Descending Ashtray

Oil on Canvas

13″ x 21″

I have been working and working this painting and finally had to bring it to a conclusion. So here it is. The cactuses were quite a challenge to paint.

Even though my trip to the Southwest was last April. I have finally been able to finish (or get close to finishing) the second in desert landscape painting series that I am working on.

I am fascinated by the desert and its untouched wilderness. The colors and textures are so rich and full of dimension. There was something other worldly about some of the places I past through in Northern Arizona. Vast distances of space full of strange and beautiful rock formations. I was inspired to capture some of that beauty and interpret it in a painting.

It is really close to being done. There are still some details that need some finishing touch’s but overall I feel pretty good about it. The dimensions are 21″ x 34″.

I have to start this off with an embarrassing story. When I went into the Des Moines Art Center’s downtown location, I was carrying a coffee. A Starbucks coffee. I am not typically one for chain anything. I can’t remember the last time I went to Wal-Mart … I buy local whenever possible. But when you’re in a pinch, traveling … it’s tough to say no, particularly where much-needed caffeine is concerned. As I walked inside the front door, I swilled the last sip, coating my teeth with grounds (serves me right), and in one fluid motion, pitched the empty cup into a wastepaper basket next to the podium where the guard sits to welcome visitors.

“Oops. That’s a piece of art you put your cup in.”

1 art school education, rendered worthless by careless consumption of corporate coffee.

Still, I felt better once I got to know the show a bit better. Conrad Bakker’s artwork is all about mingling the real with the unreal, blurring the line between reality and fiction. Each of the sculptures and paintings on display in Objects & Economies [Untitled Projects 1997–2007] in some way challenges our perceptions, usually as it relates to commerce in some way. Take for example “Untitled Project: Gift Card [Des Moines Art Center] ,” a set of small paintings the exact size and shape of gift cards sold at the museum store, carefully painted to resemble the real thing, and sold for the face value of the card it represented.

Nothing in the exhibition was what it seemed - the security cameras that on first glance seemed to be protecting the artworks were in fact sculptures painted to look like the real thing, positioned in the place cameras would typically be. Ditto for the thermostat on the wall, the television set to “Mute,” the Epson projector on the faux George Nelson bench, and yes, even the wastebasket.

The works were roughly executed - no one would be fooled after a close look - but they passed a cursory glance, and when the works are photographed for placement on online shopping sites like eBay and Craigslist, they definitely require close examination. One series of paintings took as its subject matter items posted to Des Moines’ Craigslist, faithfully reproduced in small 4×6 paintings, and which Bakker then re-posted to the barter site as artworks for trade, listing the paintings under the categories depicted in the paintings. Very meta, very clever, and very worth seeing. This was one of the best shows I’ve seen at a museum for awhile, and hey - the price is right. Go see it before March 28th, 2008.

If you can’t make it to the show, check out Bakker’s web site - lots of eye candy to see and explore.

On the advice of my barber a few weeks ago, I added the film “In the Realms of the Unreal” to my Netflix queue, and it arrived a few days ago. I popped it in tonight, prepared for something unique, and that’s exactly what I got.

The film is essentially a documentary about artist and recluse Henry Darger, who gained posthumous notoriety for his maniacally rich drawings and paintings that illustrated his 15,000 page manuscript, titled similarly briefly, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. I say “essentially,” because Darger’s diaries and novel are brought to life by actors, and the narrator is child actress Dakota Fanning, an interesting choice given Darger’s fascination with young girls. I won’t elaborate on that except to say, it’s not what you’re thinking - Darger’s obsession is much more complicated than simple pedophilia, and not nearly as evil. Watch the film and see for yourself.

Darger’s work was intensely personal, drawing on his life as a devout Catholic, upbringing in an orphanage, and characters based on people he encountered in his real life. He was untrained as an artist, and used tracings and photographic reproductions to create huge watercolor paintings that illustrated his story about the battle for good and evil in an other world - this realm of the unreal.

A very interesting portrait, sad and beautiful at the same time, magically animated by talented filmmaker Jessica Yu. Well worth watching.

Darger’s paintings are now for sale by Chicago’s Hammer Gallery.

After a minor mishap with a Flexcut knife (broke the handle) and a Sunday spent carving, I’ve completed this year’s Santa carving: a Northwest Native-American-inspired Christmas Totem Pole. I tried to incorporate stylistic elements of the coastal carving tradition, to varying degrees of effectiveness. I really like the simple color scheme, as well as the additional elements added as separate pieces of wood (Frosty’s nose, Rudolph’s antlers). I’m not so crazy about my grasp of the NW style, but I think my grandmother will like it better this way, in a somewhat folk/somewhat NW style.

I used the vinegar/steel wool treatment as a way to age and weather the yellow cedar a bit - at first it turned a scary brown, but greyed as it dried, to a color that actually mimics red cedar a little more closely (the traditional wood used in totem poles). I then used diluted gouache in red, white and black, which I sanded lightly to reveal the wood beneath in some places, giving it an aged appearance. The nose and antlers are doweled on.

Anybody find my cutting board yet? I’ve posted it this month sometime, although it’s a bit hard to find!

I have been working on a new easel design that has a sliding hand rest. The top and bottom guides are both adjustable to the size of the canvas. And it also tilts forward and back to get the right angle.

The wing nuts make it easy to adjust and I dadoed out the slots on the back supports so that it would slide on track.

This is a close up of the rollers at the top of the hand rest. It works pretty smooth.
Over all I am happy with how it turned out. It is very functional and made for a fraction of the cost of buying a new one from the Art store.