Too Busy To Blog....

Despite what the sign says, I got this baby for only $59.99!

Well, here it is, my $60 tent for the Hot Rod Hula Hop in Columbus OH. Now I have to make enough work to fill it!!!!

I have been busy. Like a one legged man at an ass kickin' contest...like a one armed paper hanger...like a long tailed cat in a room full of rockin' chairs (maybe not that last one...) So busy in fact, that I have little work to show, and not enough time to complain about it. So I will leave you with a bad phone camera shot of the model for PIRATES...Oh, and one more tease...I might be in your living room sometime this fall...

See you next week!

Model for Pirates of Penzance
1/8"=1' (sorry for the low quality)

So, I'm not going to Detroit?

Suddenly, our hero finds that he has a free weekend…what will he do?

As it turns out, after working hard on a series of new Tiki paintings, the show was canceled. (Actually, it was moved to Labor Day weekend, which I cannot attend, but I will be sending some work along to show my support for the Detroit scene…) It certainly isn’t the greatest feeling being the “last to know” about something like that, but in the end, I got a whole new set of paintings out of it

Bucky's Lamp
Acrylic and cut paper on Board 4"x10"

Edgar's, Lee's, Vera's, Frank's Lamp
All Acrylic and Cut Paper on Board, All 4"X10"

They are based on a set of camera phone photos of the Mai Kai in Massachusetts. (See previous post with a picture of me looking somewhat drunk in a well lit Tiki bar) I have been toying with the idea of making my Tiki stuff more situational. I have resisted narrative for a long time, which has prevented me from making characters to inhabit my paintings. I feel that this is a bit like playing with paper dolls. You might create a narrative, but outside the sandbox it doesn’t amount to much. So I have been keeping to just depicting objects. However, in this series, I have tried to make an absent character the “subject”. That is, each of these paintings is named “(insert name…like Bucky)’s lamp”. This provides the viewer with the idea that this is a lamp in a particular Tiki establishment, owned by a particular proprietor, with individual tastes. For example, Bucky is a modernist-loving owner, who serves Suffering Bastards to the lovelorn patrons at his leather upholstered bar. So I have tried to indirectly show the type of person the proprietor is. Perhaps I have been pondering the death of Marvin Chin a bit too much when I was making these…who knows. Overall, I know that I have given these much more thought than the average hedonistic Tiki consumer, but perhaps they are a signal of a change in my work.

I have been overwhelmed by the amount of work ahead, and this week has been one of diligent painting, but thankfully all the deadlines were mine, and not set by others. However, the time for sloth has ended; I have to put the nose to the grindstone for the next month before I get any breaks…wheeeeeee

Go support the fringe festival. I went to the opening, last night and saw Greg Ferrand’s work at the warehouse (along with too many others to mention) and the new club Avenue. Although I have seen that painting before, I still think its one of the best things he’s done…even if it is an over-the-top “Spanish” painting…someday he and I will attend a bullfight together, before they are banned.

Tune in next week when our protagonist (No, I haven’t forgotten about the naming/ re-branding thing…) hangs up some work at the DCAC Wall Mountables show…plus can he paint an entire children’s theatre camp show in one night, again??????

JOSEPH ends, PIRATES and Palace begin...

The palace of wonders is a great addition to the H St. corridor. However, at the grand opening on Friday, it seemed that if they anticipate having as large of crowds as they did for this special event, it would be a venue doomed to “not have a good seat in the house”. I can only hope that it will be all it professes to be, and is around for a long time. It does not promise to be a good venue for more than 40 people at a time, and therefore may not be a viable venue for people like Lobs, or Trixie (and especially not their scenery!). Scott and Mike joined KT and me, where we drank Magic hat number 9 and hatched evil plans, while the flea circus boomed and the lasso twirling whizzed by our heads.

Sketch for Arlington Players production of PIRATES OF PENZANCE

The next day I committed myself fully to making a good first draft for PIRATES OF PENZANCE. I came up with a “colored etching” look that would be consistent with the constraints of this particular production. Because of the lighting renovation at TJ, the show may have to be moved. Hence, I need to make a predominantly 2-D set, that can pack up and be moved in a single truckload. What you are seeing in the sketch are all cut flats (some attached to a 7’ high rolling platform…), and a backdrop. I presented my designs at Malcolm’s poolside to an agreeable reception.

The next day started early, when I took my sorry butt to Seat Pleasant to paint the entire set for JOSEPH. Because of delays in the design for another show that was being produced at Imagination Stage, I was delivered the set to be painted on Friday (the show opened Wednesday!) So, I spent the entire day painting. I started to get loopy around midnight, and decided that that was good enough.

The next morning Dan T and I went the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse to help repair their grand curtain. Due to a purchasing error (and an inability to diagnose the situation on my part) we decided that more parts needed to be ordered and that the day was pretty much a wash. So we’ll be back to finish the job when the parts come in.Production photo of JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT

Imagination Stage @ CESJDS

I took some portfolio shots of JOSEPH today. Ayun Fedorcha is the lighting designer, and she always makes my work look great. My photos are only so-so. I guess I need to break down and buy a digital camera soon!

