just an inkjet monoprint--I LIKE IT!!

...doing my thing....

I have been continual trying different things in the production of images. The inkjet is quite a tool. What can be fed into the printer can be printed on. But, it is not so simple. Different inks react or adhere differently to different materials. To complicate things further, printer manufacturers have their own proprietary ink formulas. Ah...The fun and frustration of experimentation. You also find that the image color must be adjusted to get the effect you want. So the image must be adjusted to fit the printing substrate.

Studio Listening Matter

Hank Williams

Jimmy Buffett

Charlie Pride

SKETCH=germination?

Ah...sketching is such sweet fun. Whether it has a purpose or is just free-based thought. It can be creative bliss. Frequently when I sketch I have an objective. It could be designing a painting or creating a color combination for a painting to get the color harmony I seek. These are merely steps in the creative process. It is like magic to look at a blank sheet of paper and then have your vision materialize in front of you. I once worked in black and white in my books but then discovered what a watercolor wash could do to a line drawing. I once sketched in pencil, a.k.a. graphite, but found it messy and as a male member of the species rarely had some hair spray to use as fixative. There is no doubt that graphite and charcoal give infinite variation in value. But I find the use of a ballpoint pen with black ink the most convenient for me. It doesn't smudge or smear and is waterproof and by theuse of such techniques as cross-hatching I can create a reasonable amount of variation in value. My favorite pens are procured gratis from motel rooms.

In the above sketchbook page on the left I am working of designs for paintings. The page on the right depicts seasonal activity on a sharecropper farm of my youth.

Studio Listening Matter

• Mason Williams
• Bob Marley
• Zachary Richard
• Boots Randolf

...more of the same...

I continue to work on prints. There is a tactile element to the creation here that is missing in watercolors painting. The brilliance and gradation of the colors is awesome. I don't have the skill to do this with paint but can do it with ink. Although the prints are singular, I can record the colors numerically and can reproduce them in RGB. However, the stencils are another matter. The cut stencils could probably be saved but the torn paper stencils could not be salvaged printer merely prints a field of color with no other input from the computer. I am struck by the binary nature of the process. 1's and 0's, off and on. The electrical state of a switch. Hence, the paper receives (on) ink or not (off). ...and the thighbone's connected to the hipbone... Say no more. Currently There are many other things I would like to try with this process. Also,I am considering increasing my web presence with the posing of some of my better photographs.

But, alas, 'tis the time for Christmas shopping.

Studio Listening Matter

• Mason Williams
• Ibrahim Ferrer
• Josh Groban
• Dion

just another post

I've been tinkering with images again. I have been primarily a realistic or representational painter. That is what sells. If you are not following your muse then painting is a waste of time. Sure, you make images that people like and buy. But most of the time you are just painting what everyone else does. You may have a style that no one else has and that's great but I want to get completely out of the box. I want to create images unique and I want to do them fast. That eliminates oil painting. I am not interested in the medium but the image itself. The method of creation is secondary to the image itself.

The image above is a combination of accident and technique. It was created on a inkjet printer. The letters printed when I wasn't expecting it. The printer gremlins did it. I incorporated the print into the design. (I'm real cheap and did not want to was te a piece of watercolors paper.) I completed the work by printing colors over cut and torn newspaper masks.

Listening Matter

• Hank Williams
• Frankie Laine
• Patsey Cline
• Doc Watson
• Ya Ya Ma

mono update

I have continued to work on my monoprints. The one at the left is based on a rock formation in Utah. We had a Charleston French Quarter Art Walk this past Friday evening and it was great. We had out-of-town guests. It was good to see what local artists were doing in the production of new works. They always present a new ideas. I am beginning to think as a mixed media artist and maybe moving toward multi-media.

Studio Listening Matter

• Mozart
• Wagner
• Blind Boys of Alabama
• Hank Williams
• Ibrahim Ferrer

Reading Matter

• The Murder Book--Jonathon Kellerman

other things

There has been some water under the bridge since my last post. I've been working on some new projects. One of my projects is a Redneck Zen Garden. The project requires a lot of cigarette butts and I don't smoke anymore. I finished my Thumper Motorcycle Poster. Whattaya think?


