I like watching things grow
The past few months have been busy. I’ve been working full time plus interning, and trying to get some charcoal drawings done. I accidentally got pulled into another hobby, though, which is getting my deck all alive with plant life. I got my hands on a few seed packets and tried my hand at getting them going, something I don’t think I’ve tried since my first grade pea plant project. Captured some of the good luck I’ve been having on camera.
Good merchandise
The weather in Seattle has been fantastic, good time for a short ferry ride. I’ve set up a collection of work, both originals and prints, at Good Merchandise on Vashon Island. You can stop by and see my work February through the end of March, and Vashon’s artwalk is on First Friday- March 5th.
Happy new year
My painting that’s included in Sixth Street Gallery’s January group show has a great spot right up by the window, so you get a great view of it just passing by. Here’s a shot of the gallery at night or those who won’t be able to make it to Vancouver, WA to see it.Reflections
In progress shots of a new piece
A couple updates
The top one (title tba, about 19″x14″) is a new addition, and the bottom one (about 11″x16″) has been updated. I finished them both today to be included in the new show I’m hanging at the end of next week. The portfolio page has been updated.
Seattle public art
Seattle Weekly featured an article about free public art in Seattle. Read it here.
Seattle’s best
I read the Stranger every now and then but had missed the article titled The 25 Greatest Works of Art Ever Made in Seattle from March. I found out about it today when I was serving my Olympic Sculpture Park shift in the Vivarium. A guy walked in and said he was on a mission to visit all of the pieces, and that the Vivarium was one of them. Just wanted to share!
News
I’ve finished this piece and have posted it, along with a couple other recent pieces, to the portfolio page.
Also you may have noticed that I’ve added a few more events to the calendar on the home page. I’m happy to say I’ve basically booked up my whole year with events I’m really excited about. I’ve met some really great people in the process of booking the exhibitions, and will be posting updates about the events as they happen. I gave this website a makeover a few weeks ago, and added the Flickr photostream in the sidebar with the intention of using it as a place to post photos of art events and other personal adventures. In the coming weeks and months I’ll be posting the photos of art events, and for the time being the photostream is in travel-adventure mode as I gear up for the art fun.
Why look at animals?
Extract from Why Look At Animals? by John Berger, 1980
Animals came from the horizon. They belonged there and here. Likewise they were mortal and immortal. An animal’s blood flowed like human blood, but its species was undying and each lion was Lion, and ox was Ox. This - maybe the first existential dualism - was reflected in the treatment of animals. They were subjected and worshiped, bred and sacrificed.
Today the vestiges of this dualism remain among those who live intimately with, and depend upon, animals. A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for the urban stranger to understand, is that the two statements in that sentence are connected by an and and not by a but.
The parallelism of their similar/dissimilar lives allowed animals to provoke some of the first questions and offer answers. The first subject matter for painting was animal. Probably the first paint was animal blood. Prior to that, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the first metaphor was animal.
Mostly finished
About 12″x16″
Probably will go back into it later, but setting it aside for now.
In progress
And, an earlier photo:
The first 22″x30″ I’ve done in a few months.
More fun
A little one, 8″x10″-ish
