The people of Portland, ME haven’t seen much of me lately. I have been holed up in my house for the most part over the past week. I am working six days a week between teaching and a deli position. The rest of my week can easily become preoccupied with reading, painting, and writing, all of which seem to have eclipsed my traditional social life over the past several weeks. I am, frankly, becoming tired of being on show at all times and just want to get some work done. I have started searching for more open calls, some residencies, some new illustration work. I like my teaching, and I enjoy my art work, but the restaurant and deli work has to go unless it is at a super class joint where I can really work up a good looking plate. Plastic disposable containers just aren’t my bag.
There are a couple things on the horizon. First I am proposing a two person show with my good friend, Julia, for which I have been trying to put together some new work. The intent of these pieces is to paint/draw machinery which implies motion and sound. I am not sure how successful they all are yet, but it is an entertaining and challenging goal which allows me some room to discover new and untapped creative resources.
The piece to the left stayed as is. I really like it. I will be painting up the background a bit to give it a color to pop off of but it is for the most part very much done. The piece to the right was not sitting right with me last night, nor was it really feeling very good this morning and so it has seen several incarnations since this image, the last one in the image below to the left.
I can’t really say that I kept much of the original. The piece to the right is still in the drawing phase and I think will include more arrows like that first piece to the top left. It is good to work with this old machinery again. I enjoy the movement that becomes implied by the connections between parts. I really hope that as I develop the series I can make marks that indicate movement. For now, I guess the pieces are what they are. Hopefully Julia and I get our show, though.
In other news, I have been invited to create four pieces for Artstream Gallery’s 10th Anniversary show. That is super cool and I am very much looking forward to being involved. Last but not least, the Yancey Family Sugar Bush has asked me to redesign the labels for their maple syrup products. I am really excited to work on that project as it is both interesting and nabs me some syrup. Double bonus.
I hope you are all doing well. Catch you on the flip.
Peace
Mike