drawings on handmade 100% cotton rag paper.

here is a drawing.  in reference to ensor and rivers. it says “mon portrait en 2055.”

here are projects i am working on. . .

1.  the 410 drawings of people poolside.

2. simultaneous drawings.  making marks with left and right hand both pressed against paper simultaneously to draw separate but alike imagery.  for example, one was semi blind contour, i taped piece of paper to left of my reflection and piece of paper to the right, then stared ahead while drawing observationally with a hand on each paper.  they’re interesting, could draw better with either left or right individually, but to force yourself to make the marks together with both arms is really interesting.  five pairs made.

3. intimate excretions vol ii. smaller series and paper size for continuation of earlier idea.  small size forces viewer to come in close and personal to see what image is, then are probably turned off or laugh it off.  no escaping and omitting comittment to the series as you can’t get a feel for them from some feet back and move on to other work.  also smaller series, only four this time.  in drawing 400+ images, they work together as one when hung in sets of 40, but viewer circulates between images and doesnt really invest too much time in any one, not any one was really drawn too sensitively or with much time commitments, this time for an “intimate” series that should be altered.

4. woodcut.  got some wood, but keep being dissatisfied with the loose drawings i put on it before carving, need to get something going to just start carving and commit.

5. master drawing.  delicate really small drawing on 22×30 rives bfk grey.  carefully centered and with clean border, reference to cleanliness of master prints and absurdity of all that paper border for visual impact. a joke image to counter the notion of drawing as final product, printmaking presentation, cleanliness, quality of paper, presentation, etc.

6. large drawing.  22×30″ drawing [mixed media?] on rives bfk grey.  cant just make everything on 8.5×11, gotta stay in touch with artistic scale and prominence of image and mark on quality paper.

“Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.) was formed in Brooklyn, NY in 2008. We’re a group of artists, performers and independent curators who believe that we should be paid for our labor by U.S. art institutions.” -WAGE

quick, short, initial thoughts having watched so far half the video and still watching/listening.

+ they sure do look like some new york artists.

+ public speaking is awkward, but there seem to be too many flubs to really get into this.

+ does get me thinking more about the art market.

+ need or benefits of living in artists’ hub, with all them big city costs but hopes of big payouts and exposure.

+ the responsibility of artists with monetary or time privilege to supporting a local and developing artistic market.

+ even if it is important to you, does that truly merit a paycheck.

lot more info on this group and where i found the video. . .

http://blog.art21.org/2009/04/27/wage-against-the-machine/

so i took some photographs of images i’ve been working on at uga.  Ill post the etchings and one set of little drawings today.  Later this weekend i’ll upload another set of little drawings and some larger drawings- i can’t stand sitting through uploading and sizing too many pictures at once- it’s pretty tiring and boring.  I also snapped some images of figure drawings i’ve done in my figure drawing class- not too great.  As crucial as observational drawing is and much as i love it, i’ve been going with the anti-contour bias of the class.  Been trying to not draw image the way i’m experienced, but with more emphasis on light and value.  Not working out too great right now, but if i can keep myself from switching to what i’m comfortable with, and just slowly incorporate some of my process into this different direction, i think i’ll start making interesting new drawings.  Hopefully it will also help guide me away from being a very UCF influenced draftsperson.

Speaking of style, the visiting artists immediately could tell from my drawings where i went to school.  They are familiar with two artists from the university and could see commonalities, didnt know about robert rivers work though.  the artists are chris davison and jason scullia, look ‘em up, suckers.

borrowed a roulette from another grad student.  it’s pretty incredible.  Can be used to create some tone.  With this i was very experimental, tryin to beef up some lines for an etching.  The open/false bit areas are kinda distractin’ though.  Not really incorporated in lines of figure, which i started to do with a new etching i’m currently working on.  Some decent stage biting though, but realized there isn’t that much range people really notice with stage biting, there’s less than an hour =faint, an hour =solid, and over two hours =bold.  that’s pretty much it, layering stuff with half hours seem to kinda blend into one intensity.

that dog head gets kinda rivers.  but i really like this one.  simpler than much of what i do.