One of my newest projects in this vain has been the "Diet Patch" This diet device is guaranteed to work. Weighing in at 260 at a height of 72 inches, I had to do something. Therefore, I developed the Patch. It is guaranteed to work. You'll find yourself fizzling away like and Alka-Seltzer.

I've been continuing to load music into iTunes and making some compilation disks. The labeling program has been giving me fits. Guess I'll have to study the directions.

Studio Listening Matter

• Alan
• Better Than Ezra
• Train

Current Read

The Murder Book--Jonathan Kellerman

some other things

I was just cleaning up the studio when I saw my old stack of sketchbooks. Curiosity got the best of me. I yielded to temptation--I lost a couple of hours productive time looking at these old books. I started them is the '60's. They are almost autobiographical. Maybe not almost. My sketchbooks remind me of where I was at a certain point in time. And, of course, some things are purely imaginary. My books also have recipes and other written stuff. There are rubbings too. (What is that Italian word for rubbing?) I use a lot of post-its to index certain things such as maps, hand-drawn , ofcourse. There can be for bottle labels and other stuff that can be stuck inside.

Studio listening Matter

• Imbrahim Ferrer
• Texas Tornadoes
• Webb Pierce
• Diana Krall
• Mozart
• Carbon Leaf
• blue Dogs

Current read: The Murder Book by Jonathon Kellerman

Back from awhile ago...

It has been quite some time since my lst entry. We have been quite busy. We drove across country, from Goose Creek,SC to San Diego, CA. We visited friends and relatives in AL,TX,AZ and CA. And we camped out about ten times or so. We had never camped out together before and determined that when we returned we would either be happily married or ready for a divorce. Thankfully the resultant was the former.
There were many painting ops but very little time. i did take over 400 pics, many for reference purposes. A full jounal of this trip written by Claudette and illustrated with my photos is available at www.geocities.com/ttt01us/candtpage.htm The above is from our journey. We camped one night in Palo Duro Canyon in north Texas. In the painting I replaced the motor homes with teepees. Currently I'm updating web sites and creating slideshows as well as videos while getting some paintings ready for some of the fall shows.

Studio Music

• Frank Sinatra
• Ella Fitzgerald
• Tony Bennet
• Billie Holliday

~!@#$%^

Sometimes I feel like a motereless child. Always wanted to use that line of the Blind Boys of AL. Been tied up in planning vacation and so on. I am looking forward to seeing new places and new things. I have been doing little painting. My eve is always open to seeing pictures. When I saw the lobster pot marker with the morning sun lighting it I just had to sake the photograph. As apinters we must be ever aware for the "pictures" around us. It maybe the way an object is illuminated or the pattern observed in nature. I am usually composing in my mind.

studio listening matter

• Willie Nelson
• Ibrahim Ferrer
• Bare Naked Ladies

BRAIN S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G

Yesterday was a good day creatively. i finally got my first inkjet monoprint made. The agressioveness of the mask adhesive was critical. I love it when a plan comes together. Now I will create more complicated
paintings and venture into more color and complex subject matter. There is a rush when you do something completely new.

I've been upgrading my web pages, but I haven't finished them yet. I've been trying to upload some video but haven't been too successful yet. Also the addition of a webcam to my pages will allow people to see me create art.


Studio Listening Matter

• Jimmy Buffett
• Hank williams
• Wilco
• Carbon Leaf
• 7 Nations
  

NEW HORIZONS, OLD MEMORIES

I've been busy working on new ways to create images. With the use of the computer I have been combining computer printing with painted pieces. I have been applying heat transfers over acrylic paint on paper. This can be used to strengthen a weak painting with heavy graphic images. Stencils are used to let the printer print through the stencil and the use of origami pieces as well. Reasonable successful have been my efforts to print on substrates other than paper.
A recent trip to Texas was the imputus to create some new sketches and the photos were put together in a slide show with narration and music. I used Windows Movie Maker. We also saw some great art work in the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and the Kimbell Museum in the same city. We missed one museum we had wanted to visit in order to go to Billy Bob's Texas, the largest honky-tonk in the world.
Now, I'm back to creating art work and would be a lot faster if I could figure out my new mp3 player!

