Less than a week...

I'll be back to more regular posting after next week. Hope to see everyone in the area at Rule this coming Friday.

Photo of the Day

, originally uploaded by Ivan Sanjuan (flickr).

Ane Graff, "Sliding"

I'm really late on this one, but enjoy these images from Ane Graff's most recent show, "Sliding" from a few months ago. I interviewed her in the fall of 2008 - you can read it here. The installation of this show is very inspiring:

Packing it Up

Shipping art work is one of those things that you hear horror stories about but I've never had a problem (yet). I know artists who build elaborate crates with wood and foam and even paint the outsides to show how well they were handled in transit (if the paint is chipped off a lot, the works might have had a rough journey). I even know an artist who simply wraps his paintings in brown paper and puts them in the mail. My personal approach is one of a straight-edge, xacto knives and lots of foam and cardboard. For the show up currently in Dunedin, Florida here's how I packed the works -from top down:

When opening the box you would see this - the notch is there to make it easier to pull out the foam:

After one layer of foam is taken out you will see the paperwork and the first wrapped painting within several layers of foam:
After that painting is taken out you'll see the next painting - again within several layers of foam - similar to how people hide things in books by carving out the pages:

A layer of foam between each painting:

The last painting fit snug in the bottom of the box:

All together the box was about eight inches deep and contained three canvases. I'm told they looked fine upon arrival in Florida - so here's hoping they can manage to fit them all back in the box!

"Natural Causes" update

As previously mentioned, my opening is next Friday (February 5th). I'm holding out on you a little because I have almost five new works that won't be posted online until the opening. Here are a few of the things for you to look forward to:

• A pdf catalog of the works in the exhibition including images of my work as well as the works in the curated show
• The catalog includes a curatorial statement by me, and an introductory essay by Christopher Reiger.
• Five of my never-before exhibited large works and four works on paper.
• A curated show with site-specific work by Mindy Bray, paintings from New York artists Jason Stopa and Eric LoPresti, photographs by German photographer Alexander Binder, works on paper by Alan Kitchen, and new bronze work by Yoshitomo Saito.

source.

Fatal Confinement

Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait of a Man, 1535

From the text in my Guide to the Borghese Gallery, "The melancholy Portrait of a Man by Lorenzo Lotto is probably the portrait of the widower, Mercurio Bua, because of the small skull surrounded by rose petals, reminiscent of a fatal confinement."

Gathering Mists

Gathering Mists, originally uploaded by americanartmuseum.

"Natural Causes" opening February 5th

My solo show “Natural Causes” will open February 5th at Rule Gallery with an opening reception from 6-9 pm. The exhibition will run through March 20th. In conjunction with my show I have curated a group show made up of Alan Kitchen, Mindy Bray, Eric Lo Presti, Alexander Binder, Jason Stopa, and Yoshitomo Saito.

My statement for the exhibition reads:

The works in “Natural Causes” explore the landscape and its inhabitants with each image depicting a visual pause in an ongoing event. What I am capturing in these paused moments is a sense of “straining at particles of light in the midst of great darkness.” (Keats)

ghostwood series, pt. 2

ghostwood series, pt. 2, originally uploaded by askal.bosch.

Guinevere van Seenus by Solve Sundsbo, originally uploaded by nepraustaburnis.

Music for Your Studio; Vol. 32

Listen to this with headphones. Big, echoed ambient guitar drones that accompany a name like "Long Desert Cowboy" well. Available as a free and legal download from the artist here.

BN SYLWESTER 2009 004, originally uploaded by kris i aga.

Soft Photos

, originally uploaded by kʌrʌ ▼.

, originally uploaded by kʌrʌ ▼.

, originally uploaded by kʌrʌ ▼.

Natural Selection

Part of being an artist is knowing when to say "when" and learning how to edit. Not every work "works". There are pieces of mine that didn't seem to grow with time - they festered. There are also pieces that are missing something. I usually refer to that something as the "punch" (as in, "it doesn't have any punch"). Here are a few recent examples of works that have been sanded down and now only exist as digital images:

This fog painting was going ok as of last night but it won't do for the current show and I needed to make the tough decision to paint over it and re-use a good panel for something more powerful.

This was a brief sidetrack of several attempted drawings of sinkholes. I painted over this work and the next piece also was a failure. I think this piece of paper will end up with my pizza box in the dumpster.
These six lackluster works were also recently sanded down and one was painted over to be this:

Spare

Posts are going to be spare this week. It is crunch time for my show that opens February 5th at Rule Gallery.

This print I made while in Savannah for grad school recently became a part of the Telfair Art Museum's collection.

via mustardcuffins

Certain way of fade out

Tomas Man, Certain way of fade out. source.

Wildfire Timelapse

Timelapse - Los Angeles Wildfire from Dan Blank on Vimeo.

A Pair

Doug Aitken

David Lynch, "Twin Peaks; Fire Walk With Me"

Bea De Giacomo

, originally uploaded by Bea De Giacomo.

Music for Your Studio; Vol. 31

The return of "Music for your Studio" begins with and album by Frozen Silence called "Notes". It is a really pleasant piano-based album. The artist describes it by saying "it mainly contains melancholic minimalistic tunes, sort of neo-classical new-age, with emphasis on improvisation and solo instruments. Mainly piano, virtual harp and guitar."

Get it here - available as a free and legal download.

And still I stared into the sky

image from the Astronomy picture of the day.

“Without a wish, without a will,
I stood upon that silent hill
And stared into the sky until
My eyes were blind with stars and still
I stared into the sky.”

~Ralph Hodgson

Past and Present: J.E.H. MacDonald and Peter Doig

J.E.H. MacDonald, In the Pine Shadows, Moonlight, 1912, oil on canvas 81.9 x 70.9 cm

J.E.H. MacDonald, Moonlight Harvest, 1913, oil on canvas 41 x 51 cm

Contemporary artist Peter Doig shares a similar sensibility:

Peter Doig

Peter Doig

Jiannis Kounellis

Jannis Kounellis, originally uploaded by zero novice.

John Stezaker

Works by John Stezaker - found here.

New Year - New Photos

We took these photos in Moab, Utah where it was much snowier than we expected but really beautiful an a other-worldly way.

Our road out of Moab looked like this:

We saw this bald eagle off of I-70 near (appropriately) Eagle, Colorado