I will be fully committed to making a whole bunch of Tiki paintings for the Motor city Tiki show this week. Hopefully I will be far enough along next Wednesday to have some to share digitally! It’s nice to not have a million things going on for one week…just one big one!

Contest Extended!

Thank you so much for your comments. I realize that I have inadvertently sparked some confusion when I announced my “contest”. Some of you thought it was a contest to change my legal name. Some more cynical folks pointed out that it was vain enough to have a blog at all, let alone hold narcissistic contests. But the overwhelming majority responded: “you have a blog?” Just to clarify, yes. I have a blog. But it could be much cooler. In fact, my whole “thing” could be much cooler. And that is where you come into the picture. I am holding a “contest” (no purchase necessary, void where prohibited) where you, the general (Art-appreciatin’, theater-going, tikiphile, pastie-twirlin’, America-loving, John and Jane Q.) Public will have a say on what shape my next website and “brand” will take. I realize that I announced said contest right before a major holiday, so I am going to extend the deadline until the end of the month, so that everyone will have a chance to add their $0.02.

There have been some pretty good suggestions so far. And some sage advice too…It’s not an easy thing assuming a pen name. People like Mark Twain and Lobsterboy make it look easy. But as we all know, being a superhero is much more than wearing your underwear on the outside of your pants…you have to back it up with being able to leap buildings in a single bound. I will try to live up to that you give me, wearing it proudly on the outside of my pants!

Before I get into the humdrum of the weeks update, I wanted to point out that I have added some links to my list on the right, in hopes of spreading the cyber-love around a bit…so please visit some of my friends!

With the summer rains come thoughts of adding bathrooms to the basement…after all, were spending lots of money installing that pump, why not just demolish the whole basement and add a bathroom?

Floorplan for Fiddler on the Roof for Imagination Stage
Created in Vectorworks

I turned in the final drafts of Fiddler…It continues to surprise me how fast the summer is clipping along. Ill have to paint ALL of JOSEPH before they open, next Wednesday. (!)

Sara’s Birthday was celebrated at Glen Echo, in the Spanish Ballroom. If you even remotely like swing dancing, this is the place for you. We had a blast. In an effort to be authentic (or cheap) they don’t air condition the place, so we all lost our own weight in sweat by the end of the night. In fact, the website recommends that gentlemen bring additional shirts to change into!

Before that was the closing reception for ReMastered. I guess my Laocoon will be on permanent display in the dining room. Anyone got a fish tank I can put below it?

And just like that, I have started researching for PIRATES of PENZANCE. My first production meeting is on Saturday. Perhaps some sketches for you to see next week!

The 4th of July is a long story this year, so I’ll try to sum up in one sentence. Because of the budget crisis in New Jersey, our planned escape for KT’s birthday was changed to a hotel in Virginia, with a stellar view of the fireworks, followed by a day of shopping at Potomac Mills. God bless America.

Finally, mark your calendars! On July 22 (about two weeks!) The MOTOR CITY TIKI Show will be held at Chin’s in Livonia, MI. This is a great Tiki show; at a really great specimen of a Tiki restaurant (it’s got its own page in Tiki Road Trip). I will have (hopefully) about a dozen new paintings for sale, and will probably take home more Tiki stuff than I bring! More info at: www.motorcitytiki.com

Toxic Tiki wrapup and pseudonymity VOTE!

The Lobsterboy Toxic Tiki Party is over. If you missed it, you missed it! Don’t worry, there will be others, and I will be here to keep you up to date on all of the scenic scoop. Before I go to the blow by blow of the event, I want to tease you with a challenge. You see, I know that the Betweenthetines readership is small. And I know that deep down some of you voyeuristic types actually want to be involved. So I am soliciting your advice by inviting you to post a comment about a “rebranding” issue I am considering. See the last paragraph of this post for details.


Bouncing quickly back from the wheel debacle, I set about laying out the old cyc from Theater Two to paint the Lobsterboy review banner. I worked up several designs on Thursday night and presented Lobs with two options, Friday lunchtime. It came down to a choice between the squid and the whale and a polluted riverbed. Lobs had always discouraged me from a design that would distract from the show, so I was certain that he would pick the more “backdropy” riverbed. But to my surprise, he chose the squid and the whale. He asked if they could look more “stoned” or something, and I immediately seized on the idea of making the whale more like an old time fight promoter and the squid a drunken dockworker, in order to keep the E.C. Segar (Popeye comics) feel. I added a derby, cigar, martini, anchor tattoo, and presto!

Since I was using the old cyc the material was very thin. So when I put air under the drop after priming (in order to keep it from sticking to the paper/homasote) it floated a good 18” up off the floor. Consequentially, this stretched it out somewhat, and I never got that tightness that I usually look for (in fact, it fell back and wrinkled quite a bit…) but overall it made the drop look more “old timey” and “underwatery”…

I brushed up the tikis and reworked the knife effect by swapping out the aluminum plate (that never got carved for Tom Sawyer) for a steel one I ground and shaped myself. I was finished with everything Saturday night just in time for a celebratory steak dinner at Outback and a trip out to the Moai lounge!

