Category: Uncategorized

A number of months ago I started working with falling house imagery.  The idea was that everyone around me was settling into a family.  I was surrounded by families comfortably living in homes.  I thought that this family situation was something I couldn’t obtain, so I began to obsess over the falling houses.  The house became a symbol for me of a prosperity that is indicative of the American populace who is paying off homes, cars and health insurance.  These are things that an artist sometimes lives without.  It is, I am well aware, not simply the artists that live without these things.  Surely service employees of all shapes and kinds suffer from the same afflictions as artists do.

My thinking has for obvious reasons shifted a little bit on the whole thing.  While I do think that some of the amenities that Americans accept as normal and necessary are completely attainable for every human being living in this country, it is obvious, especially with the most current government shutdown, that this is not the case for every citizen.  I am also now the main income for what is going to be a family of three.  Insurance is a necessity.  A reliable vehicle is a must in order to get a mother to the hospital to deliver a baby, to take a baby to the doctor and even to make it easier to obtain groceries and the general odds and ends of a small family.  I was raised in an apartment building, but I know that it would be far more beneficial to a child to be raised in a house.  Optimally that house would have a yard.  These are the things that I am now left thinking about.

Today as I was muddling through the doldrums of watching a good friend leave from his visit and trying to settle back into a work schedule, I happened upon a show in Arizona which is focused on the idea of the home.  I had started a large piece last fall featuring the raining houses.  It seemed a natural connection.  Perhaps the old imagery would work with this new line of thought? 

If anything I think that these houses are taking on more of a life for me.  Bottled up within these nuclear families are all of the anxieties that come along with being the main bread winner in a family.  I’ve toyed with the idea of giving up painting, finding a new shiny job which will pay for everything that my family will ever need, but then, then I start to work on this, and all of my anxieties disappear.  Well, almost all of my anxieties disappear.  I still don’t want to wake up my beautiful wife from her afternoon slumber.

I am so completely excited by this piece and I am even more excited that I worked through the anxiety that I was feeling at the beginning of the afternoon.  I am not much of one for believing in art therapy, but I do believe in the cathartic benefits of repetition.  I believe that making marks for me is my greatest skill.  I take comfort in doing the things that I feel good at.  I hope that I can feel as comfortable making decisions with and for my family.

Peace
-Mike

It was a very tumultuous weekend.  My bowling night became a night that I jumped in a car and rode two hours north to Belfast to make a family emergency room visit.  I had to take yesterday morning off from my cooking job.  I have been away from studio for two days.  It is good to be sitting in here again.  I have so much to do, but organizing my thoughts becomes increasingly difficult the more time that I spend out of the studio, and so I am sitting here acclimating myself to my surroundings again.  I’ve got to get this place cleaner.  My wife has been slowly moving the rest of her stuff in, which is great, but it does mean boxes all over the place in studio.  This is not always the most conducive situation to getting work done. 

But now, here I am, sitting in studio.  This is great.  The sun is shining and the temperature is a little crisp.  Today I have to put together an illustration for a Bard t-shirt and two designs for buttons that I will be packaging with my friend Aaron over at Monkey Chow for Treat-Yo-Self in Boston on Halloween.  I also need to get the back cover of this album put together a bit more.

I think that the two button designs are going to sport my new monster creatures.  I call them new.  They are the first thing that I was drawing out of art school back in 2003, but they have taken on slightly different forms and seem to be better characters than they used to be.  Perhaps they just are starting to look a bit more like me.  I am starting to think of the idea of being Dad to someone.  It is bringing out this very soft and hesitant side in me.  I always loved my father.  He is a great man, but I wonder about how I was raised a little.  In the eighties the honor your mother and father routine was supported by the threat of an angry father still.  “You’ll have to talk to dad when he gets home” kind of statements were still the norm.  Part of me sees no issue with this.  I stand here and say, “Well I turned out okay.  I’m fine,” and maybe I am, but I am very sensitive.  I take things out on my characters in my art.  I construct characters to feel and say the things that I want to say.  I am very hesitant.  My wife seems to like me the way I am.  I am grateful for that, but I know that it is a difficult way to be at times and I wish more for my children.  I’m trying to work a bit of the monster out again as a result.  I can’t work too much of it out though.  The monster is still very much part of me.

