Author: mightylark

Um, September wasn’t very productive. Whoops. I’ve spent a lot of time in my head. Got back together with my ex, broke up again with the ex. Proposal for fall semester was turned down. Had to rework it. trying to get back into it.

That all said. It has been a great month. I did my first illustration for a newspaper. The Bollard in Portland, ME features a calendar made by me this coming Thursday. I am stoked with it. I think it turned out well, and although it does contain robots, it also has a squirrel, so I am not entirely relying on my a two character scheme anymore, which has been a large source of my mental insecurity with my work recently.

Here tis:

I’ve also been photographing the found wood that I have in my collection as a way to try to determine what exactly it is all about. I am not sure that I have figured anything out yet, but I got a pretty cute photo of my cat on top of one of the compositions!

And lastly, I did in fact finish a painting in the last week and a half, but it’s the last thing I’ve managed. I am still not quite right in the head this month. I don’t know what is going on. Think I am letting the emotions hit me a little too hard right now….

How is that for some old skool Mike. We’re talking circa 2005. Grad school is hurting my head, but I really can’t complain. Most days I am learning a lot, and the others I very well could if I would chill out a little bit more.

I’ll be back. I swear. The project that I’m working on is cool and I am certain that I will be working on it a lot soon. Feeling better, just a bit stressed.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike

I have wanted to do buttons for a very very long time. Guess what. I am sick of waiting. Tonight I ordered two sets of fifty buttons. I am not sure how much I will be charging for them. I think maybe 2 bucks each, though that again brings up how much it will cost to ship them. Probably not too much. They are 1 inch buttons. But anyway, the moral of the story is, I am making buttons, and that makes me very very happy.

Check em out, and email me if you’d like one. I hope you’d like one!!!

I love this painting, so I decided it would be a good first button! My friend Jesse from high school has this original. I hope you folks think it is a good starting point.

I had to warp this painting a little bit in order to make it fit to a button. But I found that I really liked the robot a bit better when it was a little fatter anyway. What do you think? Skinny or fat? I assure you this is not any kind of politico argument developing, merely a curiosity about the robot.

Lastly here is another robot wringing out a cloud. Hope you dig it. I was very pleased with the drawing. Still not sold on the paint handling. I may work into it again.

I’ll catch you cats later. NH weekend, so no posts from me for the next few days. Have a good one, and enjoy the last days of summer! I sure will.

Peace
-Mike

Sending out a show always feels like jumping off an emotional cliff, like so:

The show is finished. Finally. The different gears for operating in Illustration and Fine Art mode become more and more difficult as I attend this graduate school. It is frustrating though, because I feel like the answers should become more clear, not less clear.

Anywho, here are a couple last minute pieces that I compiled for the show. Hope you like them.

Just a simple little guy here. I needed to develop a companion for Rita. She was lonely and nagging me. Never mess with an overactive Pigeon in need of a man.

This guys just a chill little angular man. I was thinking of Damon Runyon short stories and how Big Julie would look if he were to be a bird. I wouldn’t mess with this one. Just saying. He’s got 13 arrests and no convictions.

This poor dude is completely confused. He doesn’t even know who he is. Surely he is completely into existentialism and Sartre. He can’t even figure out whether to talk into a word bubble or into a tree. So strange.

Ahh the trapeze artist. Do you think it would even hurt him if he fell though?

I am in such a strange mood tonight. I think I need to go to bed. It was a very late night getting everything together and then an early morning packing the boxes. Be on the lookout in the near future, I have three commissions that I am working on this next week as well as the Day of the Dead show for Lunar Boy in late October.

Catch you cats later.
Peace
-Mike

My documentation this summer hasn’t been great, and I apologize for that. Think with me for a moment if you will that I was merely conducting a true performance piece where the subject was of complete disappearance. Or just think that I had about a million disparate thoughts crowding my head at any given time. But tonight, tonight is Robin Hood and a pot of coffee, call my parents and call it a weekend. Tomorrow begins the first full week in the new kitchen job, which is great. Full from scratch kitchen. I am learning a lot and loving every minute of it.

But I digress. Here are a couple images from this summer that were actually for class and have nothing to do with the show coming up.

I picked up this chair the first day we were at school. I love it. Everyone in my program, however, thought I was a little loopy from the get go. I carried it from a tour to a meeting that we were having on where to get studios. It was more comfortable than the chairs that they were sitting in though. Just saying.

This is where the water system pieces started to head at the beginning of the summer. I kind of lost track with it after this, but I think I’m going to come back to it full force soon. Anybody know where to score some old pipe?

This is officially my first interventionist piece. It was brought to my attention afterwords that most likely it would be more successful if it looked more like the real sign, but I dig it. Haven’t figured out my support for it yet, but this project isn’t completely dead yet.

And woooooord. This is what I wanted to do when I got to school. Straight up. I just finished another one today as well. I am loving the mismatched constructions. Explanations later people, don’t rush! They are coming soon enough.