Scott and Jen at the Moai lounge are just fantastic. They are a real connective tissue that the tiki community needs out here. I saw lots of familiar faces and was able to pass out a few comics too. As it turns out, much of my announcing the show had not fallen on deaf ears…half of the party pledged to be there the next day!

Scenery for the Lobsterboy Toxic Tiki Party
Cut luan flats 4'x8' and Muslin backdrop 12'x12'

The day of the show was clear and other than having to wait for the world cup to stop we loaded in smoothly. There were some sound issues and even bigger lighting issues, but overall the tech side of the show was in capable hands (I think I made fast friends with Mr. esoteric, who was a big hit at the show). The curtain was held for Lucky, since she got lost on her way from NYC…and the audience filled up. I was surprised and flattered that so many folks I had asked to come actually showed up.

The show was pretty good, and Lobs seemed to be on his game (sometimes when the audience isn’t into the show, he can fall flat) and the first half flew by. The second half had the knife throw number in it, which, lets face it, sucked. The knife didn’t have the spring in it that it had when it was aluminum and the body language wasn’t 100%...and once the thing had been triggered, it went “thwup”, and there was silence. The audience didn’t know how to react, hell; Lobsterboy didn’t plan that far ahead. Anyway, we should get style points for trying…

Once the show ended, the back door to the theater was opened. It was raining so hard that you could not see across the street. I decided that strike would have to wait till the rain had cleared, after Attack of the Giant Leeches. The rain did not let up. I unfortunately had to press Scott and Mike into service getting the truck loaded and unloaded in the rain. We then spent a long time trying to get home. At one point we were being waved through a flooded intersection on the Mall by a police officer who was standing in knee height water. I misjudged the flooded road and rolled right over the curbs…

Got home and found that we had ¾” water in the basement! This happened the next day, even deeper! I am going to spend the rest of this week talking to contractors about how to fix my basement (along with everyone else in the DC metro area)

I have been procrastinating on getting the final designs in for FIDDLER this week. I just need a break for psychological reasons….fortunately the meeting was moved to Friday (on account of me)

Okay kids, here’s the last paragraph. I have been considering ratcheting up my efforts at branding my work, which is practically nonexistent now. I was struck by the fact that when Lobs gave me a shout-out at the show, that “the sets were designed by Jared Davis” the words didn’t have any “ring” to it (especially since everyone else in the show had pseudonyms: Lobsterboy, Cardgirl, Fullbladder, Lucky, Kitty Victorian). So I have been toying with the idea of chucking it all and giving myself a recognizable nickname which can double as a kind of brand. I want to change from “Jared Davis” at www.artbyjared.com to a punchy/catchy name by dropping the first two letters of my first name to get “Red”. (I’ll let that soak in for a second)… Okay, I don’t want to go to some one name thing like Bono or Madonna, but “Red Davis” has a snap to it. Or Jared “Red” Davis, could work too. With the name change would also come the change of website. Some of the contenders are: www.redpopart.com , www.red-o-rama.com, www.nightofthelivingred.com and www.aredplanet.com . But someone has suggested that I go with www.betweenthetines.com and just use the Red thing for show pseudonyms...NOW HERES YOUR PART! I am opening a two stage contest. Over the course of this next week I will be accepting nominations for stage name and website name (website name must be available as a domain name…I have been using www.GoDaddy.com) Next week, once the judges make a decision on the final contenders, the voting will begin. Just like American Idol…America, you be the judge!

Remastered, Comics and Wheel, Drop

You would hope that the craziness would ramp up and then die off…but it just seems to keep coming. This week was definitely a high-water mark for craziness. It really started with a very early trip to the airport to drop KT off to go to Detroit. I used the rest of that day to finish the Lobster Comic. I am proud to report that I pushed the send button sometime around 7PM, thereby completing another project. The comic turned out well, I think the writing came together with the images, and it is a proper parody of the religious pamphlet without becoming viscous. They are being sold for $0.25 at the show, or you just might find one under the wiper of your car!

Lobsterboy Comic Episode One
Print it and cut it out...fold it whichever way you think makes sense...

I took a short break from the comic to have an initial production meeting for Night of the Living Dead with Landless Theatre. There are some technical issues with the show (they need to barricade themselves into the farmhouse, so they will need something solid to bang against…which will be hard if the set needs to be struck every night, for example) but I think that it will be a very fun production overall. The Director doesn’t want to do it campy, which I happen to agree with, but that will be difficult to pull off around Halloween, when people are expecting to go for camp…

After that (same day!) I went to the Cinema and Drafthouse, to look at their main drape…it looks like my technical theater skills will finally pay off…I am being contracted to fix the ancient thing….

