Art on the Riverfront

Well, even though sales were not what they've been like over the recent years, the opportunity to visit with family and friends is always worthwhile!

What a beautiful venue for a festival...and that's not just because Grand Haven is my home town! Right on the waterfront boardwalk, with a cool breeze, the sound of river traffic, and a laid back park-type setting.

The Waukesha Blues Festival

Here are just a couple of images from the festival I displayed at the weekend of Aug 10th.

A view of the main stage under the big-top.

Waukesha is a Gibson guitar town and has displayed a number of these guitar sculptures in the downtown area. This is their one dedicated to Carlos Santana.

The antique car display.

Sales were down for me considerably this year, hm... maybe that's why I forgot to include a shot of my booth!

Recent Art Production

 My studio space is such a limitation, especially when it comes to the weather. I wasn't able to get back to any serious making of art until early May! A lot of what I need to do in my technical process requires outside facility. So, once the temperatures became favorable and the rain stopped, I was able to get some pieces under way.

This abstraction was started as a demo piece during a PSAD open house in April. Again, it's a transitional piece and one where I wanted to introduce some subtle delineation; creating a contrast between the organic and geometric elements.

In "Helmet Boy meets Bird Man", I simply wanted to play with the layering of squirted lines of pigmented plaster. These lines were laid on a dry under-painting of my typical multiple layered plaster, tempera paint, and fabric dye. I was aiming at a more formal Paul Klee feeling.

Well, I just have to keep exploring the Icon motif! This was a commissioned piece from a customer who stopped by my booth during the Paducah festival. "St Lawrence, the patron Saint of Cooks" as an appropriate piece of art to be displayed on the wall of a commercial kitchen! And so it will be.

I think that I'm going to create some of my own "saintly characters" for vocations that don't have specific patron saints and see if there is an interest for such pieces (I guess, Icons on the lighter side!).

Here is a late addition to the post. I discovered it in my small storage unit, saw that it was unfinished piece from 2012, decided to seal it, and add some glazing. It's one of the larger (32x48) "excavation" series pieces but with a little influence from Delaunay and the Futurists.

Is Winter Over?

This has been my first complete Winter spent here in Paducah. Hopefully the temperatures will stay above freezing, and with workable temps in the day time I'll be able to resume creating some art! I should have a post in a month or so showing some new paintings.

Recent Work

I thought that I better post something in for December, even though I've been busy (maybe not as busy as some are during the holiday season!). Here are a few examples of pieces I've been developing over the past 3 months. I'll be including some of those in my MFA portfolio submission during the end of next month.

These are all part of my Excavation Series (digging through the layers of material to discover "artifacts").

Fearfully and Wonderfully Made.

I've been reading some articles by Werner Gitt (http://creation.com/dr-werner-gitt) on the topic of Creation/Evolution and followed up on a little research of my own with regard to the human DNA molecule:
The DNA contained within a single human body cell, if stretched out end-to-end, measures about 6 feet. There are between 50 and 100 trillion cells in a human body (depending on age and size). Given 5280 feet/mile, that means that there are between 56.82 and 113 billion miles of DNA in a human being. Given the distance from the earth to the sun to be 93 million miles, that total DNA contained within one human body could make between 300 and 600 trips to the sun and back! Yet, that same DNA mass could be compressed and fill the space of a single ice cube.
(Wikipedia and the book, "Fearfully and Wonderfully made")

Oh, Dr. Gitt's principle point is that a non-material entity (in particular, "information"...our DNA) cannot be generated by a material entity.

Personal Update

Since the beginning of the school year I started teaching Art 100 at WKCTC (the local community college), and will soon be teaching both an after school program (on a monthly basis) in a district about an hour from home and a drawing class for the VCC co-op. This regular employment (along with the part time framing at Michaels) is such an answer to prayer and a much needed provision from the Lord. As a result, the time that I can devote to maintaining this blog will be limited.

I will keep up art production if only for portfolio development. I'll need that when applying for a MFA program at the end of the year. My art festival circuit will be reduced to 5-6 shows a Summer. I will certainly keep posting progress in this art part of my life.