Content Machine
The world we live in now requires artists to always be. Always showing process, always making new work, making new content, new posts…It’s exhausting and I would much rather not fiddle with a camera while I’m in this headspace. But it’s what I must do to keep doing. Showing I’m a human and not a computer…through a computer.
Oh yes. This
Oh hello. Hi. Yes. I forgot to update this after I got back on IG. I am a human being after all. I want to revamp the website soon. Here is todays painting. The end.
Pre-orders now live!
Pre-orders are now up for my postcard print book of my latest drawing series: Perennial Hex
Pre-orders will be up for 2 weeks and end on 11/17/21. I expect to ship books in December 2021.
All books come signed and will have all 31 October drawings + 3 bonus drawings!
I have no guarantee there will be extra copies to sell afterward so if you want a book this is how to get one!
(There are some early bird spots for a $10 discount.)
Thanks everyone for your support!
Revisited
Tonight is the opening of Light Grey Art Lab’s ‘The End is Nigh’ show in Minneapolis, MN! I am honored to be a part of such a great show with incredible artists. For my piece I wanted to create an ethereal, ghostly image, that was unsettling, without gore. Prints are available through Light Grey art lab: Light Grey Art Lab Shop
Accepting Applications
Applications are now open for a for a wealthy patron so I can just paint all day. Preferably a Von Meck/Tchaikovsky situation. Email me.
Inspiration
It was an absolute honor to work with my favorite model, Astrid Kallsen, yesterday! Astrid was a total gem: imaginative and innovative with what little direction I gave her. I wanted to do some life drawing with her, but alas my studio is still under construction. Instead, we took a bunch of reference photos that have given me lots of inspiration for larger works to come. For now, enjoy some studies:
The exterminating angel
Last night’s sketchbook session was brought to you by Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel. Based on the 1962 film by Luis Buñuel, this contemporary opera is basically a “what would David Lynch do?”. So I liked it. Also, good use of the Ondes Martenot for all the rabid Ondes Martenot fans out there.
I have been working back into more realistic anatomy lately as I think my abstracted figures have suffered from a lack of traditional drawing practice since my college days. Gotta brush up on drawing bones under flesh before taking the bones out.
Zoom Figure Drawing
Some drawings from my “life drawing” sessions via zoom. What a weird time.
Opis Devouring Herself
I added a new image to the sketchbook section. After Goya.
I was watching Nixon in China while drawing this so…my apologies.
A new place to land
In the year of forced isolation (as opposed to my usual voluntary isolation), I found my numerical engagement to social media increasing while my meaningful engagement was decreasing. One day I just decided to disable my instagram account of many years. The months following allowed more time for reading and engagement of the world around me even though I was still mostly at home. While I missed “keeping up” with the day to day of the lives of my friends and acquaintances, I found comfort knowing I was no longer participating in the attention economy. I no longer felt the pull to constantly be available even when unhealthy.
This year also saw the much needed feed-flood of activism. I did not wish to clog up the airwaves with my drawings or opinions. While I did not completely unplug from social media I continued to listen and participate outside as much as I could, but by abstaining more from posting myself I hoped that space could be taken by someone more relevant. As Gilles Deleuze wrote:
“…we’re riddled with pointless talk, insane quantities of words and images. Stupidity’s never blind or mute. So it’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t stop people expressing themselves but rather force them to express themselves; What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, and ever rarer, thing that might be worth saying.”
This exodus from likes and comments is like breathing clean air after gasping on fart-tinged O2 for years. However, I do want to be a part of humanity still, farts and all.
So here I am with a new website to share some paintings and drawings and occasional ramblings. And perhaps this personal setting will not take away from another’s space in the feed and provide more context than what we’re all used to scrolling through over and over. That’s what I’m seeking: more context. More context translates to more compassion.
With this simple website, without follow count and likes, I can share when I actually feel like sharing and not when my conditioned brain says “YOU NEED TO SHARE OR ELSE YOUR VISIBILITY WILL GO DOWN”.
But I do want to keep sharing and communicating and being…here.
Send me an email if you like any of the work here, or if you don’t, or if you want to say hi.