Sketches for Children's Awesomeness

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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