I’ve moved to the next step with my digital work. Brushes. Hopefully, a good step. Some people at church have asked me to work on a new design project for the church. So, I’ve started to get a little more familiar with the inner workings of gimp.
Tag Archive: Abstract
Abstract & Quote: Intimacy with God.
Green #1
Green #1
This is me at the moment. a jumble of interwined branches. All the same color. No way to know even which way to grow next.
I put up a new shelf tonight. A rotating art shelf. Used to be a display in the kmart where my Olan Mills studio is. I’ll try to keep the artwork flowing for awhile. I need the relaxation it brings too.
Abstract-a-day.
I’ve been contemplating joining the “painting a day” movement. Doing one painting everyday seems like a big deal to me right now. In short, I think I’ve become a bit fixated on doing it for the last week.
The problem lately has been motivation.
See both writing and art are creative exercises. If I do one more, the other suffers. But I haven’t been writing much lately anyway. (sorry about that).
I’m still here.
What about doing small abstracts per day? Abstract-a-day. I could probably make that work. A series of paintings that would work together to form a larger peice, but would be bought as individuals. Maybe do 100 of the same series, then move on to a new series.
I think I like the 6″x6″ square sizes I’ve been seeing lately.
Vector Mouse Man
Without my graphics tablet and using only a standard mouse and vector drawing program inkscape, I drew this cartoonish looking man.
Shadows were added using a series of layers and blurring.
You take graphics tablets for granted when you are used to using one all the time.
I am still not sure why I am being drawn to drawing faces as of late. There is a certain element about a face that shows character, where a person is going, where they have been.
Wrinkles in the skin oft show signs of both scowls and laughter over the years. Usually more one than the other. This man wore lots of concerned looks from the lines on his forhead apparently.
A Different Kind of Forgiveness
I have a hard time opening up to people, online or in person it doesn’t seem to matter. I have only very few close friends because of this. Chosen carefully, and proven over time. The problem with this is that it’s unintentional. Inside this melancholy exterior, I’m a happy-go-lucky people person who enjoys the limelight at times.
I think in a conversation with my wife last night I finally figured out where a lot of this outward discontent with life comes from. I know I don’t show so much of it online which is probably part of my gaurded complex.
I am a control hound, freak, whatever you want to call it.
This probably is easiest to see in the way I handle gifts in both giving and recieving. See I have a hard time accepting a gift like money when it is given because I am in need. But, if someone were to ask me for help in some way, I am the first person to give if I have the means and often when I don’t.
The reason I don’t accept is that in some way in my head it is giving that person control over me to accept the gift. I usually have to be desperate to accept. Then I long to repay the gift at the first opportunity. I can’t seem to be just grateful for what is given.
As much as I hate to say it, I think I’ve been approaching God this way too.
Unfortunately, it goes the other way too for me. When I give a gift, subconsciouly I feel like the gift reciever is indebted to me. A favor that I could call in. It’s twisted I know.
So I am going to do something unprecedented for me. Release these people from their supposed indebtedness. I don’t think they will ever know, but somewhere deep inside of me I am relinquishing control, letting go. A different kind of forgiveness.
Abstraction Art Challenge: A Bad Day
On my way home from the hospital last night (Becca went in for some last minute tests and to possibly have the baby), I was moving about 5mph and slid down a hill and ran over a no parking sign right in front of our apartments. Not so bad, a little damage to the car…. I thought. I pulled into the apartments and went in to check on Becca.
This morning heading for work, I looked down and noticed that my right rear tire had been knocked almost completely off the rim. This makes getting to work a little tough. Oh, and they cut my hours so I drive an hour to work to work four hours and drive an hour home from work. It’s barely worth it right now. Fortunately, my dad was willing to take me to work.
I am not having the best of days. Art, even small sketches usually make me feel a lot better.
So, using only found materials, the challenge is is to create a small abstract expressionist work of art that shares a little about what a bad day feels like to you. Any medium whatsoever works.
Below is an upload form where you can upload an image of your entry into the “Bad Day” Abstraction challenge.
Update on Organic Abstract: Wild Eye
Tentatively, I am naming this piece “Wild Eye” because there is a very violent looking eye shape that is so prominently placed. I started adding color tonight. I am going to keep this pretty brightly colored. It seems to work for the shapes and title.
Organic Abstract on Canvas
Started on a whim tonight, this yet unnamed painting is ready for paint. I’m not sure I am quite ready to paint it, but it is ready for me. Here are the first few images. They are not quite up the the par of Joey Holder but it’s a bit different track for me.
The first image is the whole painting sketch.
Then after, we have different close-ups of some of the elements.
Of Courage, Doubt and the Inspiration
An artist seeking Inspiration is the equivalent of a writer experiencing writers block. You look high and low. You read books. You look at the works of the great artists down through history. Often it is in something seemingly mundane that this inspiration emerges from it’s hiding place and makes it’s way to the canvas. Then the unthinkable starts to happen…
You question the inspiration. Maybe you saw it somewhere and this is only a half-hearted attempt at creating something far inferior to the image that burned it’s way into your subconscious. Maybe it’s too over the top. Does it even fit the greater context of the style that I’ve come to be known for?
I’ve had questions like these at times when I’ve sat down to work on a new art project. Granted, it’s not usually if it fits the style I’ve come to be known for. I’m a realist, turned abstract expressionist who cartoons occasionally when I decide to do more than just write. But I still doubt the Inspiration of any piece halfway through. Usually right at the beginning. I’ve laid down a brush more times than I can remember because I suddenly felt very cautious of the work. I’ve shied away from showing most of my work on my website because I feel it doesn’t live up to what I saw in my head.
I’ve come to a startling conclusion. I’m not sure you can win at creating your own work if you are not able to have the courage to share it regardless of the outcome, the ridicule or the praise that a work brings when it is indeed created from within yourself. In this artists are called to a different vulnerable position that many others fail to grasp. Of stepping out on stage and not being afraid to sing loud and clear to the best of our abilities. To make big bold brushstrokes that capture the heart of what you feel the work should convey. That’s the courage we need as Artists.