The opening for Remastered at Studioneight (which is how I spell it, but the website is www.studiooneeight.com which is not as much letter sharing fun as my spelling) was perhaps a bit mellower than I had anticipated. It was quite hot in the gallery, and I was sweating bullets, which caused me to be much less social than I should have been…Unfortunately, my Laocoon did not sell. But I don’t feel that bad because I understand that sales were slow across the board. Perhaps people will have a second bite at the apple at the closing reception on July 1. I will permit myself to wonder aloud about Studioneight’s strategy…perhaps theme shows like this one need even more marketing than they are currently doing, in order to give people a chance to “get” it. I also was not really able to market it on my own this time around because I have been so busy (And that my name does not appear anywhere on the website, or by extension, I assume, the press packs…)

Chagall-esque backdrop for Fiddler on the Roof and Joseph and the... 32'X24'
It may not look like much while being stapled on the floor, but its going to add a lot to the show!

The day after the Remastered show I started work on my Chagallesque backdrop for FIDDLER and JOSEPH…I am proud to say that it can be checked off the list as finished as of Tuesday.

Wheel of Death before its retirement

On Wednesday, Lobs and Co. came to test the wheel (and prospectively rehearse with it). After much debate and a few test runs, the wheel has been cut. We determined that it was not 100% safe, and it was not operating as we would have liked. (i.e. it did not rotate freely, and the straps did not hold the person in well enough to keep them from slipping out) I am not really disappointed. I know that the structure of the wheel is well built, and can be used again. I have learned a lot making this contraption. When I start to make the Mark II, I will make the wheel itself out of steel, and provide a “rollercoaster-like” harness for the pilot. Hopefully I will have the kinks out of it by Halloween! To be honest, Lobs seemed even more disappointed than me. But they have a great backup skit that involves my giant Tiki cutouts…

So, that has been the week that was…Next week I’ll be giving you the wrap-up of how the Lobsterboy show went! (Last ditch plug: Lobsterboy Toxic Tiki Party at the Cinema and Drafthouse in Arlington VA, SUNDAY NITE June 25!!!!! More info @ www.Lobsterboy.net)

Don't trust Greeks with oversized horse art!

Laocoon (after Hagesandros, Athenodoros and Polydoros of Rhodes)
Cut paper and Acrylic on Canvas, 48"x36" 2006

Isn’t it a great feeling when one of your projects is finally complete? This week marked the completion of the Laocoon. It was looking kinda dicey for a while there, I was pasting large areas of paper one morning at a time for a few weeks, putting off the moment when I would have to deal with the face of my poor priest of Poseidon. The lessons learned about the spacemen were: A. I can paint realistically if I have the object in front of me, or a bunch of great photos (but Apollo spacemen are not easy to find) B. Realistic rendering makes things too serious. I am a painter of “the Funky”. I need not pretend otherwise. Consequentially, I put off the face for as long as possible. In the end I wound up putting an art deco helmet (perhaps a bit too “rocketman”, admittedly) in order to keep the expression up to the viewer. (Although I confess that moving around the cut paper eyes to create different expressions of distress, presented a whole new set of problems)

You can come by Studioneight this Saturday and check it out in the flesh. I guarantee that the crappy phone photo does not do it justice! (be sure to read the artists statement…it’s a cute piece of writing, if I do say so myself) I just hope that someone has a fish tank or spaceman themed sushi bar to put it in…

The other business of the week entailed, making progress on the wheel, vectorworks drawing of the proscenium of the Cinema & Drafthouse, Watercolor elevations of the JOSEPH set, finished first draft of FIDDLER, and a very productive meeting with Gabe.

As it turns out, I think that the meeting with Gabe was the best move for the Lobsterboy comics. We pared down the original script so that it stuck pretty close to the parody of the Jack Chick religious pamphlets. If I can get them done by Friday, they’ll be hilarious.

I also received my pipe and drape last night. I am really excited about being able to paint backdrops for these shows…and now I don’t have to ask for such a large investment from the artists! Yay!

Slobbolicious

Mostly this week has been dominated by the yard sale. It went well, however I was surprised at how much a difference being in Petworth created. We hardly sold anything before 10am. But through bursts of activity we sold almost everything, collectively making around $450…

Getting life back together after vacation is hard, and filled with little things that you wouldn’t mention as bothersome because they are routine. This week had lots of that, but I think I am over the hump by now (even though it’s Thursday, not Wednesday when I am writing this).

Painters elevation for Fiddler on the Roof
Colored pencil on paper

I finished, or “handed in” the designs for JOSEPH. It was really just dimensioning what I had already drawn. I don’t know how some designers do it without a computer…After that, I hit the ground running and did the painters elevation for the Chagall-esque Annatevka. Hopefully this will be sufficient for Chris, because I will not be pleased if I have to change it….

On Saturday we went to see Pirates of Penzance at Wolf Trap. It was a good show overall, but I think that G&S should be done in a small theater, not the 103’ monster stage at Wolf Trap. Unfortunately, Malcolm (the Director of the TAP production this Fall), who had sold me on the idea of designing with the carrot: “An all flown Pirates…” saw all of the lovely, truck-and-bus platforming (which, incidentally, they did not use!) has now decided that he needs “levels”…

Every director I have ever worked with has wanted “levels”.

