Number 17

This is a wall-hanging relief piece titled "number 17"

The content is a skull with a crown looking as if they are made of pressed brass/tin. It is a faux-finish approach to the material as it is in fact, spray paint on wood. The death's head has a rich history in art, and I love it as the archetypal symbol. in this case it's a loaded symbol to hang paint on. I also included my sketchbook thumbnail at the bottom

Wood, acrylic, epoxy, glass, spray paint
15"H. 12"W.

Number 15

This is a wall-hanging relief piece titled "number 15".
The content is an upside down stylized heart in a pool of blood. This is the start of an approach to content where I'm trying to make use of heavily loaded symbols, but present them in a way to communicate something new. The materials are similar to the art in my last blog entry, in that it has a high-gloss finish and acrylic jewels. I like how this piece has both a "modern" and "old-fashioned" look to it. Although the content may be somewhat dark, I don't think the viewer would find it gruesome.

Wood, acrylic, Sculpey, plaster, epoxy
15"H. 12"W.

The facade of the visitor

Talisman series #14 - The facade of the visitor"

This is a variation on an earlier piece I did the shield of the visitor.

It is a mixed media wall-hanging sculpture. On this piece the whole thing is covered in a self-leveling pourable epoxy. It gives the piece a glass, or ceramic appearance.

Acrylic, wood, glitter, epoxy, bling, plaster.

14"H. 10.5"W.

Crucifetish # 2, 3 & 5

This is a series of wall-hanging sculptures I'm producing. They are variations on a theme. In this case the cross is really just something to hang paint on, a clothes horse for art materials. There is obvious loaded meaning to a cross that may apply to the end user though. The content does come into it when I combine the concept of "the Cross" and "fetish" although it's really just me being playful. I'm into mimicking the look of different materials on these; cast aluminum, leather, rivets, steel.

Wood, acrylic, glass, steel, sculpey, bling

all pieces 13"H. 9"W.

Click on detail images below to enlarge

Number 10

This is another wall-hanging relief piece titled "Number 10".

It's content is the tension between a bird in flight and the static quality of it being frozen in a metal surround. In addition to that, the formal contrast between the bright red and the cool metal finish.

Acrylic, Sculpey, wood.

12"H. 9"W.

The shield of the visitor

Click on above image to enlarge

"Talisman series #11 - The shield of the visitor"

This piece is another mixed-media, wall-hanging sculpture. I was shooting for a duality of reading between a predatory head, and a wood and metal shield.

I had a thumbnail in my sketchbook of an animal's head, with a single eye, that I tentatively titled "The Visitor."

This seems to be another defensive themed piece. I'm trying to delve deep for my imagery, so the specifics of the iconography and theme are not clear to me.

Acrylic, Sculpey, spray paint, wood.

15"H. 8"W.

Inspired by Terminator 2: Judgment Day

click on above image to enlarge

 

This is a piece from what I could call "the crazy crap series"

This wall-hanging sculpture is inspired by the film. More specifically, the title sequence of the film, (stills are shown below). I assume the connection would not be evident to the viewer, although the concept "Judgment Day" and the iconography of this piece might make sense to the viewer... (dead rising?)

But, since I have the ability to give the backstory here, I will...
I've always thought it was a good title sequence. The film itself was epic. Not high-art, but a heavy hitter of pop-culture none the less. In the 5:32 long title sequence, a playground is engulfed in a firestorm, accompanied by Brad Fiedel's languid Terminator theme. (see images below)

I make no claim to be a sculptor. As an artist though, I do think reaching out to different materials make for a unique set of challenges that one would not otherwise encounter. Does the material itself have meaning? What content lends itself to one medium and not another? The conceptual issues are so different when you decide to execute something in 3D verses 2D.

Acrylic, gold glitter, cell phone bling on wood (...don't make me get the macaroni out)

9.5" H. by 6.5" W.

click on image to enlarge

Cover art for Consumer Reports

Click on image to enlarge

This art is for the cover of the June 2011 issue. I worked with Tim La Palme, Design Director at CR to make this image for the cover. It was probably intended to be half content, half backdrop for the text, as is the way magazine covers go sometimes.

All-in-all... went fast, smoothly, and is a nice visibility job.

This is the unedited artwork I provided to give a more complete picture, uncropped and sans text.

Predator - digital portrait

This was a fairly quick piece to do. It's straight forward environmental portraiture. I don't know if I would call it a study or not. (I may make prints of this to sell) I do have a thing lately for anthropomorphized animals. In this piece I'm less emphatic about weird and witty content.

I'm trying NOT to do work right now that is overly ambitious. This can bog down the discovery process. This piece is all digital. I'm using a Wacom tablet and stylus for the first time here, so it's sort of a new media exercise.

I found myself leaning toward illusionism on this, and when I do that, I always ask myself: Why?

Illusionism has its own sort of "rules," and there are no rules in art, so I'm conflicted. The rules of illusionism, IMO, are to be easy on the eye of the viewer, so they suspend disbelief.

If the reason to go this way is simply to display ones "skills," then I think that is a less interesting reason for making art. If however, it is to convince someone of your vision of reality, then it is serving as infrastructure, and that seems to be a good reason for going down that road.

If I do shoot for convincing illusion going forward, then I hope it is for the latter reason.

These are some detail shots to show the textures of the piece

Folk art style.

Here are 2 pieces from several years back, when I was on a folk art kick.

I was definitely more conservative with this work than the look I'm currently going for.
Both these were framed and exhibited by Troy Tatlock at Raven gallery in Pewaukee Wisconsin.

Buy these now at my Etsy store.

"Summer"
click on images to enlarge

Detail shots

"River Music"

Detail shots