my PAINTINGS

The original inspiration for my current body of work came from looking at op-art patterns. My paintings reference this genre of work in conjunction with semi realistic female figures. The patterning in my paintings is meant to achieve a variety of contrasting effects. The optical design can abstract and distort the certain aspects of the figures or it can become a descriptive element of the painting. My goal is for dissimilar textures, patterns, and shapes to interact with the forms in multiple ways. I want the colors and planes to coalesce with the figures and become unified as a single image, but I want the viewer to question the image. These patterns have an unpredictable nature, emerging in front of forms as well as receding to the background. I think one thing I’d like to experiment more with is a more physical application of paint. I think that if the patterning in my work became very textural it could contrast the physically descriptive nature of the figures. I think this dichotomy would create an interesting dialogue between the two contrasting elements. The female figures in my work are sexually charged. This is important to me because of the psychological impact it immediately has on the viewer. The idea behind the body of work I completed this summer was the idea of deleting. This was so the viewer was in charge of inferring what actually existed in the painting.

MY COLLAGES INTO PAINTINGS

Collage has become the starting point and inspiration for my most recent series of work. It is important to me that the collage itself starts out for me as a precious document. I choose to paint them for many reasons. The first reason is to unify the image, the images that I college together are from various sources. A lot of the time I pull from extremely diverse documents that have very different styles. Painting and drawing the collage allows me to interpret the image threw my own hand and touch. Another reason I choose to paint them is for scale. This work is much more effective to me at a size specific to the image rather than the size it is when I find it. I think that it is also important to me that the significance of the collage as an object I touch and manipulate during my work process. The importance of the original document as sort of a record. I don't manipulate the images on photoshop. Alot of the significance of these works for me comes from it origin in collage. I begin with found documents that by chance work together. I like the chance aspect of this work process, it is very poetic to me. I also like that collage allows me to come up with ideas that I wouldn't necessarily come to without this process. The way that train of thought is triggered by images and when you are more aware of these thoughts you can really become more in tune with what you think.

©

This painting is much larger than the source document. It is over 4 ft tall and about 3.5 feet long. This painting references the Wizard of Oz with the idea of the man behind the curtain. The two figures are somewhat equal in power both depicted at the head of the table. The women however has much more emphasis put on her with color and her body language.

©

This painting is about the size of a TV or animation cell. It is a representation of Snow White. Snow White is traditional symbolized with the colors red, black and white. The red represents passion, the white represents innocence and the black represents a symbolic death. I paralleled Snow White to a depiction of a religious icon, specifically the Virgin Mary. Her hands are positioned in front of her body like she is praying. The actually story of snow white can be paralleled to the resurrection of Jesus (Snow White dies and is brought back to life). The dwarfs are symbols of the seven moods of man. The are all positioned around her some look to a be admiring her.

hair

I think organic shape of this form is very beautiful. I included the ear so you could see it as a part of a human and not an object. I didn't want it to exist as something that could possibly be independent from a body.

KOONS

Jeff Koon's is one of my favorite artists. He is known for his large balloon sculptures. I remember the first time I saw a Jeff Koon's piece was in late junior high. It was a metalic balloon piece which appeared to be floating in a body of water. I learned that the balloon pieces were made from steel despite the weightless appearance it had. Some people dismiss Koon's work because there are no hidden meanings and it is simply "kitsch." I really don't care about the content or lack of content in his work. The work has left an impression on me and has been very influential. My favorite of his work is a series he titled "Easyfun - Ethereal. " They are stunning and beautifully painted. These paintings read like a collage. Layered images of food, landscape, and figurative surfaces.


I think the surfaces in his paintings are flawless. They have a physicality to them. The objects he is describing are sensory and very tactile. He layers edited imagery so together as a single image they overload the viewer with information. I also think his color palette is beautiful and visually powerful. A lot of people have negative reactions to koons because he does have a whole army of assisstants who work for him around the clock. The way I look at it is there is no way he could produce the amount of work he has shown if he single handedly made everything. For example this puppy he was commissioned to make stands 43 feet tall. The amount of time it would take a single person to make this is daunting. There is no way this could of been done by a single person because of the materials that were used ( live plants and flowers).

There is reason why people are buying Jeff Koon's work for over $20 million. Content or no content they are powerful and beautiful.

Lester Mark's Private Art Collection

This friday I went to Houston to visit several art museums. The absolute highlight of my trip was going to Lester Mark's home to see his huge private collection of artworks.