For now, the Beta Band has me pretty chill and I’m drinking coffee at nine o’clock. Good times. I have more stuff from the semester and quite a bit to do before I send a package to Cake Spy next Saturday, so be looking. Til then.

Peace
-Mike

Aaah. I am so far behind in the art world. I need some serious catch up time. Unfortunately, I do not think I can make my opening in Seattle, but at least it looks like I will have paintings to send. Still, I am always bummed when I miss out on a trip to the Emerald City. Especially when I am only doing it so that I can have a job. But when I heard the relief in my mother’s voice that I would have to work and wouldn’t be able to go spend more money on a ticket, I realized that conservative is probably better in this instance. So I guess, if you are in Seattle, please go to the show, perhaps I will send a card board cut out or something so you can meet that, or maybe next time.

Anyway, here is my piece for the beer show at Lunar Boy Gallery. It is totally late, but at least I like it. It’s a play on the Kool Aid Man in case it isn’t obvious…..

Summer is winding down. I will have more time for all of this, and less time spent reading about beholders and absorptive subjects. I look forward to the possibility of being on here more.

Have a good Monday.
Peace
-Mike

This weekend I am running a promotion on my Facebook page for a free drawing. Post your favorite color and why and I will throw everyone’s name in a hat and have a friend select someone at random. The winner receives a free framed drawing that I will send out on Monday. The winner also gets to choose whether it is a robot or bird drawing! Check it out. You have to play to win, right?

Here Tis

Til next time
Peace
-Mike

I really need to get some more work done, but I’ve been in this strange realm where I am not finishing much. I guess I’m doing better than I’m letting on, but I wish that I had more done anyway. I did pull off a painting in roughly a half hour today though. Talk about old school.

This one is almost done, but I am just not with it enough to render tiny birdies. I think I need some groceries so that I can eat something real. It will help my awesome rendering energy. Starting to wan, you know.

Here is my half hour painting. I love this robot, and there is no intent whatsoever, so I guess I won’t go showing it off in crit at MECA. It would be good to develop an intent for these guys you know. Just safer when it comes down to it.

I love this painting though. And Jeane told me to keep painting cartoon work and painting based on old literature today. It was odd to hear the other half of the coin after this entire summer of crazy content.

Anyhow, I don’t know where this is all going. I’m happy with these two pieces though. Hope you like them. Have a good one.

Peace
-Mike

PS I get a new cat tomorrow!!!!!

So I looked at the calendar today and had a mild panic attack. Needless to say graduate school has eaten up a lot of my creative time and I have put myself in a position where I need to finish some stuff and fast for the show in Seattle, and I think I have maybe a total of two days before I get a painting out to Astoria as well. I thought I was doing pretty well too. I guess noticing before they have to go out is better than noticing after they are supposed to go out.

All in all, figuring out that I need to get trucking has gotten me into a couple quick little robot paintings, however. And I do love some small quick robot paintings. Check em out.

I had done a couple sketches in the recent past of flying robots. I think the next couple pieces are going to have to involve interacting with something else though. Perhaps a bird or perhaps something completely different. We’ll see.

It has been so long since I’ve painted one of this type of robot. I really miss the soft looking robots. I hope you all are happy to see one too. I don’t know. I feel like I’d like to do some more. Kind of my emotional state robot you know?

And last we have a robot eating a cookie, because robots love cookies. Nuff said.

Peace
-Mike

So the last couple days of class I have found myself doodling a lot. I have doodled a whole bunch of cool stuff, and the coolest thing that I’ve been doodling is monsters. It has been so long since I’ve drawn monsters on a regular basis, but I dig it. Miss it. All that jazz, you know?

So here we have it, one robot painting for this fall’s show and a monster drawing. Just to give you an idea of the time in which this guy came about. I was listening to a very long winded speaker and my monster was much more attentive than me. What can I say? He was repeating everything that he heard. Here tis:

He’s happy though. Really. His race shows both teeth when they are happy and no teeth when they are unhappy. Don’t let that frowny looking face fool you.

And here is another small framed piece for the show in Seattle. At this rate the walls will be absolutely crowded, just as I had hoped. I want everybody to be able to walk away with something this time.

Hope you like it. Hope you had a good Tuesday. Not going to lie. I certainly did. Til next time kids.

Peace
-Mike

Graduate school is intense, and for the most part, they would prefer that I don’t paint here. Apparently they take that performance and installation as more valid than painting and sculpture as truth. I have to admit that that frustrates me a little. Though in two years I may be a performance and installation interventionist and look back on this laughing. Who knows? But I like paint.

Anyhow. I have one new painting to share today and a mock up for an animation. I hope you like them.

Another piece for this September’s show. I’ve been really digging doing the simple little guys in direct contrast to the thinking that is required of me in class. If only I could figure out a way to explain making cute things in an educated manner. That would be fabulous.

And here it is, the mock up for a future animation. I swear that it will get a bit more involved, for right now I am still trying to learn a bit more of this after effects thing. So keep your eyes pealed for new developments.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike