Building Myself A Future In Photoshop

So here's a Photoshopped mockup of Action Rabbit as it might look when complete, with a stylish gallery-goer pasted in for scale.

(planning ahead)

Next time I'll do a show on birds. Once the rabbits have been flushed.

Thirsty Thursday

SO I didn't even want to go to the studio tonight, but I forced myself to go anyway (at 9!) and ended up having a really good time and got a lot done. My friend Anne stopped by (fortunately after I had stopped listening to the Mary Poppins soundtrack on my iPod, loudly singing, "A British bank/is run with precision!" hehee

BUT ANYWAY, I worked on a 1:1 scale sketch for ACTION RABBIT, which I am superexcited about (used charcoal!), and finished pre-glazing Persian Megature so that I can start doing the pencil drawings. (Yes, I am going to force myself to start them soon.) Naturally, I did not bring a camera to document any of these activities for your veiwing pleasure :( I need to start carrying it around in my bag I guess. No doubt I would take more commemorative pictures of other fun events too...

I DID bring back and scan Stage II of Scylla + Charybdis. Here it is.

I'm going to paint in all the rocks, as if they were mountains in the air, and then the waves over them so that everything is in layers for a very artificial, theatre-scrim effect. I'm really into that. I guess I like that it enhances the metaphoric effect of the work (? maybe ?)(that is, it takes a painting one step further away from verisimilitude, and more into a decorative realm of obviously artificial objects and effects - iconographizes things.)


Here is a digital piece I'm working on as an example for the digital illustration seminar I'l be conducting at Gordon on Saturday. It's part of a loosely-formed, slowly-coalescing series ("Series=serious!" as William SVTCHRNK says :) of digital illustrations, so far all of me but hopefully to branch out, drawing on photographic sources but also working with a surrealistic, iconographic set of elements. I did't really have any starting thought, except that I wanted to include more arms (multiple limbs being a rapidly developing schtick of mine), and then, once I had done the initial sketch, I thought of adding a little cape of wings, sort of along the lines of a tengu or garuda, and then, once I had done that, I was suddenly reminded of my favorite part of the The Epic of Gilgamesh, the description of the underworld, Irkalla:

Then he... and turned me into a dove,
so that my arms were feathered like a bird.
Seizing me, he led me down to the House of Darkness,
the dwelling of Irkalla,
to the house where those who enter do not come out,
along the road of no return,
to the house where those who dwell, do without light,
where dirt is their drink, their food is of clay,
where, like a bird, they wear garments of feathers,
and light cannot be seen, they dwell in the dark...

Gilgamesh, Tablet VII

Which inspired the gritty textural background and all the pale greys.

Digital series also includes this piece (double dutying as a poster for abovementioned seminar:

Thursday Deli Report

Another sad disappointment. Lots of carrots sticks and cucumbers are getting me through. I managed to snag half a boiled egg and coated it with enough pepper to make it crunchy.

The Matrix II

Here's a scan of my plan and overall organizatinal scheme for the show (drawn over a botched
attempt at Hints/Accusations. (Sorry, I wanted to make it bigger, but apparently if it's too big, Blogger makes it a thumbnail only?)




From The Vault
Earliest extant rendering of the rubric, circa 10th grade (2000).

Rabbits

One of my approaches to the rabbit is iconoclastic. I paint rabbits, not bunnies. The rabbit is a creature with many associations. First and foremost is The Bunny, which is cute, innocuous, fluffy and bland, reducible to two ears, two teeth, and a carrot. Then there is the rabbit as reproducer ("breeding like rabbits"), the rabbit as fleeing prey, weak and with its only recourse in speed and cowering. Overall the animal is usually portrayed in a light that is condescending if not negative.

One of the aspects of my employment of rabbit imagery is to subvert these stereotypes. In my paintings of rabbits, I try to capture and enunciate the native grace of their movements and body - to remind the viewer that in technical terms, rabbits are referred to as does and bucks.
Like the mythical creatures of Thailand and China, they take on ennobled characteristics of other animals; the horns of the stag, the claws of the cat, the haunches of the greyhound. Like Japanese kitsune their horns and ears may multiply, implying a great store of wisdom or power.

The rabbits in the paintings may initially seem cute, (and of course that is an aspect of a rabbit's charm - sometime I'll post a little chart that explicates this further :) but upon closer inspection other details appear. These rabbits do not cower or flee. They have claws, they have teeth, their ears catch the wind like sails and slice like curved blades. My attempt is to remove them from one an anthropomorphised sphere of cute and cuddly, and reinstate them as amoral forces of nature. In Predator/Prey the eyes are blank, black, cavernous, leading inward into a hidden place, but also flat and forbidding.

Lane Salad Bar: Tuesday 1.4

Good
chickpeas
little crackers

Of Note
asparagus tips in vinaigrette
roasted sweet potatos
unidentified pink soup, visually akin to Thousand Island

Horrible Omissions
hardboiled eggs
not many craisins

Sandwich Wrappers + Rubber Bands: Check