Begin Begin Begin pt.1

The past two quarters I participated in senior seminar class at Cal State Bakersfield. I created four new paintings for this exhibit. They were four foot by five foot each, the largest I have ever painted. Working from concept to completion took a lot of gesso, many late nights, nearly all my paint for about five months.

History painting series:

This body of work is history paintings, just as many artists have made. History is being made every day. The chalkboard represents an ever-changing history. The media takes information about people and events and filters into a perverse scandalized story that time goes on. As history is being written, all of these issues can be gets added to the chalkboard. Things get erased or added as revised, or even erased, based on who is telling the story.

The first piece in this series is called Brain.The mind is where all knowledge is stored and ideas are made. Thoughts are processed and decisions are made whether to do or say something, and in which way.  The mind is the place where behaviors are created. Imagination can make many things without letting them free. Mostly nice things like "Happiness is never decreased by being shared," get written on the chalkboard.

About the exhibit:

This year 29 students displayed art in the senior seminar art exhibit Magsimula Ibda Comience (Begin Begin Begin). Bakersfield is a place where race, culture and language collide and co-mingle. The cultural history of each student, is quite often reflected in their work and it is a privilege and a pleasure to be privy to such an exotic panoply. The aim of CSUB's BA degree majoring in Art is to help the individual student develop their own language within the parameters of contemporary art and the ever-expanding global culture. 

For Further Reading:

Todd Madigan Gallery

Begin Begin Begin

Rembrandt History Paintings

Noah and the Moon

I took on a last minute project to illustrate a children's book. The client, Katie Romley, had written a book, but was not inclined in visual artistry and wanted it complete in time for a birthday. I was given an empty card board book and a stack of post-its with the story on it.

I read the post-its and did some imagining to make a story board for each page.

Story Board

Her major request was that cover. Noah and the Moon. Written by Katie Romley. Illustrated by Alexandra Ortiz.

Noah and the Moon

The story left plenty of space for my imagination. "One day Noah found the moon. He put it in his pocket." Page one.

Finding the Moon

My favorite page was when Noah took care of the moon. "Noah placed moon in his room. He gave him pillows and blankets. At night he told him funny stories & brought him crackers." Page five.

funny stories

The book was fourteen pages. I wish I could share every page, but I know I gotta leave everyone wanting more. The client (the writer) loves it, and I'm pretty proud of the illustrations I made for this. It was a really good experience.

AIA II: Part Two: Friends With Many Toes

The Foundry had another Art Imitates Art challenge this year. Each artist was given a piece of art made by a child to use as inspiration for a new piece. Artists were instructed to keep the basic shapes from the original in the new piece.

child's painting

I chose this painting to work from because when I first saw it I pictured real faces.

Friends With Many Toes

In the finished painting, Friends With Many Toes, I was trying to keep as close to the shapes and color as possible. It took several tries. I had to study from live models, too. I tried to remember what it was like to be a child just coloring. When I was in kindergarten all of my people always had to have five fingers and five toes. Even if they were stick figures, they always had eyes, noses, fingers and toes. The shapes in the child's painting I was working from didn't include toes, per say, so I drew some in with black paint.

The show Art Imitates Art II opened the First Friday of March, 2013.

For Further Reading:

Dave Devries: Monster Engine

The Foundry

Studies

Okay, I've been thinking of what a blog is. I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't have to be long or eloquent or even a finished thought, even though I wanted it to be. It is late at night and I have the slightest fear of my hands falling off before sunrise, but I think I've had enough coffee to go through with this blog.
So let me start here.

I am participating in an art challenge, called Art Imitates Art, where artists take a child's piece of art as inspiration and make something from that.

Child's Painting

For the idea I have, I first want to improve my portrait skills. In order to do this I did a couple studies of general portraiture. (And if you've read any of my previous blogs, you'll know how much I like studies) These are purely academic. I was trying to figure out things like skin-tone and shading, under a time limit.

The first two were painted from cropped photos from magazines. 

guy

I gave myself an hour for these two.

chick

Next I got a couple models to sit for me. In exchange for an hour of their time I gave each of them the 8x10'' study I made that day. I'm really glad I got to paint them.

Keren

I took closer to an hour and a half for these two.

Flor

Now I have built the canvas the final painting will be on and started painting it. I'm going to make time for it and it will be in The Foundry's Art Imitates Art show soon.

*This blog was brought to you by coffee, insomnia and coffee.

A Better Easel

What began as a chair ended up an easel, and was a spider for a little bit in between.

Chair, Spider, Easel, Better Easel

The original intent was to make something for an art exhibit, Have a Seat for the Arts back in 2011. I made a bar stool then made a spider out of that. When it didn't sell, I decided to piece together the lumber to create an easel, because normally they are relatively expensive and hard to find. The picture on the bottom left was the easel I used and carried around for a while. 

I take my art all over to work on or to show, and don't like to be limited to a small sketchbook. However, in my travels, the old easel hasn't held up so well. Sure it fit in my car, but there weren't enough screws to hold everything together and it kept biting me. Some parts came unattached or fell off as it was lugged around. Designed specifically for a certain canvas, I thought it would work for everything but did not. And besides its ability to hold canvases, the old one didn't look much like an easel.

Easel, holding a 16''x20'' canvas

This is the third time I tried to rebuild this easel. It was still worth it to make my own because this one's custom made. It looks more like an easel now. There are supports on each side and a bigger base on the bottom. I had to cut the supports at a wacky angle to fit the height I already had and the base I wanted. The middle is still a track for the holder to go up and down.

Spider Head

I repainted the whole thing and added some decoration. I painted the new parts yellow and blue to go with the pink. The line designs painted on top ended up changing as I went. Doodles are fun. I also gave the spider head some eyes and teeth.

Back side closeup

 It’s a lot better now that everything is secure. It works for big canvases as well as smaller ones. Carrying it around is easier too because there is a beam on the back to hold on to.

For Further Reading:

Form Follows Function: A Revision

Up-Cycling With What I Got

Don't Panic