time has passed

It has been a while. Since getting back from Boston, I have been working, but haven't had time to post anything. Thanks for keeping things going Dolak! Below is the start of a piece that is much different now than how it is shown. And unfortunately I don't have any photos of the completed thing.

Just building up texture with latex color fields. You might notice some variation in color within the photos. If I were going to show this to my students of course I would painstakingly color-correct each of these . . . but . . . we'll just go with this. Imagine a consistent color cast on each of these if you can.

After this point I worked more text and texture into the horizontal stripe. I varnished the whole piece and then cut about six inches off of the bottom so it would fit in the trunk of our car (and of course, to improve the composition).

Look Mom No Clamps

It felt like time to investigate getting one of these 72" x 72" configurations on the wall. Wall Buddies W-3300 hangers were used as the hardware, although I am somewhat skeptical  on their claim that their product can support up to 80 lbs, these large pieces weigh in at just under 40 with the bolts in the back. I left his on the wall for an hour before running it back down to the basement, but would like to do a longer "test-hang" to see how comfortable I am with this hanging method. Originally I thought screws and D-hooks, but cleats may be another option. Some more investigation and exploring needs to be done but the Wall Buddies may prove to be a good final solution.

Sorry, bad photos, but an attempt to show how the bolts on the back of the panels holding it together. I over tightened them on the first pass and threw a bottom square out of alignment, so I learned my lesson and backed off on the torque of each and for the most part is is fairly square. Not too worried about it being perfect, it is nice to see the panels as individuals, emphasized by edges not lining up perfectly. 

In other news:

Counter sunk a few nails and puttied up the holes, will try and do sets of 6 rather than than all of the panels at once. I am anxious to get back to painting some new material.

Looking at something different, that left eye is still not right . . .  Kind of just want to paint over it.

Slowly

Used a nail punch to score lines into the surface of the panels which were then used as guides for a cube pattern.

Random combination just to see what the new pattern looks like next to image.

Initial fabrication is now done on the 15 2x4's and 18 2x2's. 

Now it's time to set the nails, putty the holes, sand, prime and sand again. Hopefully two more weeks and these will be done. 

July 4th Weekend

Added some paint to the edge of one of the configurations. This particular arrangement of panels had not been touched since October of 2010.

Shirt

This past week was crazy with working on building a drop fence of sorts that runs along the base of our deck. Some time was spent in the studio at night, an old shirt from college proved to be an interesting subject matter. 

The large 2x4 panels are all built and tonight once I get the last coat of paint on the deck fence I hope to get back to the garage and start on the 2x2's.

Week of 6/13

The panel configurations get worked as flat configurations then broken apart, reassembled and worked again. Looking at the stacks against the wall it became apparent this weekend that the stacks were configurations as well, so in a way to work them as an entire unit or configuration a blue line was painted that meandered across all of them. The edges of the panels really could be more of an important element in my final work than previously thought.

Current in-progress configurations.

Progress on Man with Stripped Shirt image, bottom shot being the most current.

14 of the 15 2x4 panels were built over the past week. Hopefully I can crank through the 18 2x2 this week and next, then rip a few of those squares into triangles, counter sink the nails, putty the holes, prime and sand everything in the next month. I really view the panel fabrication as part of the painting process.

Work 6/11 — 6/12

Beginning to fabricate more panels. The current plan is to build 15 2x4 and 18 2x2. Which would be more than enough for 5 72"x72" configurations. I figure I'd spend an hour each night working a a few before or after I go to the studio.

I gave Caleb a small stretched canvas and a few brushes, he hung out for an hour just fine while I worked Sunday.

This image has been giving me fits, the colors from the source image are skewed warm and red, plus I waffle on the temperature differences between the forehead and the lower portion of the mouth. Currently there is not enough distinction in terms of temperature between the various portions of the facial structures to separate them enough resulting in an image that is flat. Started this one back in early January, it still feels a long way off as either a finished image in and of itself or as parts to be worked into different configurations.