9×12 in. mixed media. Given that today’s date is 12/12/12 I had to post…I reached back to some unpublished work. This was done on my trusty 512 Macintosh and then embellished. I did several of these playing with trees having hands and feet to conduct their daily tasks…been thinking about going back and playing with this concept using some of my current styles …time will tell
20×24 in acrylic on canvas.
I have had this unfinished canvas around for many, many years, a project started but one of those pieces I could never get my head around to finish. So when I came across it a few weeks ago I was determined to complete it, this year!
It felt strange to be working on canvas again with its grain and the push and give of it’s surface, made me long for my watercolor paper. The original task was to do a piece for a fellow worker that was into ninja type stuff, thus the title I gave this piece. Looking at it now finished I really like my moon and Jackson Pollock vegetation. Don’t ask why I have a Camelot castle vs. something more oriental, I was young then. As with my recent works I work hard to get texture, this piece shows that especially in the moon and foreground areas.
Of note, I say it is finished but I want to live with it for awhile to be really sure….. 😉
8×11.5 in. ink. My earliest memory of drawing was doing pictures of cats, dogs, horses, planes, etc. on a piece of paper each one about the size of a 50-cent piece. I would then show it to my Mom who would give me praise and encouragement and then say finish filling the page before I give you another piece of paper. Might explain why I hoard drawing pads and books half-finished today, I don’t want to run out or worry about getting more.
So this drawing is one I shared with my Mom while I was in college…she loved it and noted how well I used the paper :-). Subject matter was whatever came to mind or was in view doing the process…key chains, money, dominoes, ads, magazines, mushy cards for GF’s, old sneakers, etc.
To be sure most artists that do abstract art know how to draw well (ie.. realistic) but we choose to go another direction…cause that is what inspires us. I don’t draw cats and dogs any more but my Mom would still be proud of the of the fact my abstracts use all of the paper…thanks Mom.
8×11 in. mixed media. My first piece done on a Mac512 using McDraw about 1986.That isn’t old age spots in the left hand corned, but spray acrylic that didn’t like the parchment paper… I made it work like background texture, each spot is outlined in white.
Boy was I proud to sling that portable machine over my shoulder, in it’s tan apple case with logo, and take it to my computer class at Washburn University in Topeka. Everyone was so jealous while they had to hack around with Apple II’s doing art, very crude, and I was doing my thing freehand with my MacMouse. Loved the mirror option, doing one half while the computer made sure it got the other half down. Funny thing was I had broken my left arm, i am a lefty, and watching the screen and mousing away with my right hand I was getting very good at being a righty…so much so whenever I used a computer from then on, I was right handed…but believe me I couldn’t hardly draw with my right to save my life (still can’t)…but i could on a Mac.You had to have imagination also, since the screen was only in black and white…just as well color printers for the Mac at the time were very limited, thus mixed media if you wanted color. This was a great machine for conture drawing, I did several full sized drawings of people’s faces and liked the look better than pen or pencil, and no messy paper…just a nice colorful floppy disk with label. Just wished at that time it would have been battery powered.
Mixed media 18×24 in. on canvas. Back in the day part of studying photography was you did your own developing and printing, very challenging and costly till you got what you wanted. In this piece I incorporated some discarded B&W nature shots into my painting, along with some discarded fabric from the textile lab. My kids call it the dirty underwear picture, but I never was that cutting edge back then. A closer look and we can see a typical Kansas Winter setting near some fence rows. I also used a brite red cinnamon wrapper to add texture and color. This is a piece that has had no issue (my wife likes it) finding a home in a main traffic area in my house over the years. Talk about slow, I started this in 1974 and completed it in 1988…a story for another time.
A 19×24 in. extremely mixed media. Before I get back to my current stuff I thought I might at least show one more, my first mixed media circa 1972. It was during a time when I was trying many different approaches to art and I personally liked Peter Max and the Beatles. (who didn’t at that time) This was about the time I changed majors from architecture to art education. It was also the first time I discovered tissue paper and recycling less liked art, of my own of course. This work uses flour, tissue paper, ink, pen, sand, paper, elmer’s, varnish, and papermate flairs. For being 40 years old it looks brand new, shining just it did then…can ya guess where the recycled art was useful?
Art by Ken 