5 S.M.A.R.T. Links Worth Checking Out
Science – How to white balance in Lightroom using a Gray Card. Extremely helpful for taking slides of your art thanks to Joe Barret.
Music – Ellie Goulding, her eclectic pop is sometimes just what the doctor ordered.
Art – Virtually destroy the art of Jeff Koons. Pay 25 cents to go around shooting up Koons’ work while listening to an metal soundtrack. Made by Hunter Jonakin, an artist with a cool name. He says “The game is set in a large museum during a Jeff Koons retrospective. The viewer is given a rocket launcher and the choice to destroy any of the work displayed in the gallery. If nothing is destroyed the player is allowed to look around for a couple of minutes and then the game ends. However, if one or more pieces are destroyed, an animated model of Jeff Koons walks out and chastises the viewer for annihilating his art. He then sends guards to kill the player. If the player survives this round then he or she is afforded the ability to enter a room where waves of curators, lawyers, assistants, and guards spawn until the player is dead. In the end, the game is unwinnable, and acts as a comment on the fine art studio system, museum culture, art and commerce, hierarchical power structures, and the destructive tendencies of gallery goers, to name a few.” Check out his Low-Res Pixel Bed 21 x 100 (White to Black Gradient), actually check out all his work!
Random – Exciting video of the explosive graffiti of Alexandre Farto aka Vhils, via The Creators Project.
Technology – Color, a game changing app. View the world with the eyes of everyone around you and be able to comment on it. Very interesting.
All of the paintings in this post were started without any preconceived idea. At some point I decided to create a network of creatures to fill the space instead of non-objective gestural marks. The contorted shapes and interconnectedness of the characters create a dynamic flow of energy in the composition. The final result is an interesting balance of figure-ground meets all-over composition. I develop the imagery by creating narratives inspired by the characters that emerge from the abstract soup of brush marks. Creatures come and go based on how they visually define the composition and conceptually interact within the narrative.
New Years Eve in NYC, 2010, 30 x 40 inches, oil on canvas. Available.
The above painting, New Years Eve in NYC, was started on December 31st of 2009. When I started this painting I was thinking about, Cloud Control, which was hanging in my apartment. I was interested in the balanced energy of Cloud Control’s composition, and the linear flow of the brushstrokes. Imagery started to peek through as the New Years Eve painting developed. I was in a playful mood so I decided to build characters rather than annihilate them into abstraction. I was inspired by all of the “creatures” that would be roaming the streets of NYC later in the night.
Time Ain't Shit, 2009, 22 x 28 inches, oil on canvas. Available.
Time Ain’t Shit is inspired by the idea of how we experience life is more important than how we measure units of time. Birth, and death are the extreme moments of our mortal human existence. The life we remember is defined by the experiences we live rather than the science of measured time. What we do, and how we develop is more about our actions rather than accumulating ticks of a clock. It’s amazing how our perception of measured time fluctuates based on life situations. The imagery in this painting has vibes of both the spiritual and the material aspects of the world.
Pipeline, 2009, 24 x 18 inches, oil on canvas. Available.
While developing Pipeline i was interested in this idea of one directional movement via a conduit. I was also thinking about the NYC underground, both literal and metaphorical, and a light source at the end of a tunnel. This image evokes a definite push-pull sensation between the foreground and background. Are we in a tunnel, or are we watching the Moon flirt with a water filled horizon.
Gripped II, 2009, 18 x 24 inches, oil on canvas. Available.
Untitled, 2008, 30 x 30 inches oil on canvas. Available
Uplift, 2007, 24 x 18 inches, oil on canvas. Available
Uplift has an angelic like figure rising above decay and destruction. An illumination, a rebirth, a new point of view.
Gripped I, 2005, 18 x 30 inches, oil on canvas. Sold.
Gripped was one of the very first paintings in this style. I was actually looking at a photo in The Philadelphia Inquirer of an oil spill. I found the pattern of the oil on the surface of the water very interesting. The inspiration for the imagery developed from the idea of how powerful the human mind is when focused on a particular thing.
Draws His Face Around NYC 4-2-2010, New York – When I take a walk in the city I see a lot of faces. Hardly ever am I encountered with thousands of drawn faces by an artist. Today I found myself stepping over a new face every foot of my walk on Park Avenue in the low 20′s drawn by artist Felix Morelo.
I entered the path of faces at about number 1,860. I knew this because Felix Morelo was kind enough to write the number and his name every 10 faces. Every once in a while he circled an area and designated it a “good luck spot.” Check out the pictures for the good luck spot after face 1,205 and other numerical milestones. Come to think of it I even saw them somewhere else earlier in the day, but was in too much of a hurry filming with Seamus Brown to stop and photograph them.
After the film shoot I hurried over to Cheim and Read for a glorious viewing of Donald Baechler’s most recent work. The work was sexy, refreshing, and bold. Huge layered/collaged paintings and epic bronze metal sculptures. I should probably write another blog post just on that show. Go check it out!
Thanks Felix.
