Monday, March 28, 2016

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Our mind plays tricks on us

Our mind plays tricks on us. It sees this paint stroke as the trunk of a tree, this blue patch as sky. I like to see the paint as paint within the intended forest. Sometimes I paint colors only to see an image in it later on. I recently heard someone say that the purpose of a painting is to entertain, and I hope mine do that. I derive so much pleasure from the act of painting, and hopefully this will translate to the eye of the viewer. These images contain stories in my head, and I wish I could share them all. But I have to let them speak for themselves.

Comics: Art In Relationship

I've finished the final project for my class through California College Of The Arts!

It's an 8 page comic.


Monday, March 07, 2016

Holidays

My favorite holidays are

1) My birthday. Not only is it my own personal holiday, but it falls in the heart of summer when I can ride my bike, have a bonfire and just be out in my yard.

2) National Space Exploration Day. It wasn't a holiday until my 9th birthday when Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon.

3) Lake Superior Day, when my birthday falls on a Sunday.

Family

My grandfather was a painter and art teacher. I'm sad I didn't know him better or have him around longer. He was an eccentric man. I have few memories of him, but I do have one of his paintings, and the book he taught from. The book is all marked up with his insights and underlining, and there are a few of his notes tucked between the pages, along with a flier for one of his classes. I read that book with his annotations, and I feel like he is speaking to me.

My father is also an eccentric man, and the older I get, the more I realize I am a lot like him. And I'm happy about that. For a brief time, my father painted. He created tiny abstracts on wood blocks, and I have those in a box. I treasure them. He shrugs them off as though they are nothing, but I once heard him talking about them with his grandchildren, and it might as well have been an inspiring gallery talk. A fireside chat.

Then there's me. I think people would say I'm a bit eccentric myself. I don't know about that. I'm currently studying comics through the California College of the Arts, having studied art and painted throughout my life.I recently realized that my paintings are comics, and that we are surrounded by comics all the time, and I hadn't recognized them.

Thursday, March 03, 2016