He owns three Rauschenberg pieces, two Warhol prints, two of Kusama's painted figures, two Jean Michel Basquiat paintings as well as work by Kiki Smith, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Anselm Kiefer, John Wesley, Louise Bourgeois and the list goes on! I fell in love with his house. His house was not sparse or empty feeling like a lot of galleries are. It was extremely comfortable (although I am a fan of clutter). I really liked that he lived amongst all of this work . The work he owned was extremely diverse and he had everything on display. He said he only sells work to make room for new pieces. Below are a few pictures from his house.

The weirdest piece of artwork in his collection was made by Patricia Piccinini. It was in a small room by itself.

This sculpture is made from silicone, fibreglass, and... human hair.

GELITIN

Gelitin is a group of four artists from Vienna. My favorite of their projects is a 200 foot long pink woolen rabbit they made and installed on an Italian mountainside in 2005. It will live here for 20 years (until 2025), and can be seen from outer space. I like the idea of an object being created by artists that is utterly monumental, especially when its a large pink rabbit. I would really like to climb onto this bunny one day, or see it from outer space.

MARK GROTJAHN

Untitled (Large Coloured Butterfly White Background 10 Wings)

Colored pencil on paper, 176.8 x 130 cm, 2004

Untitled (Green Butterfly)

Oil on canvas, 122 x 86.3 cm, 2002

Untitled (Black Butterfly Dioxide Purple MPG 05)

Oil on linen, 147 x 122 cm 2005

Mark Grotjahn uses hard edge design to create very subtle complexities in his work. He makes very physical surfaces with layering paint. He employs slight hue shifts to create space and perspective.

Although I think Mark Grotjahn's artwork is really beautiful, something that bothers me about his work is the way he titles it. For example the work above is "untitled" then in parenthesis he puts a title ... (Black Butterfly Dioxide Purple MPG 05). First and foremost, I really don't like to think of these images as referencing butterflies. I also think this way of titling is pretentious. When an artist titles something as untitled and then put a title in parenthesis I feel like I'm being tricked.

MICHAEL BELL SMITH

Artist, Michael Bell Smith, recently gave a lecture at the University of Texas which he addressed topics of mass media (specifically the internet), pop culture, and nostalgia. I really responded to his video Up and Away. This video was constructed out of appropriated clips from old video game sources. I think the imagery is really beautiful. The layering and spacial progression abstracts it from the original content and makes something entirely different.

The other videos he presented were really funny, but also valid as a response to internet culture.

R.Kelly's Trapped in the Closet Synced and Played Simultaneously

Chapters 1-12 of R. Kelly's Trapped In The Closet Synced and Played Simultaneously (2006) by Michael Bell-Smith. Courtesy EAI. from Why + Wherefore on Vimeo.

I also really enjoyed this: (OONCE-OONCE) a website he created with a looping imagery and sound.

what kind of artist are you?

Looks like I fall pretty far right in the douche category with Art Blogs.

YAYOI KUSAMA

"The dot princess," is a nickname for Yayoi Kusama. Yayoi is a female Japanese artist. She produces extremely beautiful, fascinating, and compulsive work. In 2008 she sold a piece of work for over 5,000,000 dollars, this is a record for any living female artist. She has struggled with mental illness for her entire life. She references her mental instability with obsessive patterning (dots), this has become a trademark for Yayoi. The dots are from hallucinations she had as a young child. Poka dots sound like a really simple idea, but they anything but that to her. She refers to the dots as "infinity nets," they extend across every surface. She talks about dots extending so far they eventually would obliterate the world.

Here are a few images of several of her installation and sculptural work.





You can see more of her work at the Gagosian Gallery.
Yayoi Interview from 2008.

JULES BUCK JONES

Not only does Jules Buck Jones have a great name, he has outstanding artwork. Jules is a former UT graduate student. He shows at ART PALACE as well as many other places around Austin. His work always impresses me. His mark making is bold an uninhibited and daunting in scale. He fuses various animals together in a way that is disorienting and bizarre.

Coyote Serpents

Acrylic on Paper, 80 x 90 in., 2008

Saltwater Crocodile I

Mixed media on paper, 80 x 90 in., 2008

My first experience with Jules's work was a walk- in Space Ship he built from cardboard. BOOZE FOX VIDEO The entrance to the space ship was a ramp, which had large speakers underneath it which vibrated with bass. The space ship included a gun turret, which you could climb into. The gun turret had a view of a large alien (also constructed out of cardboard). I really enjoy the fact that a lot of the sculptures I've seen from Jules rely on cardboard. There is something very humble about this. These sculptures have an element of performance, he moves them or manipulates them by creating layered areas.

MY CATS

My cats are two destructive forces. They have managed to scale up everyone of my paintings, put their paws on various prints and hopped onto and broken sculptures. The advice to be learned is everyone needs an animal quarantined studio. If only I could teach my cats to paint.