Dermatological Wonder At 6 Fathoms

9×12 in. mixed media.  Let me start by saying thank you to everyone, I have hit a milestone I never imagined I would get to…1000 followers!!!!!! … I reached that early today, it is very humbling and at the same time extremely uplifting . THANK YOU ALL

The long winded titled piece was done like some of my bubble tree series, without the trees. I had a preconceived idea about goosebumps…thus the title. It has a different feel than the others like it…but I can sense being in the water for sure. Not many have seen this piece so I will let you guys and gals tell me what you think.

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4 Square Rural

9×12 in mixed media. As simple as this piece seems to be, it was fairly complex in execution. Lost track of the layers but beneath each square of color I started out very vivid and bright. I really love how the textures allowed some of the full richness of the under lying colors to show. I did have to knock down some of the peaks though to get a more uniformed look. The full body white lines in some areas show well too. Unfortunately this piece can only get full appreciation in person, as the photo can’t capture the subtle tones. This was a follow-up to “Neutrons and Fertilizer,” only taking the tones the opposite direction in values.It kind of gives a wintery feel, although I have seen colors this muted from above when you get a lot of sun reflection in spring time. You have to work at seeing the signature as I didn’t want to disrupt the feel of the piece, lower right hand corner.

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

The Badlands

12×25 in. mixed media. In my younger days I tried my hand at commercial art working for the city of Topeka Parks and Recreation part-time, while working full-time at a Pet Food plant. The assignments were fun and I got a taste of working with a client and what they wanted and what you could deliver at minimum wages. The real nice thing was after doing this for about 2 years I realized if i was doing art like this for 40+ hours a week I would have gotten to a point of losing the zest of creativity. A great job and I met some very interesting people but my dream of being a commercial artist took a big hit plus I was good at making dog food 😉

At any rate this piece was an idea I had for a science fiction book cover long ago and finally did it recently. Markers, colored pencils, graphite lead, and acrylic created the effect…if you see a reflection in the picture I was too lazy to remove the piece from the frame before shooting, what else can I say.

Smile You Are On Camera

9×12 in. mixed media. Wasn’t Sure where I was going with this at first, but after the texture started coming thru the netting, everything started to fit nicely. The under layers in this were vastly different from what the viewer is seeing, but I am sure  the results wouldn’t have been as nice. The building up of layers to get the netting to settle in gave me a double bang, as they subdued the under layers quite well. Was going to place some dark rub-on fonts in this but the dark pieces of mat-board served the need better and doesn’t distract the viewer from the rest of the work. I also used a mat knife to dig thru the layers to add contrast and interest in several needed areas. Why the title? This piece feels like night in a  downtown area after a rain storm, some mist, city lights and glares reflecting the urban colors and maybe a photo flash here or there…it would be too easy to say the netting is like metal fencing, not sure about that however the squares the netting creates don’t feel organic but more like man-made structures. I don’t share this much normally about a work as I want viewers to figure for themselves what a piece says to them,however in this case I couldn’t resist…:-)

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.