Hey

If you get a chance to see, the Portland Phoenix out this week is featuring one of my images on its cover! It's specifically for a story about these gruesome supermax/solitary confinement prisons, particularly ones in Maine. Fun stuff. This was a really fun project that didn't end up taking too long and became another really good texture/space study. A big thanks to Kevin Banks, it was really great working with him again.
Here is the final piece:




And here is a little something I'm currently working on that was inspired by the brainstorming I did for the prison piece:



Images like this really excite me because one of the things that I am pushing myself hard to develop is my ability to paint the underlying concepts/emotions/themes of something rather than a literal translation of text. Sometimes literal translations are simply the best way to go or offer the best artistic opportunity, but the things that I see around that really tend to stick with me are the subtle, surreal compositions of elements that ask you to think and interpret for yourself, to inspire you to feel something rather than try to tell you how to feel. I've been looking at Brad Holland's stuff a lot lately, and he is one of the masters of that sort of thing. Absolutely ridiculous work. Something to shoot for, I suppose.

Lookit, show this Friday!

I am a part of Space 242's upcoming show 'I...you...We...ROBOT", which is opening this Friday, the 29th of January from 6-8. Come see, it's going to be a good time. Here are my submissions:

Bartender, 2009. Acrylic, collage and transfer on board

Jazz Band, 2009. Acrylic, collage and transfer on board

Thug, 2009. Acrylic, collage and transfer on board

New Work, Part II

More new stuff, hooray. Most of this stuff is hung up several floors above me getting judged by other people as I currently type. I'm excited to see how my review goes over this time around, because over all, I think that I definitely had one of the most consistent and productive semesters of my whole college experience. We'll see if my professors agree with me in just a few minutes.
/out

Laughing is Good for Your Health, 2009. Mixed media

Untitled, 2009. Acrylic, collage and transfer on board
A little experiment with layering and texture applications.

Shreddin', 2009. Acrylic, collage and transfer on board
This is the piece that the Boston Phoenix chose for the
cover of its annual Ski & Snowboard Guide.

Awesome

My friend Max just made this video montage of pictures he took at my my birthday get-together a few weeks back. Things like this are the reason why I am friends with Max.

Happy looming holidays

New Work, Part I

Here's some new and some new-ish pieces that I have been working on as of late. More to come as soon as I get around to posting them.

Snakephone, 2009. Acrylic & collage on board

Under the Dragon, 2009. Acrylic & collage on board

The Holy See, 2009 Acrylic, transfer and collage on board

Robots Leave No Fingerprints

I'm finished with my degree project. It was a long road getting up to this point, but here's everything as it stands right now.

My series of images is based around a visual marriage of film noir and retro science fiction. I picked the two because they both have strong roots in the post-WWII 1940s and 50s, and they play well off of each other in terms of aesthetic style. The actual look of the pieces is a bit of a departure from my usual work, but it matches the subject material well and it was fun and kind of nostalgic to revisit charcoal for a while. The images are designed to loosely follow some sequence of events which can be left up to the viewer's imagination:

"A single shot rang out in the dark."

"A dead suit in a shady part of town.
Bad news for him, good business for me."

"I may be a detective, but you sure didn't
need one to see that this guy got taken
out with steadier hands than a human's."

"When she looked you over, you
felt like the Sunday paper."

"Guys with pockets this deep always have
more than just safes in their closets."

"I hate being chased by guys
with nicer cars than mine."

"We both knew we were lying to each other,
but for now, none of that mattered."

Wowiee

So this weekend was pretty successful. The setup and reception for the MassArt students traveling abroad show that I am a part of on Friday went great, and my Abominable Snowman Phoenix Ski & Snowboard guide cover came out! There is a slideshow on the Phoenix website with all of the submissions from my class here.

The description they wrote for my piece is pure awesome. I realize in retrospect that the contrast in the image is a little too high (blame the school monitors), but it looks pretty great in print anyways. Funnnn times.