I also dropped the ball this week. I usually don’t miss deadlines. I have gotten very good at meeting them. In fact, it’s a matter of pride for me. But I do have this, shall we say, biological need to be “slobbolicious” for a whole day, about once a month (perhaps a bit more). I need a day of doing absolutely nothing. It just so happened, that my drawings for the lobster comic were due on Monday…and I was “slobbolicious” all day. I think it has worked out for the best. Part of my, er, blockage was due to the length of the script. I have scheduled a meeting with Gabe to talk about editing it down, with hopes of getting it done by next Friday (6/16)…

This week is crunch time for the Laocoon. I will have pictures of it completed by the next posting, because by then it will be at Studioneight, waiting to be hung …

My Maine man, Hasui

I’ve been to Maine and back since my last post. KT and I went to Adams Wedding, where we saw many people that we don’t get to see regularly. Maine itself was a bit like upper Michigan, which means it’s a nice place to visit, but… We also got a chance to make tiki road trip pay for itself...Left is a picture of me at the BALI HAI near Boston...(and Right, just for fun, is a picture of me, making devilish hand jestures, and KT in evil regalia at the role playing party)

Before we left I got a chance to catch the opening at the Gallery Plan B. There was a group show of prints, mostly, but the work had a very conservative feel, if not timid. It was odd to hear feedback about the blog, and a bit awkward since I only had so much to say that hadn’t been said on the blog…which is why I won’t bump up the postings to twice a week (despite requests to the contrary). One of the things that I got out of that particular show was that there are so few places that emerging artists can show regularly in this town. I know that Plan B has a lot of faculty from surrounding art programs, which is a nice way to keep “publishing” (instead of perishing) but for the emerging artist, the pickin’s are slim. (While I’m thinking about it: shout out to Molly Ruppert, for keepin’ it real with ArtRomp!)

On the way back from Maine, we stopped in Boston (which KT has declared a personal vendetta against) and popped into the MFA. It was better than I remembered (the $15 admission is kinda steep!) and I was able to get a close look at the Rubens (the one with the Arab) which was so big in my youth. I was blown away by the murals by Sargent. It heartens me to know that he was able to convert his style to a simpler, bolder, more theatrical mode in order to make the work look good from a distance.

Kawase Hasui Ushinku Marsh and Summer Clouds
c. 1930's Woodblock Print on Paper 5"x7"

In Maine I scored a Hasui print, a small sepia toned landscape of a marsh with summer clouds for $40 at an Antique market. I looked it up when I got home. Its one of the ones in Robert O. Muller’s collection, that just went for $150 at auction…but the money is not what it’s about, it’s a really charming print. There is something about Hasui’s method of constructing the print that gives it that summery, déjà vu look…and here he is able to do it without color! (I found on this trip that KT does not share my enthusiasm for Shin Hanga prints…)

On the Lobs front: A bonus feature has been added to the June 25th show…after the show, they will be screening ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES!!!!! Get your tickets now!

Doing the Lobsters Bidding...

Wheel of Death for Lobsterboy Review

Vectorworks Drawing

I spent most of the day on Friday coming up with a good artist statement for the ReMastered show. I think that I really caught a stride. I get into the most trouble when I try to make ponderous statements about my work. I just kept it to the point…and you, dear reader, will just have to go to the show to read it! Oh, by the way, the show’s opening has been postponed by a week. That’s fine by me, because I can use all the time I can get.

At the yard dogs show on Sunday (BTW, what a good show…I could quibble about some things, because everything can be improved on, but all in all it was rock-solid) I got into a conversation with Lobs (not performing, just an audience member) who I think suddenly “got it”. I have been telling him he needs a backdrop for a while now, but seeing the drops and drapes that the Yard Dogs had, really sold him. So, I have taken measurements at the cinema and drafthouse and am making a backdrop (and helping purchase the P&D), doing a small comic book, welding a wheel and knife throw effect, and perhaps doing a poster for the TOXIC TIKI PARTY! (Sunday June 25th) Needless to say, I am really busy doing the lobsters bidding…

Saw the ever glamorous studio of Scott Brooks (which overlooks Malcolm X park…if you lean out the window…)(I’M JUS KIDDING! Ay Dios Mio!) and am finally a owner of the artists work…(although I am still holding out for him to make prints of the stuff going to Seattle) I wish I lived in a hip part of town that had its own artists studio crawl…see you in Petworth in five years!

Went to a “Role Playing Party” over the weekend…Like whoa man. I went in my Satan outfit; Its good to be the Prince….all of my Detroit playas will understand this next reference: it was like Gotham City Café…I keep saying that Ian McGill would do well here!

Anyway, I promised you all pictures of what I am working on all the time, so above and below are two JPGs of VectorWorks stuff I have been working on this week…

Elevation for Joseph and the...

Vectorworks Drawing

Japan, Spacemen, and Archaeologists...

