Back in Action

After having the flu for about 2 weeks I'm back at it full force. Got three paintings, two masks and one drawing going. It's almost Halloween in Detroit. Tonight is Devil's Night. Hope the fires are few and small. Thinking about framing some of my photographs.

too sick

I'm to ill to paint and it's killing me. I see my paintings calling me. I know if I try I will make some major mistakes.

struggles

I have been looking at a lot of portrait painting online lately. I'm seeing a lot of work that is very good technically but doesn't hold my attention. Maybe it is my perspective but Art needs to have more than technical aesthetic to move me. This is why my favorite figurative artists have been the expressionists. Such as Dix, Beckman and Schiele. I'm missing that in this post-modern World. I do appreciate John Currin and Jenny Saville, but I need more rawness. I think it's because I see people as more than a study. The human form is a vessel which contains a personality, a soul if you will. I want to capture that essence of a person. In the academic World it seems as if attempt to involve too much emotion in a work you lose the aesthetic. I think it is the other way around. Now I must attempt to try and erase some of the 7 years of schooling I've had. That is what I'm trying in these new paintings.

Gonna work it.

So I'm ready to keep up on this blog. I just posted some older works without writing about them. I think I'll let them speak for themselves now. I'm working on 2 new paintings currently. One is of a woman I met this summer. See post regarding Agnes. The other is a portrait of my sister. I owe her after " Melissa as Cousin It". I saw the film A New World a few months ago and was visually blown away by the face paint on the Powhatans. I researched and found work by Kirby Sattler. It is amazing! Check out the link. So this film and artist are influencing some of my new portraits. I like the concept of anachronism and feel it could be important to my vision.Here is a link to Sattler's Art :http://kirbysattler.sattlerartprint.com/

self portraits

M.F.A works 2

M.F.A works

All my Art

M.F.A work

 

Another painting recently finished. Worked on this for months. It was a simple portrait of Joan of Arc at first. I began adding clown features on a whim and then decided to make Joan into a Ronald McDonald style clown. I wanted to use Joan to symbolize the presence of female soldiers in the " war ".

 

Recently finished painting.

My new muse, Agnes

 

This is Agnes. I met her at a garage sale this summer. She is the subject of my newest painting. Trying some new techniques and focusing on color more than detail.