I totally abandoned this website – I couldn’t help it – I’ve been so goddamn busy and processing audio tape takes too much damn time… Anyways, I’m going to make some honest attempt to right this ship, as I need a place to host images and jibber jabber about all my ongoing projects, as well as boring the public at large with details of my exciting personal life.
Right now I’m in the middle of a huge project, so no new audio for a week or two. With the closure of the gallery aspect of Walled City, I’ve been keeping myself busy by organising the exhibition Contemplating Apocalypse at the Brewery Project. With only 5 days to go till we get to find out if my own art sucks and if I can fit into my overbuilt pants (that’s another post in itself), I’ll try and post some installation and opening night goodness.
Let’s start with some images of my project for the project. I’m constructing an environment, designed to contextualise my Conan-esque personal fantasy as a post-apocalyptic warrior king. I’m still not 100% on the final design. The space I’ve chosen is wierd, it has a big step, slumping concrete and is divided from the rest of the gallery by two I-beams that make a big V.
The primary visual element is a large scale painting that I’m making on a 12′x8′ billboard panel that I’ve managed to construct and which leans against one of the walls. I normally paint right on the wall, but the wall was funky and I wanted a flat surface. The panel is made of three 3/8″ MDF boards, and I’m painting on the textured side, which handles kind of like unforgiving canvas. Since I’m not a painter (I’m just a guy who occasionally needs to paint something as an element in a project), and this is the most detailed large scale painting I’ve done yet, I’m pretty nervous. This piece has shading, clothing folds and other details that need to be looser than the more graphic stuff I’ve done in the past. Loose is good, since it softens the edges and helps create the illusion of motion, or something like that, I think.
So here’s what I’m working on so far.
That’s me setting the last panel into place. Getting 4′x8′ plywood and 16′ long 2″x4″s into the building was a project into itself. Everything gets brought up a narrow, sharply turning staircase to the 2nd floor gallery.
After it was installed, I hit the lights and turned on the projector. I use a monchrome version of the final image so that I can get good lines, as the colour image can be blurry when projected. Not only can I not paint, I can’t draw, either. So essentially I’m a double loser, tracing my art and painting by numbers. Someday, like Jeff Koons, I’ll be able to pay pathetic “desperate to be somebody” graduate students to to this for me…
This is what the painting looks like at the end of the 1st day. I’ve got a lot of work to do, but it’s looking alright.
That’s a closeup of what I’m calling the “begging figure” or “weak man”. John Gill was the model for the image. Yes, he’s holding a cheezy ass Campbell’s Tomato Soup can. It’s more of a “whatever” than a reference. The paper taped next to him is the colour guide, as there are no notes on the painting itself. The image was composited from two photos, and I’m re-sized to make me look larger and closer to the viewer.
Anyways, I’m off to install…
Well, I guess coming here every couple of week has finally paid off! I can’t wait ’till Saturday.
Oh yeah – this place totally hit bottom/ground zero in terms of traffic and incoming links. I shouldn’t have started off doing the tape thing – each tape requires hours of work to get posted. Hours that I just don’t have.
Besides, I can be as misanthropic as I like here and not feel that I have to coddle the sensibilities of my readers.
If you want to meet Jeff Koons and get a private tour of his studio, you can bid on the chance at http://www.charitybuzz.com. The auction ends on March 6, 2008.