Studio Listening Matter:

• Carbon Leaf
• Ibrahim Ferrer
• Waylon Jennings
  

And, by the way, the above painting is of a swamp buck, buckus swampus. One of the lesser know creatures of cryptozoology, it lives in the swamp and marshlands of the southeaster United States.

if you gonna play in Texas, you gatta have a fiddle in the band.

I must draw. I believe that it is apart of me. And there is seldom a day that i don't draw. sometimes it is of specific things. I may be using it to design a painting. in the sketch I work out the desing and composition and color before attack ang the paper or canvas. Maybe I will dedicate a page to how many textures I can create with a line. It's all about marks on paper. Sometimes I use it to design my web pages and sometimes to record a recipe. But mostly it is a repository of visual knowledge. All my ideas that reach fruition begin in my sketchbook..

I haven't been doning much painting but I've been following my mantra. I draw every day as my sketchbook attests to it. I decided that Texas is not a Southern state. STANDARD ICED TEA IS NOT SWEET AND BOILED PEANUTS ARE UNKNOWN.

Studio Listening Matter

• Willie Nelson
• Diana Krall
• Howie Day
• Bare Naked Ladies
  

....and then I woke up!

There has been a while since my last blog. Ah...where did the time go. I've been working on my website revamp a lot. Also, selling on the sidewalk. Actually the sidewalk sales venture has been an exercise in futility. One Saturday the screens on which my paintings were displayed blew over in a stiff breeze. The sound of breaking glass is not soon forgotten. Such is the life of a sstruggling artist. I am considering getting out of the reproduction business and reinventing myself. A new "branding" or rather a "rebranding". Upcoming, iIve gotta go to TX for a college graduation. Should get some interesting sketches. I'm working into more non-objective art work and will paint nothing that is not fun. Life is too short to do those things which are not fun. Of course, there are certain must-be-dons.

STUDIO LISTENING MATTER

• Death Cab For Cutie
• Bela Fleck
• Howie Day
• Billie Holiday
• Frank Sinatra
  

maybe, I'm dreaming...

Alas, there is no picture. It takes time to the photography and all. Is this creativity an itch or what? I'm always wanting to change things. Does anything suit me? Am I the only one who sees things the way they should be? Questions for the ages... Currently, I am enjoying getting away from the restrictive ness of purely representational art work. With great difficulty I move to the pure expressive non-representational. There is comfort in familiar images. Security of knowing. Are those painters who paint with photographically reality uncreative? I don't think so. They are interpreting as they see it. And those of us who sometimes see more that reality or that which is not there? Then there is another name for us.

Studio Listening Matter,

• Ladysmith Black Mumbaza
• Five Blind Boys
• The Ink Spots
• Robert Cray

"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge,That myth is more potent than history,That dreams are more powerful than facts,That hope always triumphs over experience,That laughter is the cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death."(Robert Fulghum)

With my thoughts wrapped around Juanita I am aware of nothing...

I am still working with "drip images". The inspiration for the above was the stark nakedness of the dead trees in the marshes of the Carolina low county. The zap of color is mine. Sometimes if you load the images in the ccomputer and play with the color saturation you can get some interesting FX.

Yesterday was good. Very creative in the AM, two paintings completed. After my workout and lunch with a glass of red (got a mini-buzz) it was back to work to work on my lesson plan for tonight's lesson in beginning water color. I am continuing to work with heat transfers as a picture making method. Creating pictures by alternate methods is fun.

Studio listening matter:

• Marsha Ball
• The Blind Boys of AL
• Shrimp City Slim
• Rod Stewart

I must think of Jaunita rather than my fate.

Sometime you have to stretch your brain a little. I'm moving into some abstract work. This acrylic on paper began with the idea of a cruciform. From there the accumilation of textures manefested themselves as some of the images of the great northwest. I have always been a fan of totem poles. The iconic imagery is so strong and imaginative. My totem just evolved and unlike the ones of the past it is not symetrical. The "wing" appendages are not the same and the great blue eye at the top sees all. You will note that the base is shrouded in clouds. The moon seemed to be what was needed to complete the composition not only as a graphic element but to add a bit of mystery as well.

