Saturday, May 16, 2009

Static!


These "dead TVs" keep appearing in my art for some reason. The first appearance was in some chalk art I did for a contest while attending FSU. You wold think I was one of those anti-TV folks, yet I am an avid watcher. Perhaps I started drawing these at a time when I did think that TV was useless (of course, this was before Hulu, and other network's online players which essentially sucked me back).

So here you go..death to TV...or death to broadcast...or interpret it as a revolt to technology taking over the world...or "my TV sucks and all I get is one channel, and the rest is static!" or just enjoy the image for what it is.

Death to Broadcast?

A new series I'm starting...not sure what to call it yet...



Thursday, May 14, 2009

An Old Sketch

I did this one my last year of high school back in 2000 in my Portfolio art class. I can't remember exactly, but it is either a sketch of a sketch, or a sketch of a picture of an old man. Regardless, I have always kept it, and everytime I look at it I want to continue doing sketches of the human body.


Wednesday, April 29, 2009

City Scapes!



A few months back I did a three painting series (hopefully more one day) of some photos I took while living in Philly and visiting NYC. Obviously, the one to the left is form NYC, as is the one of the "Walk/Don't Walk" sign. The third painting is from South Street in Philly.

I used a simple black Sharpie marker to outline, and your basic acrylic paint to fill in the skies, trees, and traffic lights. I extended the painting to wrap around all edges. Nothing irritates me more than wasted canvas on the sides!

Why did I leave the buildings blank? One, because I felt the paintings themselves would be too "busy," and secondly, I wanted to focus on what little nature does exist in cities. Thirdly (and most importantly to me), I really just liked the simple contrast.



















Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Playing...


....with contours and lines. Rivers and cities are some of my favorite things to sketch.



Monday, February 23, 2009

Book Pages Make Great Canvases

When you are poor, and just can't afford quality art materials, one starts to look around their house to see what they can use. I started doing this some time ago, and have since preferred to paint on non-canvas material.

Canvas has never been a favorite of mine since I stick to acrylic, and I don't like how the weave of the canvas shows through the painting. For a while, I painted on wood and cardboard, but then found that book pages were great to paint on. Especially old book pages because books were typically made with a better paper and are more durable. Not to mention, it's kind of a cool effect to have words behind your painting whether or not they have anything to do with your image.

This book I found for $3.00 at The Curiosity Shoppe on S. 4th Street in Philadelphia was titled "The European Discovery of America, Northern Voyages A.D. 500-1600" was filled with 700 perfect size pages including interesting images of old maps and ships. $3.00 for essentially 350 canvases sounded like a good deal to me.

Right now these paintings are just on the loose paper, but it would be great to find a way to either fasten them to something hard like a piece of wood without ruining the painting, or find a great fame that will fit it's unique dimensions. My favorite ones are of the two above guitars, and the spinning bright orange glasses.






Sunflower

I have an affinity for mixed media, and the only thing in my house besides this single canvas was a brown paper bag. So I ripped up pieces, "Mod-Podged" them to the canvas, and started to paint away. I'm not one who looks for perfection in art; I just want to paint something that is interesting to look at. Although this is reminiscent of something I could have made in elementary school, it is still one of my favorite pieces for some unknown reason. Beth's Sunflower > Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Haha, not really, but this painting reminds me of when I saw his "Sunflowers" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art the very last weekend I lived up north. It was stunning to say the least.

"Sunflower"
April 4, 2008
Philadelphia, Pa
.