The 5th Finger

8.5×11 in. mixed media. It would be nice to have one of the big art supplier’s stores near me so I don’t have to wait for ground shipments. That is the offset of being able to get on-line and get stuff you need but the wait can be frustrating…unless you are one of the 1-%ers that have disposable income to fuel the shipping giant UPS.
Well at least with this idle time I did create another in the series of finger works. Question: if we have ten fingers, then once I reach the 10th piece, do I keep going? or do I start on toes? This piece was going to be just a simple drawing, but I couldn’t resist…had to stretch myself and add color. Got a real nice surface texture going by spraying acrylic finish from a distance, the surface took colored pencil and crayon like sandpaper but not as harsh. So waiting for supplies isn’t a total waste … 🙂
PS…GET OUT AND VOTE

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The Primrose Path Ahead

9×12 in. mixed media. The tissue paper is almost not existent in this piece, but believe me the bold pink paper is there under several layers of work. Did quite a bit of sanding and carving through the surface of this piece. I let the finial few layers fill the gouges with their color as the under layers didn’t pop as much as I would like. Might not show very well in the pic but I have a fair amount of fine white and black lines near the surface. The theme in this carries forward my use of circles and angles quite well and with the mix of mat board pieces the texturing is very nice. The title? It is leading towards something and red might be warning as well as orange, where green is off the path…so use caution when stepping down the yellow path laid out…works for me…what do you think?

The 1st Finger

8×11.5 in. ink.  The drawing that started my obsession with these objects. I believe it was part of an abstract drawing assignment, not sure where the objects came from…imagination maybe…or school trash bin? 

This is as good as any time to share with you the artists that have influenced me the most as I promised weeks ago. These people represent what I admire the most in art… using color, shape, texture, movement, and feeling.   At some point in time I have been exposed to these artist by book, TV, internet, and in galleries…and when I see any of these works in galleries I can look at them for hours…

Kooning,Monet,F.Stella,J.Stella,Dali,Hopper,Johns,Mucha,Rosenquist,

DeMuth,Diebenkorn,Duchamp,M.C.Escher,VanGogh,

Indiana,Klimt,Picasso,Thiebald,Wyeth,Rockwell,Kupka,

Giraud (Moebius),B.Wrightson,Frazetta,Neiman… I know there are works I really enjoy by other greats, but this group has first dibs on me.

What’s On Your Desk?

9×12 in. mixed media. The closest thing to a still life I have done since Shawnee Heights H.S. days and Mr. Miller. This is one of those pieces I do from time to time to recharge my creative juices, plus it keeps me productive. Fun to do the different shapes that adorn my desktop…note the pencil scribbles i put on the blotter, too much white had to do something. My current blotter is covered with ideas for names, web sites, spellings, simple sketches, and blots of color…maybe when i get ready to change it out i should frame it, might be interesting years from now.

The 2nd Finger

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.

The 4th Finger

12×16 mixed media.  Well I am back, the show at the Putnam Library is going well, just finished putting up the 2nd wave of pictures. But more importantly I have started to make pieces again. What better way than to try my 4th version (the 3rd finger) of the soda, orange, finger and cloud themed piece.  Still think the best is yet to come on this series…stay tuned.