 I’ve even been doing a few at work.  Every time that I have to put something in the oven over night, I leave a character for my co-workers to find.  Like so many restaurant jobs there are plenty of artists and musicians who work with me that seem to appreciate the drawings.

 The creatures all remain more cute than scary.  I am not sure why if I am trying to work “monster” out of me I would try to work the cuter aspects of “monster” out of me, but it seems appropriate somewhere back in that section of my head that makes decisions in my art without me really be aware of what they are.

The originals of all of these little monsters are available through the Mighty Lark Etsy shop.  Should you be interested pop on over and check them out.  I can also do one pretty quickly on commission too.

The Orange Room is the cover art that I have put together for The Woulds, a local Portland band.  The project has dragged on longer than it should, partially because of me and partially because of the client, but at the end of the day, when I went to Syracuse University for Illustration all I wanted to do was make album covers and do illustrations in Spin and Rolling Stone.  One more life goal complete.

There’s more stuff.  I’m settling in again.  I should be back soon.
Peace
-Mike

It would seem that the blog has fallen by the wayside for a bit.  One would expect some major news out of me for the amount of time that I have taken off from keeping people informed about my work.  Something big must have happened.  Something monumental, or was I just being lazy.  I can proudly say that that was not it.  On the 26th of August, I married a beautiful woman and that may be better for my soul than any piece of artwork has ever been.  It has been a tumultuous couple months and my work ethic has been tested to the extremes, but I have started to finally become ensconced in my projects once again, but this time with the added element of being very pleased with life.  It is remarkable how much brighter your pieces can be when you are pleased with life.  Here is my new mailbox identification.  Welcome Courtney to the Lewis Acrylics family!

However, I digress in telling you probably far too much about my social life and far too little about my most recent art endeavors.  A couple Saturdays ago I participated in Picnic, an artist run craft fair held in Lincoln Park in downtown, Portland, Me every summer.  I created a number of new works for the fair, including the library card pieces that I shared previously and a new round of totem poles which I have not posted as of yet.  Here are a few of the new totems. 

I was not as worried about these totems telling a story as I was with the totems that I did last summer.  As a result I was able to to work a little more closely with the shapes and movement of the characters.  All in all I was very pleased with the outcome.  I think that I will do a number more of these as I am finding more and more scrap wood around the studio.

I have also been getting closer to completion of another large scale commission.  The wall that I am to fill in this fellow’s condominium is 10′ by 8′.  That is quite a project.  I have been resorting to the Assemblage Theory type of construction for this piece, which has allowed me to re-purpose and re-work some pre-existing pieces while also creating entirely new parts to fit the theme and feel of the work.  Here is an image of a bunch of the elements laid out as they were in my studio today.

I hope to be able to get a bunch done on this piece tomorrow.  Actually I have the day off and my wife has to work a double, so I am hoping that I will be able to finish it in its entirety by tomorrow evening.  I will in the meantime attempt to keep you up to date with the piece’s progress as I work.

Peace
-Mike

Today I had both the delight and mild frustration that is working with a 9 year old in your studio.  It is interesting to suddenly open the doors to your private space to a child.  Where older folks understand boundaries and can read by my facial expression when it is okay to talk and when it might be better not to, it seems that a 9 year old has issues with these things.  It made me really think of the times that I would hang over my dad’s shoulder while he was trying to do any number of gunsmith projects.  Strangely it was kind of nice.  Despite the interruptions I was still able to get five pieces worked out today and I am quite pleased with them. 

I am hoping to maybe get a little more done tonight when I get home from MY LAST NIGHT WORKING AT THE DELI!!!  I apologize.  I was a little excited to say that.  It will be nice to be done there.  Hopefully I will have more work to share later tonight.

Here are the pieces that I worked up today, either way.