Studio listening matter:

• Bograts
• Jennifer Lecko
• James Galway
• Seven Nations

And then there was that time in Las Vegas...

Magic sometimes happens. I am continuing to stretch the possibilities of the two deminsional form of visual expression. Am I there yet? I don't think so. The last few days have been busy. Out of town guests and other things have kept me from my art. There are paintings to ship and other art related chores. That is non-painting chores. In the piece that is shown, I like to place the know with the unknown. That which is clearly defined with undefined or blurry. The conflict exists. But out of chaos comes...

Studio Listening Matter

• Hank Williams
• The Ink Spots
• Billie Holliday
• Frank Sinatra
• Northern Exposure Music

What difference would the song make? I am in peril!

I continue to stretch my brain artistically. There are probably no new ideas. But how would we know. Is there some GREAT COSMIC LIST OF IDEAS somewhere? My thoughts are original to me and that's all that matters. At any rate I have been thinking about the creation of images via the computer. Let the "electronic brain " do the heavy work. By using randomly generated numbers fed into a image program this should be possible. My newest technique is acrylic on paper with heat transfer images as seen in this posts entry titled Farm Girls.

Studio Listening Matter

• Bach
• John Coltrane
• Dr. John
• Latin Groove

was that song playing on the juke box? A Leonard Cohen classic?

As I continue my creative journey, what's next? It is always a temptation to try a quick fix to scratch the creative itch. Perhaps that is what I have done here. i drifted in to computer craphics again. I prefer to use the machine without input from scanners or cameras and create everything within the mchine as seen above.
One of the great advantages of the computer is the ease at which you can produce multiple images. The above is not finished. Other art-related things have taken time. I appeared at a local elemantary school for career day. Showing the kids my art and answering their questions was a lot of fun.

Studio listening matter:

• Marsha Ball
• Leo Kotke
• Pat Metheny

so this must be reality. But what

It's been a while since my last post. A lot going on. I have been trying to switch mediums. I'm changing from watercolors to acrylic. With acrylic I can paint over my mistakes. Paint application is a different process. In watercolors, the substrate you paint on makes all the difference. After all the difference in the moisture content between the brush and the paper is what makes the painting happen. Unless the acrylic is being used like watercolors the foregoing doesn't happen. The substrate is not that critical. The above piece is done on illustration board. It makes it possible to produce very sharp detail if desired. My biggest problem with the paint is to get the correct consistency so that he paint will flow. Using extender would solve this problem. But I like the quick drying paint.

could it be a dream? No, my dreams never have sawdust

This going to be a rant about heat. Why is restaurant food spicy? Virtually every item on the menu has some kind of heat . I DON'T LIKE IT! Why is it? Why is someone on a crusade to burn out my mouth? Have I offended the ASC (The American Society of Chefs) and they are seeking revenge is this orchestrated by the beverage producers to force you to consume more of their products? Every time I order I feel like I should say,"Hold the heat, please". I think that heat should be added afterward like salt and pepper. Maybe restaurants should be divided into "heat" and "no heat" areas. What is this quest for punishment that people have to eat spicy food? I have seen a person's face blush while eating spicy wings. Surely, this abuse can't good for the human body.

I think I am alone in the quest to quench the heat.

"Hey, waiter, another burrito and TWO Negra Modelos"

Studio Music:

• Carbonleaf
• Rob Thomas
• Carlos Santana
• Train

Was this for real? Could I be the target? Or

I am reaching the point in painting where my current style is no longer fun. I paint for fun. The act of creation is a rush for me. I'm not getting that rush anymore. Did I really get it painting landscapes? Does the depiction of some historic building in paint create a high? I'm not sure. I think that I get the most fun from things such as what you see at the right. I call it "freebased visual drool" or FVD. When you draw from a stream of consciousness uninhibited by restrictive thought. I drew the images as they came to me. A simple rectangle reminded me of a house from a birds-eye-view which became a view of the neighborhood form the same view, et cetera. But is it art? I don't know. Does it have to be or is the manifestation of thought on paper. At any rate I'm going to be painting more expressionistic works or at least less representational pieces.

