of January I figure I better get going on it. So today I was drawing some work in the book. My theme is "Time". In the past I have done a lot of work on time travel and time as an element of existence. By element of existence I mean that to have volume an object has to have a length a width and a height, but the object isn't there if it isn't there for a given amount of time, so time is the fourth element.

I always thought that was really cool. When I first got the Art House book, I was still trying to find a job and move, so everything was very literal to me, but now I am thinking more about black holes, white dwarves, and the rotation of our planet. Time travel and time sitting still are going through my head. It feels good to have something a little more esoteric and creative running around in there again.

Here are a couple sketches that I worked up for the book.

The first sketch is from the series of half heads that I have been trying to figure out. Word bubbles get me so jazzed. I think they leave an artist the room to be anywhere from literal to enigmatic, and that ambiguity makes it a really fun subject for me to play with.

The second sketch I am going to work into a piece for the Bee Here Now show at the Hive Gallery in LA. I haven't sent a piece to their group show since I had my small wall feature there. But now it's time to get over some things that have been bugging me, and get back into this thing.

This piece is actually a reference to an older piece that I did when I was first into time travel. It was based largely on "Time Travel in Einstein's Universe", a book by J Richard Gott. I couldn't get over the concepts in this book and was drawing things relative to its content for months. (sorry for the pun - relative)

I'll keep you posted on this new piece. I think it's going to be a good one.
This is Mike Lewis signing off, until then......

Peace
-Mike

Superfrog Gig Poster

Life has been crazy for the past six months, but I'm finally moved into a new place and putting my studio back together. Life is good. The hard times this year were not lost on me though. I have learned a lot this year about what I need in life and what I don't need in life, what I really like and what is mediocre.

I really like making gig posters and doing illustrations. I'm moving in a direction to do more of these. I'm also looking to push my illustration work a bit more in New Hampshire. The economy has made me feel much more in tune with community, so I want to try to keep some business going locally.

But Anyway...

This is a poster that I finished today for the Stone Church on Zion Hill. Superfrog is a cool sounding little jam band, so I tried to keep the poster really simple, and kind of like the old posters for the Greatful Dead and the Doors. I actually had the LA Woman album cover in mind as I was working on the text.


I really did dug doing this poster. I hope you like the finished product as much as I do. I'll be back soon with some more stuff to post.

peace
Mike

November Lewis Acrylics Wallpaper Download is Posted.

I've posted the monthly Lewis Acrylics desktop wallpaper download. The Download is free of charge. Hop over to the site and get it before there is a new one including reindeer and Santa Claus.

Hope you like it this month! Let me know what you think, or if you have any requests for particular pieces to be made into wallpapers. Have a good Holiday season folks.

You can download the Lewis Acrylics Desktop Theme here.

peace
-Mike

Changing Perspectives.

This past weekend my fiance and I rode the bus down to Baltimore so that she could check out the Maryland Institute College of Art's graduate program in Graphic Design. She was very impressed which is awesome. As long as I was there I checked out MICA's Hoffberger school of painting. I am still undetermined as to whether I think that it was great or not, but it was awesome to see some painters in their studio again. It has been so long painting in my bedroom/kitchen that I've nearly forgotten my awesome studio spaces.

I also started to think about how to break the mold that I have built for myself in recent years. Not to say that I am not a huge bird fan anymore, because I am. In fact today on a hike I saw a Downy Woodpecker, and it was awesome, but I don't think I need to continue painting solely birds. It is not healthy and it doesn't push my creativity anymore. So I started to think back, and realized that the series that I had started with word bubbles needs to come back. There is so much left to say with it, and I kind of missed the point before.

The goal of this series that I am starting is to convey more feeling than my works of late. I am very pleased with the paint quality that I've been able to achieve, and I think that I am much more comfortable with my drawing style than I was immediately after college, but it is time to bring back some of the feel for paint that I have lost. I want to get back to walking away from my canvas and feeling out the tone of my piece, and not just creating a quick illustration. I have been thinking about different aspects of this series and in sitting and thinking about the pieces on the bus for eight hours, I've got a much better feel for my next bold move.

The sketches in this post are merely quick preliminary sketches. Expect something more final in the coming weeks. In summation, I am really attempting to make my work a bit more cerebral and less like production. I need to remember to love paint again.

So, keep looking back. I will have some new work soon. I am very much looking forward to painting the next couple of weeks. Until then.

Peace
-Mike

Comin' Back Freakie Fresh!!

I'm feeling so Freakie Fresh. Winter in New Hampshire is coming and coming fast. First off this winter, I am going to learn to ski and maybe snowboard. Second things are looking good for Lewis Acrylics. I have a lot going on, but there seems to be plenty of time to complete everything right now. Very good. Some new things that are coming up:

1.) I have started to do interviews for Underground Art School. The first interview is with Andrea Porter of Blue Bottle in Seattle. It is scheduled to run in mid-November, which as I check my ical is in five days. So I will keep you posted on that.

2.) I had to cancel my November show with Borough Gallery. It is very unfortunate, but due to personal difficulties this fall, I did not have the mental faculty or desire to finish any new paintings. On top of that, I just didn't have enough time to create five new paintings in a new vein. The gallery has been very kind however, and it looks like I may be showing with them in the future.

3.) I have verified the theme of my Fall 2010 show at the Blue Bottle. It will be a Mighty Lark comic. I will be doing full paintings of the frames of the comic. The comic itself will be available for sale as well as the completed paintings.

4.) I have started a Society6 Account. It's a cool site. Through them I have Giclee prints available of My Home in the Tree and Singing on a Wire. Check it out on my homepage here.

5.) I have been working with TinCan Web Works to produce a couple new websites. There will be one for the new literary magazine OVS, which I am producing the header for and offering some design suggestions, and the site for WPCR, that's Plymouth College Radio, will be entirely my design. OVS Magazine is also still accepting submissions for art and poetry for another 9 days after today. Go submit. It's going to be great.

6.) Lastly I've been doing some new design work highlighting my line. I just put together a piece for the Kitchen Sessions Warren, NH. Check it out.

Check out the Kitchen Sessions for some cool new poetry. The idea is that none of the work read at the kitchen session will have been read before. Also, the event is being held at a very cool log cabin in the middle of the woods. It's going to be great.

That's all I have for now folks. Lots of sketchbook work that I may post, but I'm still living in someone else's house, so I don't really have a studio set up right now. I don't really want to get paint all over the place you know? But keep posted, there will be some more cool stuff soon.

Until then.
peace
-Mike