pushing the paint around

just the other day (in the post below) i alluded to the gradual change this painting has been going through. now after tonight's studio session, i finally feel like i have it at a good half way point, or maybe 2/3rds point. like i said, it didn't get there through the addition of painted elements; it got there through the removal of one giant fuckup of a decision. and the neat thing about that is, it's not maddening at all. it's actually quite wonderful. it seems that lately i'd rather be happy with a piece i've slowly crawled through all winter, rather than with one that took merely a few nights to nail.

strange.

so, here are some images taken tonight, showing where things currently are. sometime soon i hope to have it finished. when i do, i'll post (possibly) final images.

one last note - also in the works right now are a series of very sparse, light-as-a-feather woodcuts, with my little grass blades drawn over the top of the printed ink portions. i'm excited about them.

another update on the new work

i've pushed a recent paining through an awful lot of work this winter. hours and hours of late weeknight sessions, trying to get stuff looking good. and then, this weekend, i took yet another step back to reflect on how things looked, and suddenly realized all the hours i put into certain elements within the painting needed to be erased, forgotten, thrown out. funny how that works. so, unlike i've ever done before, i'm painting over entire areas of what i had going. sometime soon i'll post an image that shows where this is at now. the beginnings of the quiltwork that are pictured somewhat lower-left grew into a monstrous behemoth, and i decided it looked awful and had to go (or at least get pushed back to almost entirely covered up by whisps of atmospheric whites and creams). you'll see what i mean soon.

in a few weeks, i'll be hosting two artists over for dinner and for a critique of this new work. i've been preparing for my solo show in a complete vacuum, and i need some peer feedback on how things will look together in one room. maybe i'll take some pics of things placed near each other, for a contextual "preview" of what i have planned for this july.

"Nowhere Close to Normal" exhibit now in Denver

the traveling exhibit "Nowhere Close to Normal" is currently up at the Red Delicious Press Gallery in Denver, Colorado. for some old-posts information on this show, go here.

here are images from denver:























































In a short amount of time, this exhibit will also travel to Hays, Kansas. I'm being told we're actually going to show in a raw space that is part of a business located in a warehouse-ey district. The business constructed a large white wall for us, and i'm hoping we're surrounded by exposed brick (i always enjoy that feel in an exhibition space). also, , we will be a stop on a city-wide art walk, so that's cool. whenever that leg of the tour gets installed, i'll share more photos.

karin

it was already shaping up to be a pretty rough 2009.
then we go and get the awful news about a friend.

we'll all miss your snarky sense of humor, karin. chad, we're here for you - anytime, anywhere, with an open ear and our love.


***update 2/16/09: chad has a beautiful post on their site:
http://youcarewhatwethink.blogspot.com/2009/02/some-of-you-may-have-heard-and-some-of.html

from out the window of a car

a dear old friend and i have been chatting on email lately. i've always considered her someone i'm tremendously close to, and we've been writing about how life goes — how a few years pass, and suddenly we find that we're both parents, homeowners, and tied to jobs, and we haven't hung out and goofed off like the kids we were in days past.

we've made some plans to take some road trips together in the future, joking that our quality time is "on sabbatical" due to geographical distance and our families. this friend is a traveler, and seeing other parts of the country is something my wife and i haven't done much in the last couple years. we miss our road trips terribly, and we're itching for some rugged outdoors stuff. if anyone knows good spots to hike and take in our country's most amazing natural expanses, it's geologist, dinosaur-digging, been on national television, superwoman Merry.

cheers, Mer. looking forward to camping, hiking, and your explanations of the geology all around us.




















some images from out of the window of a car...

















leaving iowa



















rocky mountain national park


















the outermost parts of arches national park


















arches national park (okay, not shot from the car, but from my own feet... sorry to break theme...)



















monument valley


















returning to our beloved iowa