Computer colored sketch for Versus Project

I have been trying to chug along with the Versus project this week, but KT rocked my world over the weekend. Its one of those things…when you are convinced that you are doing the right thing with a painting, but you have a sneaking suspicion that you are a tiny bit off the mark, then someone comes and deflates your whole mindset by pointing out the very thing you knew was wrong in the first place….Anyway, what happened is that KT took one look at the above sketch, and said that she “wasn’t on board” with the astronaut. After a crushing emotional setback like that (I think I have reached a new height in navel-gazing, BTW) I needed to delve into why….Her reasons were vague, but it boiled down to the realism of the astronaut. To make a long story short, the problem is that I was trying to make very realistic work. I know that I have the technical skill to do so, but for some reason, my work looks forced and flat when I do that. My work really works when I am not trying to impress anyone with my skill…she said to me at one point this weekend, “maybe you aren’t that type of painter”…It’s really true. I just need to get over it and embrace the funky-stupid painter that I really am. So what that means is that the astronaut doesn’t need to be tied down to one type of spaceman. He is free to be as Sci-Fi, as Flash Gordon, as Rocky Horror as he wants to be!

Consequently, I made some great strides in the Spaceman Vs. Octopus painting over the past week. I have made it the subject of the upcoming Studioneight REMASTERS show. I am using the Laoocon (the spelling of that trips me up, sorry) as my “old master” work…

This week has also been a weird one for this blog. On the one hand, its good to hear that people are reading it [but not commenting…] (although I have always secretly hoped that no one was ever going to actually read it …except for ancient future space archaeologists who might find the internet from the early 20th century and create whole intergalactic cults devoted to the weekly musings of the prophet who wrote between the tines….) but on the other hand, it does bring up accountability issues… However, I will keep the self censorship to a minimum. I may be subject to bouts of hyperbole, I am a gas-bag, I may hold grudges, but I only want what is best for everyone: A healthy, thriving, unfettered art scene, with the best art that we all can produce…at the highest possible prices….

In other news, I saw the Hokusai exhibit at the Sackler (or was if Freer?) on the day it was to close. Despite the crowds, it was still a knockout show. The paintings were fantastic. There is something about painting on silk that helps bring out that creepy haze that permeates Edo period art. Although this isn’t the period of Japanese art that I collect, this period really typifies the changes in the Japanese artistic mindset. Its curious to think of the same sort of thing happening at the same time in France…that is, Delacroix’s work being a bridge from rococo (and essentially unchanged since the Renaissance) to the modern world, Hokusai’s work makes the same transition possible in an isolationist nation, halfway across the globe, at the same time!

Lastly, I’m becoming a champ at Vectorworks…I am making some of the sexiest drafting I have ever made….too bad it’s for Joseph….

Watercolors and Modeling

Versus Lion 2006

Watercolor on paper, 22" X 30"

I made some progress on the Versus project (BTW it’s “midterms” for my self imposed “spring semester”, Ill be using this week to chart my progress towards my goals) by completing the watercolor of the Lion attacking the Astronaut. The watercolor step is a bit unusual for me, (so much so that I dropped about $40 getting tubes of new watercolor paint to replace my old, dried ones) because I usually just start painting and do most of the work on the canvas. But this helped me find the flaws in the composition…like the lion’s other ear, the way the claws should rip into the spacesuit, the way the spacesuit needs to lay. I’ve discovered that I do really well reproducing something I have a model for, (i.e. direct observations, or photos) but when I have to “fill in the blanks” I start getting a “cartoony” result. I was aiming for a pretty realistic rendering for the “Versus” project, but unless I take the extra step and pose a model in a silver jacket, I wont ever get the spacesuit to look right. The watercolor has helped to define the problem in more than one way. The conflict here is between a “generalized” or “cartoony” look and a “specific” or “realistic” look. I may have to make a cut paper version of this series to help get me back to the type of look I was getting with my Winter Self Portrait.

I have some more of the Versus project drawings in the hopper…up next: Woman, Octopus, Robot…

1/4" Scale Model "sketch" for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

My “Joseph and the…” meeting went pretty well. Above is a phone pic of the model. I needed to build a model in order to convey the idea that the “fans” open up like a gate to reveal Egypt (or the Elvis Pharaoh, as the case may be). I have another two weeks to crank out the final plans to give to the shop…then it’s on to “Fiddler….”

Went to 80’s anti-prom at the Black Cat on Saturday, I forgot how much I love that goofy music…

The meeting with Lobs and Gabe went well. I am going to illustrate the comic that Gabe will eventually write. The whole thing will then be used as a flyer for the show. It doesn’t provide for a way to get paid for the work, but I am working on how to make that happen…I also committed myself to converting my “wheel of misfortune” into a spinning-knife-throw-human-target. It will give me a chance to do some welding…

The Remastered show looks like it might actually happen. I need to get on top of that…I don’t have the excuse of it being “political art” this time….

My Cat Has AIDS.

That’s right, my cat has AIDS. Well, it’s FIV. He’s FIV+. Turns out that there is a vaccine for this, but my vet doesn’t think it’s very good, so my cat didn’t get it. Now my cat has AIDS and shouldn’t go outside. It’s a quality of life issue for the cat (and for me, frankly) he needs to go outside. Most cats live for 9 years after diagnosis...he’s 11…so its not like this is going to get him quickly…Its just that if I let him out, he could bite other cats and infect them (the only way its transmitted) or he could become susceptible to other diseases because of his compromised immune system. It’s the kinda thing that can really ruin your whole day. I wonder how farmers who find out that their cows are BIV+ feel…I am really emotionally mixed up on this….

