New cool site to check out, Odosketch, (thanks to Julie) that allows you to sketch online and then see the results played back. The tools aren’t as good as they could be, colors are muted and limited, and so far I’ve only done it with a trackpad. In spite of those limitations or perhaps due to them, it’s still intriguing to experiment and to check out what others have done.
Category: art
I did this painting a few years ago. It’s acrylic on canvas. I can’t remember any of the details of painting it at this point, but I expect it went through a few changes in its development. I don’t even remember what time of year I did it or if the season was any influence.
It looks like it was first just black shapes on white canvas, but I never like to leave things alone. I think I rinsed off the black ant then perhaps repainted it, then added layers of tans and browns and then finally the silver shapes.
I’ve just called it silverandtan for years — I know, a pretty boring name, but today the title above came to me. I’ve always liked the parable of the tares and wheat and can definiely relate more often than I’d like. Its painted on two panels. They work ok separately, but they work better together. Like some people, they were meant to be together. At least in the same room, if not attached.
This past weekend was the Annual Open Studios at Western Avenue Studios in Lowell, Massachusetts, where I have a studio. This is something I wrote to go on the wall of my studio as an answer the question, “What are your paintings about?” You can see examples of my paintings on my Web site.
I have always drawn in response to the world in which I live. First it was cars, stick figures and spaceships. In art class it was the requisite still lifes, landscapes, portraits and figure drawings.
But drawing from the visual world is a conscious exercise – an exercise that, after a time, ceased to be a sufficient outlet for artistic exploration. Though I still do draw from life, I feel the “real” artistic experience is more intuitive and unconscious.
It often begins in meetings during my “day job” as an interactive designer. I doodle — sometimes to an extreme — and to the questioning looks of co-workers and clients. More and more I have recognized these doodles not as mere mindless scribbles, but as visual representations of unconscious thoughts.
Eventually, I felt the desire to explore these more deeply, intentionally and expansively with paint and canvas. What you see here is the ongoing experiment and experience of making the unconscious visible. They are essentially paintings of thoughts. To define what thoughts are represented would be limiting. It is up to the viewer to draw their own conclusions and experience them in their own way.