Studio Music:

• Pink
• John Coltrane
• Stone Temple Pilots
• George Strait

Current Read:

Saints at the River by Ron Rash

So close I could smell the gun oil and the sweat of the shooter's hand.

I have really been getting into the drip paintings and becoming more intuitive with my work. Changing color wheels has helped bring more and brighter color to my work. But...there's a wheel and it goes round, round, round... Oops, another lyric. Oh, from whence do they come. I am beginning to concentrate on design more. My brain is getting damp, it must be time for a nap.
Gotta do some gallery duty today. The meeting with the newspaper came out fine. We, the local artist guild, is going to redo their masthead.



Studio music:

• Billie Holiday
• Rod Stewart
• Tony Bennett
• Diana Krall

Current reading: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp

rotated to bring the bullet into firing position.

I worked on this "drip" painting most of the day. (Drip Trees 1) I will never be a dripmeister like Pollock. Nevertheless, it was fun. The secret is having the paint consistency just right. Having the canvas at the right angle helps. But not a 90 degree right angle though. I think I may drift into a more intuitive painting. I'm not sure that I want to go that way. But if it feels good... Perhaps, if I can control the drip a little more and not leave so much to chance, I can do different kinds of trees or maybe not trees. The background color showing through adds a bit of zing. This is more of a stretch for me. It is more in line with the apple below that the 105 Church. That was my first italic period after the preceding sentence. Me thinks me brain gets numb at 4 a.m.

I spoke with the local weekly newspaper about changing their masthead yesterday and have an appointment today with them. I also made new business cards but I'm not sure I like them. The wordperfect template left something to be desired. It will have to be changed. Templates I use almost always are changed.

Studio music:

• Beck
• Luther Vandross

revolver being cocked. The cylinder of the forty-four magnum

This image is completely computer generated. To me is is sometimes to play with the image altering programs and try to produce abstract art. I believe that the computer can be used as a medium like paint or collage or photograph or whatever. I have seen the photographic images manipulated by image processing programs. Why use an image to begin with? Why not create your own? Is that not what creativity is all about?


Today was a non-painting day. I moved files to my computer dedicated to art and print production. It was a good day though windy. The leaves moved in swirls and waves and attacked the house with force. The power that could not be seen, only the results thereof...

As Juanita left the jukebox, I thought I heard the sound of a

Just another day of paint and stuff. Heard some good jazz yesterday and had some bad food at Applebee's. Maybe I should rephrase. I didn't like it. Why is food always spicy now? I don't like it. And don't eat it unless I don't have a choice. I will be happy when the fad is over. What causes the heat anyway? Is it acid or what? I don't know.

The painting is acrylic. It is aptly names 105 Church

Studio Music

• Cracker
• Danielle Howl and the Tantrums

Argh-gh-gh!!

Yesterday was a bummer. Worked at the co-op gallery all day. I was late leaving home and had to shave on the freeway. Ate very little. I must lose weight due to my heart condition. Today I have been busy designing and printing a new brochure of my work. Hewlett-Packard makes a great pre-scored product for use in producing your own brochures. Like anything else the design, lay out and photo prep take a lot of time. I'm sure it will do it's job and create mor awareness of my work and generate sales.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Yesterday I tried to coax the image from the canvas but it would not happen. I've recently started working with acrylic paints as opposed to my usual watercolors. Right now the learning curve is quite steep. And I am under the gun. i need twenty pieces pinished by Feb. 28 for a show. Here is a recent acrylic on paper. It was painted on the reverse of a dicarded injet print and is only 7 x 5. These small pieces are great fun to do.

YESTERDAYS STUDIO MUSIC

• Mozart's Requiem
• The Best of Andre Segovia
• Appalachian Waltz

!@#$%^&

This is my first post. Just to give it a go. I think that the website is the next art form. In my post I may discuss my ideas but will probable only show case my art work