In other news: the can got finished and seemed to go well for Trixie’s event. I asked her about doing something for the Sausage themed show they have coming up… Below is a phone camera image of the finished product:

I made progress in the Versus project. Below is a phone photo of the sketch for the first in the series. I am hoping to take this one and make a watercolor from it. And also start working on the alien version in drawing format. I talked to KT about this project over 6 month anniversary dinner (thank you) and she thought that the whole thing should have a more “Monty Python”esque feel to it. As if the astronaut were saying “I’m not even supposed to be here today!” I like the idea, but I think it will develop naturally if I start working on it more. The lion has a lifeless feel in the eyes when its reduced to screen size...I think I can get around that when I paint to near life size.

We went to see Landless Theater Company’s Godzilla at the DCAC. It should have been better, but I still had fun. I called them up and asked if I could participate in their upcoming production of Night of the Living Dead. They want to set up a meeting after Godzilla closes….

Of course, this is all under the backdrop of my Treo 650 dying. I couldn’t hear or be heard on it, unless I had the headphones in. Radioshack needed to send it back to Treo to be “fixed” (which is stupid because we all know that they will just replace it, which Radioshack could have done on the spot) which means I am without my Treo for the next 7-10 days!!!

I also shut off our cable this week…goodbye Deadliest Catch!

Well, I guess I know why the whole AIDS thing has hit me so hard, it’s been a crazy week!

What a pain in the can

Sardine Can Design for Trixie Little

Scanned Sketches, VectorWorks, Photoshop. 2006

I think the sketch is "Spankin' good!"

The Cleoesque spanking fish might be a bit too Disney, but you try making a fish sexy...

This week has been about doing it either well or often. I have done a number of revisions on this sardine can. Each version has made an improvement on the final design. It’s just a shame that we have to rush, with a one week from start to finish deadline.

Bills flats are out the door. In fact, the Chernobyl exhibit went up today. I hope it went well…

The highlight of the weekend was Vern’s party. His place is a great treat to be in. I really consider him one of the top collectors in the metro area. Sure the things that he collects are not priceless art. But the value is created by the whole collection.

My first Imagination Stage production meeting (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Fiddler on the Roof) was on Monday. I have high hopes that I will be able to make these “portfolio piece” productions, however, one director doesn’t seem to share my vision yet… I have been told that I should paint backdrops for these shows. So I might still be able to get some painting in.

The Versus project is going quite slowly, but I will make an effort to do some this coming week. Every day that I don’t do any of it is a day that makes the whole thing seem less like a good idea. I really need to be involved in the mechanics of painting in order to keep myself from analyzing myself out of it.

There is a call for submissions from Studioneight. It’s called “Reinterpreting the Masters”. I submitted the Rembrandt painting from the Dutch Masters cigar box as my “master painting” to draw from. I thought it was very droll…but it turns out that Larry Rivers did the same sort of thing (albeit sloppier) back in the day…I still think there’s time to work something up, since the show is in early June…

Many Irons in the fire this week...

Sardine Can Sketch for Trixie Little's act

The “performance art” that J exhibited last week was not what I expected. We basically watched him paint, while a punk band played. It was harmless enough, but it did give me an opportunity to talk to Scott. What makes talking to him enjoyable for me is the fact that so many things can be taken for “read” with him. I don’t have to explain, for example, about my self loathing for not getting work done when I have the opportunity. He’s been there, and has the integrity to back it up too…

Anyway, that night set me in a direction. I have a grand plan for some work during this next “semester”. I don’t want to jinx it by talking it up too much, so lets just say that it involves painting figuratively, realistically, while keeping a humorous/sci-fi feel, (perhaps in oil) on five large canvases….Of course, I am doing preparatory drawings and even a watercolor study of each before committing to shelling out $60 per canvas….more news as it develops…

The other development of the week was Lobsterboy. The T-shirts seem to be selling well, and they look great on colored t-shirts. The show wasn’t half bad either….

KT and Sara did yeoman’s work helping me build Bills photography flats…

The Helen Hayes Awards were okay, but I got into an argument with a friend of KT’s, which brought on lots of, er, drama…

Trixie dropped off the sardine can, and I am in a mad dash to design a label for it…

I’m off to see the dress rehearsal of fiddler on the roof, as research for my Monday meeting at Imagination stage…Gotta run!

Great Birthday weekend

Spear fisher

2006, Illustrator file

Graphic for Lobsterboy T-Shirts

Birthday weekend was a blur. KT and Sara pitched in to get Shaun into town for the festivities, which was perfect, because there is no one else that I would rather watch boxing with…amongst other things. Between taking over the basement of Temperance, Duckpin bowling, V for vendetta at the Uptown, Mayweather vs. Judah, or project runway at Sara’s…it was the perfect birthday weekend.

