Category: Uncategorized

Hey folks just posting a quick under painting that I worked up today. I went to the coffee shop and met up with Ivy today, so while I was there I worked up a quick sketch off of an old piece that I saw in one of my sketchbooks this morning. It is simple but I was thinking that maybe a couple simpler pieces for the show might be just what the doctor ordered.

Now given the figure and the background are both blue in this piece. With a little scumbling that is most likely going to change. Let me know what you think here!

I am really pleased to be using the Mighty Lark here again. I’m also very into his posture in this piece.

I was sent an email yesterday letting me know that there is a page for the upcoming “Memoirs of the Digesting Duck” show with Justin Hillgrove on the Blue Bottle site. Check it out. It’s always nice to see your work up on someone else’s website.

Gotta jammy for work. Peace.

This morning I got online to check my facebook account and on My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses, Meighan had posted a link to a Youtube video of Margaret Kilgallen working and this lead to some links of Barry Mcgee working. I got all excited and amped to being an artist again and decided to finish my piece.

It was going pretty well, and then Beth walked through the door and told me the background was gray. Totally right. I don’t know why she is always right, but she is. Long story short, I did what she said and now the piece is done and I am very excited about it. To top it all off the frame for it is already done, so the piece is actually completely done, now as I type. That is amazing.

Here it is. Let me know what you think. Peace.

Today I was trying really hard to finish a piece before I went to work so that I could post it and show everyone what I have been working on but I just didn’t have time. My bird head is not really reading in the eye area so it just doesn’t make sense. It is coming though. It will be ready to post tomorrow. Maybe the bird construction piece will be ready too. It just needs some highlights to really pop some parts so that it is up to snuff.

As I was trying to bust this piece out though, I remembered that I had never shown the sketch online so I decided to post that instead, hopefully quickly followed by the actual image.:

I like the idea of the robot as a dwelling. The robot also seems to be a little more poppy like an old Asimov cover, or perhaps even more like old tin toy robots. All in all I am quite pleased with this drawing and when the eye on this bird is resolved I will be quite pleased with the painting as well.

Another crazy drawing I had worked up involves a robot fight. I’m thinking of doing a show that is 100 hundred robots and perhaps fifty showdowns. The second robot is definitely meant to be a reflection on the Yellow Submarine. Is it obvious?

Let me know what you think!

Gotta go. Going to be late to work. Peace!

I’ve been gearing up for this years’ show schedule. I know I have a lot of work to get done, and it always seems like there isn’t really enough time to do everything that I need to do. Adding illness to the mix just makes for bad juju, but that is what I’ve had to deal with lately.

I’ve been coming out of it well though. I made myself a couple mixes, downloaded some mash-ups and have re-donned the headphones. Old Skool Mike is back on the scene.

I’ve been working a little bit differently lately though. Often in the past I have spent a lot of time getting my background worked out colorwise using a patchwork application that takes forever. Recently I’ve been looking at my work and thinking about what can stay and what can go. What is important to keep for the essence of the paintings but what just gets in the way and makes my pieces harder to read? So after looking through the Robert Motherwell book that Beth and I have, I started to mix some base paint in an old coffee can that has a top. So I’ve been using the blue ground that I mixed last week to fill in and get everything covered, almost like Bob Dacey’s unifying purple wash, but more as a starting point. It’s good to have it all mixed though instead of trying to work it off of the palette.

So in the last week I’ve really started to tighten up these two pieces. The one of the construction working birds and the robot up on stilts, and one with a robot running into power lines. Here is the first:

This piece has been on my board all day long, and as I was sitting in front of it, I really thought it had a long way to go, but stepping back from it and actually scanning it in makes me realize that it is really quite close. I’m trying hard not to make pieces more complicated than the subject lends them to be. Bad habit that I developed over 2008. I guess you could call that a resolution.

Anyway here is the second piece:

This piece has been cool to work on so far, because not only am I trying to work out of the can and keep things somewhat flat, but like Motherwell Iam trying to stand back further from the piece, use my whole arm, and not relly come in too far to define anything. Ultimately I would like this piece to mesh a more abstract expressionist feel juxtapozed with my figure. I feel like I have lost too much of what I thrived on in my painting classes in school and I am attempting to get a little bit of that back with this piece, hopefully leading to more like it.

