Saturday, September 12, 2009

color in different media

An artist colleague, Donne Bitner, recently introduced me to a new surface medium. It is apparently used by sculptors, but Donne recommended applying it to board. It appears to be extremely hard, tougher and less delicate than molding paste, gesso or joint compound. The resulting texture is fascinating. I created a few pieces using this technique, applying layers of acrylic, pencil and graphite atop the hardened surfaces. Here are two examples.















After doodling into these small pieces (they measure no larger than 12" in any one direction), I yearned to return to painting large. Working rapidly, I produced this large acrylic piece: again the jury is still out on whether it is completed, but I think that I'll let it rest for a bit.













Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Matter(s)

I love interesting words like palindrome (words or phrases that read the same backwards and forwards), or pangram (sentences that use every letter of the alphabet). So, like Pat, I'm being a bit influenced by an odd little book titled, Ella Minnow Pea, by Mark Dunn. I've been using titles for this series of pieces that refer to the ways people communicate, especially through spoken language and my interest has gone further into language itself. If you'll scroll back through the blog, you'll see some works in progress from around mid-summer. Here are these two pieces completed, they are:

Palindrome





and Pangram






In Palindrome, I couldn't decide which way the piece read the best and kept flipping the various parts around to see different views, and with Pangram, it appears that I used every material and technique available, each piece suggests the meaning of each of these quirky little words.

And finally, at long last, here is a piece that originally started with Pat (a large acrylic sketch on linen), I cut it up and stitched on a smaller piece, then I embedded it between two oil panels. A true visual conversation between the two of us. The stitchery is so delicate that it is difficult to see in this picture. Join our blog and send me a message and I'll send you an image that is easier to see in detail. (Not titled yet, but it has something to do with either long distance communication or two-way communication.)