The fight was particularly good. A fight broke out during the fight. And the experience of E, Joel, Shaun, etc. watching it together was really great. I think I might want to start putting boxers into my work. I have been toying with the Astronaut idea, with the spacesuit as a stand in for masculinity and vulnerability….perhaps a boxer as a friend… I finally made a painting with an astronaut in it. He’s standing at a distance from a rocket, holding an umbrella in the rain. I really like the image of holding the umbrella (people will say it’s too Bacon or Magritte) while wearing a spacesuit…

The other thing I made this week is another Lobsterboy image. I decided that he needed to have a more cheesecake image, so I made a sexy spear fisher that has caught a lobster. KT says that the shells are going the wrong direction, but I think that makes it sillier…. It has that tattoo crossed with an old gas station logo look...

My schedule is ramping up, and soon it will be tough for me to keep up the pace and keep up with my “semester” schedule…

Happy Birthday to Me

Banner-Header design for www.artbyjared.com website

1000x130 pixels, .JPG

Its a bit Cheezeball, but I kinda like it...Hey, It's better than what I had up before...

This week has been punctuated by a bout of depression, which may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I turn 30 tomorrow. (Even though I am psyched for volleyball on Saturday...wheather permitting...) It’s a time for reflection, seeing as, if I live to be 90, I am a third of the way to the grave. Let’s not even contemplate the national average for men (which is 77.6 years) which puts me much closer to the halfway point than the “third” mark.

Anyway, it has led me to question whether I am effective at my chosen vocation, and what can be done to improve it. My problem is one of focus and time. I can’t seem to get things resolved (with a high degree of quality) fast enough to keep pace with things. I also can’t focus my energies if I know I won’t have a substantial amount of time to devote to it.

I have to sit down and really think through where I want my work to go. Much of the work I see on the internet is of really high quality. I feel that my work lacks this level of quality because I am not devoting enough time to it. Conversely, the rate of change and the level of visual sophistication in the general population has gone exponentially up in recent years. I can make things faster and better than ever before, but I still have an old fashioned way of thinking about the way my art fits into the world.

I also have a personal set of rules that may be outmoded. One of them is to not make works that are simplistic misinterpretations of surrealism. That is, take a subject, and then make it trippy or freaky. This is an artificial way of getting a result that looks cool, but contributes little to the debate (and does little to honor the true psychological roots of surrealism).

In the interests of getting better, I have developed a methodology for getting more out of my time over the next year. Since I seem to work well in a deadline situation, and also as a “burst” of energy, I developed a semester-like plan for myself in the coming year. I am committing myself to working on a set goal for quantity and quality of work on a semester basis. I have a midterm and a final planned for each three month period. These are just goalposts for me to chart my progress on, but they are also hard and fast deadlines that I can work towards. Let’s hope I can stick to it!

Rejecton

Last night I received a rejection letter from MICA. I am not taking it as hard as KT thought I might. I am disappointed, but only because I won’t be working on my painting for seven weeks straight this summer…which is, I think, a positive reaction. They didn’t offer any explanation about why I was rejected, but I wrote to them asking for feedback on how I can improve my chances next year.

In the meantime, this means that I can say “yes” to Imagination Stage summer camps and to Trixie and Lobs. And it also means I will be free to continue to make work that I enjoy. And, perhaps the work I was doing, previous to the application, was not yet ripe for picking…the warm winds of spring and summer will undoubtedly help ripen my work, for a winter harvest of another application.

It's about the images stupid...

I am going to start putting more images into the blog. From now on, I will try to put the image first, with brief commentary, and then get to the diaristic stuff…



This is a sketch that I have been working on for the Lobsterboy T-shirts. It is intended to be a Sinatraesque portrait of Lobs, full of melancholy. I see Lobsterboy as a tragic figure, he can’t tell a joke, he’s from thee ocean, so he’s a “fish-out-of-water”, and he can’t take off the lobster suit… The image was created on my trial version of Illustrator CS. I think I will need to break down and buy it in 29 days. Although I haven’t figured out the live paint features entirely, it’s a great improvement over Illustrator 10.

Deb has been working hard to get the website up to speed. I still need to do the heavy lifting of labeling everything and creating an overall look for the site. I’m thinking that I should push the sausage-on-fork motif a bit more…

Saw Hot Feet on Sunday. Don’t bother. The show needs work, big time.

My brother announced this week that he was leaving his theater carpentry job for a “new construction” carpentry job in Fairfax. I understand some of his reasoning, but it still seems fishy to me.

Kate talked me out of going up to see the MICA MFA candidates talk today. She said that it would just drive me crazy, not knowing if I was going to be in the program or not. Perhaps she’s right, but I still think that it would be good to see what people are doing up there…

I have got an image in my head that needs to be addressed. It’s a spacesuit hung on a nail. No astronaut, just the spacesuit. I have been doing some preliminary research, and I think that I like the way the Mercury astronauts looked. The space suits were silver then and not intended for “space walks” so they have a very sexy appeal. That’s what NASA could use, is some sex appeal…Anyway, I am going to go down this path and see where it leads…

Self Portrait 2006

Self Portrait, Winter 2006

5"x7" Acrylic and Paper on Wood

Here's a self portrait that Haze bought from me. I consider self portraits a benchmark for progress. This one demonstrates that my cut paper method can be used outside of the purely silly and comical vein. Its a bit more "dark" than everything else...but aren't self portraits supposed to be a bit "Goth"...