I have two days off, so you can bet there will be more stuff coming up in the next two days.

peace

Two thousand nine is going to be huge year for me. Last year I was just rolling into a new state, with little identity there, and no clue how to go about life there. Now I am fully aware that New Hampshire is equally as good a state as any in the union, although that doesn’t make me wish to stay here forever, but it does allow me to create work at my former somewhat feverish pace. (some days are feverish and some days lately I’ve just had a fever)

Anyway here is the list:

2009 to do

1.) April Show at Blue Bottle

2.) Monthly Group Shows at The Hive in LA

3.) Featured Small Wall Artist The Hive, LA *date tba*

4.) Dwellings –
A show at ArtStream Studios in Rochester, NH *date tba*

5.) Submitting to art/poetry journals with Ivy Page for our collaborative pieces

6.) Submitting work to galleries like Ello in Portsmouth, NH, and making more proposals
and generally trying to pick up more work.

7.) Attempting to make a limited line of robot toys with my friend Reggie

8.) You can sleep when you’re dead.

May I note that the list is abridged, and my apologies for the lack of artwork in this post, but I wanted to show how serious this year will be for Lewis Acrylics’ notoriety. Good Luck and everyone have a good New Year.

peace

This post is fifty percent dedicated to my friend Kelly Bartell, because she rocks and we always used to talk about how when we were kids we were convinced that mailboxes had teeth. Obviously if you put your mail in you had to move fast so as not to get your arm eaten up to the elbow. Those boxes are some pretty hungry guys.

With that in mind and also thinking about how packages just don’t seem to make it to your door, I decided to invite the Troll Bot to the party. Apparently the poor Troll Bot did not get his package due to the carnivorous nature of this guy….

There you go Kelly. Miss you and love you.

On another note, the other day I mentioned that I was going to add some birds with construction helmets to a drawing that I posted. I have indeed done that and started the under painting as well. And so, I share……

Have a Merry Christmas everybody.

Life can sometimes start to travel along so fast and you forget about why you’re here, or what you’re doing. It’s times like these that I find myself truly grateful for Beth. She helps me remember and she helps me stay honest.

Today we were hanging out, both of us hurting a little bit after a Christmas Party that was a little too wild for either of us, and I looked at her and asked her how she was able to put up with me when I was just a whiny little kid coming fresh out of college. She told me that my sense of humor is apparently what saved me.

So tonight as I was sitting down to do a drawing quick before bed, because frankly between Xmas shopping and recovery I had zilch time for art today, I started to draw out a humorous robot. I have been so caught up with serious robots for this show, and then I stopped and thought, “what is so serious about robots with massive teeth?”…

Beware the Troll Bot….

And lesson learned, enjoy your tasks, and be true to who you are. Have a Merry Christmas.

I would like to say that I have multiple pieces in completion all ready for your viewing and that pretty much every show that I have on my plate is nearly done and all completely professionally framed and ready to go. However, that is impossible since none of that is true, but I do have some in progress work for you to view again.

I started laying the foundation for “The Feeder” and it is coming out pretty well so far. I have the robot pretty much set and all of the birds with a quick wash. Remarkably the background and foreground are in a stage that I might call near finish. It’s looking good so far though. Check it out…

I’m liking it. Give me thoughts, if you dare!

I also have pulled this flying robot stereo piece nearly to finish, which is pretty cool. I have been adding to it when I need to finish up paint off of my palette. One of these days I’ll post a photo of my palette. Ridiculous is probably a pretty descriptive word for it. But without further adieu…..

Hope all is well with everybody through the holidays. Be careful, avoid massive snow storms and most importantly, have a blast! To the relatives and friends who might be reading, I wish I could be with all of you.

Peace.

I have a day off for the first time in eight days. It is so nice. You have no idea. This morning Beth and I hiked up Rattlesnake, which was quite interesting since it was all ice and whatnot. The climb up was much easier than the sliding down. Poor Beth got her knees all mud too. I was amazed I didn’t fall, especially since I started to about twenty times. I, however, retained my homo erectus power for the day. Phew.

While I was at work this past week I did manage one sketch that I thought was pretty cool, though to be honest, that and the Catcher in the Rye, which I read were the only things I really achieved this past week. Well that and I cooked a lot of food.

Here’s the sketch though. I’m thinking of adding a bird with a construction helmet in the final drawing and painting….. Let me know what you think.

It is good to know that I am still human. For a while I was wondering if coffee would ever have its effect on me again, but now that it is two am I am sure that it actually does in fact work still. That’s great. Perhaps I will have to stop drinking coffee after 11 now.

If nothing else it does give me the opportunity to post this updated under painting. It is starting to come into its own, and seems much better than it was, though at the same time still has a long way to go.

Let me know what you think.

By the way, the top of the piece is not there. I need to scan it in two pieces and since, it isn’t even done, I just did the bottom 85 %. I’m digging the arms with different colors though, either way.

peace

and don’t drink coffee after 11.