I think I am on a good track for Picnic.  A couple more fruitful days and I will have jockeyed for some very good position.  Keep up.

Peace
-Mike

The last several weeks have been a flurry of work (the out of studio kind), emotions, and sleep deprivation.  It is nice that everything is finally quieting down.  I really need it to in order to function with any regularity.  Picnic is fast approaching and I have very little which is completed to take with me.  I have a start and I know what I intend to make, so I am not as worried as maybe I should be, but I’ve been in this position before.  I don’t think that worrying about it is going to make any difference.  I know what I need to do and I know when I will do it.  Now is about the time that I start to really work on things and today was a good studio day.

It is interesting to think about the two ways in which I reach the high for studio work.  Of late I have been seeing a pretty little lady and in the past I have often had a lot of time to work.  Both seem to affect my work in positive ways.  I feel more confident in my actions both if I feel confident about myself socially or if I have been practicing day in and day out.  I wonder if I don’t need this balance though?  Is it not necessary for me to be socially okay in order to make good work?  I think it is.  And so, over the course of about four hours this afternoon I put together five small pieces.  It felt good and I am confident in the results. 

I love these little library card pieces.  I have about five or six more that I will be making.  After that it is on to some more small pieces on chip board.  I don’t think that I am going to take anything to Picnic that costs more than $25.  Hopefully folks will clean me out.

Life is going well.  Expect more posts soon.  I can feel the creative impulse trying to burst out again.  It’s good to have the batteries feeling re-charged.

Peace
-Mike

In Pete Jordan’s “Dishwasher” he explains that the two best days of work are the first day of work and the last day of work.  Today I am giving my two week notice at the deli.  It is a bittersweet moment, but I realize that I cannot work two kitchen jobs at once, along with teaching and making paintings for three upcoming shows.  I keep shrugging off the shows, saying that they are not a very big deal because they are not in ideal spaces.  This is of course faulty logic, as the shows are whatever I make of them and they will still be in spots that people go to to specifically look at art.  Hence, they matter, and I have a lot of work to do for them.

Socially I have been living in a cascade of ups and downs.  I don’t understand the world outside the studio as well as I probably should.  The Facebook, Twitter and texting spheres do not make it any easier traverse.  As a result I have been trying to read more and forget about human interaction, as it happens without any effort.  Extra thought on the subject of being social merely enhances my anxiety powers.  Staying in studio and ignoring the social elements and their 21st century deluge is healthy for me.  I am productive in my own constructed zone, uneasy in others.

I have been working heavily on the 248 piece marathon that I have planned for Zero Station.  I need to spend some time working out the details of the animation that corresponds to the pieces, but at least the pieces are coming along.  I have produced probably 12 in the last week, which is pretty good considering the show is a ways off and I haven’t hit the groove for it yet.

Here are a couple shots of different assemblages that I have been working with today.

I am really letting myself edit past work more than I’ve ever done before in this series.  It is good for me to have to make work that corresponds with old themes rather than just obliterating the old work to cover it up.  The growth as I mentioned in the last post is quite evident.

I will see if I can’t get some more work up tomorrow.  I am meeting a fellow about a DJ and visual art collaboration.  It should be really cool.  I’ll let you know more about it when I know more about it.

Peace
-Mike

I haven’t had any desire to leave studio lately.  Whether working or napping or reading, it has felt like I belong there more than anywhere else, and it’s true.  Over the past year I’ve questioned my decision to go back to school so many times, I owe a small house in loans, but it has finally hit me.  I’ve reached that point where I can be a little bit poor and still be completely satisfied with life.  This IS the life that I have tried so hard to obtain and I no longer have to do anything that I don’t like.  Cooking is a part of me as much as painting and music is the blood that keeps everything flowing.  And so it’s just one step on to the next step on to the next step on to the next.

I have also been re-reading Dishwasher by Pete Jordan.  It is the story of a young slacker who is more engaged by adventuring across the country than with any particular job.  He takes to dishwashing with the goal of working in all 50 states.  It is a sort of zen like experience that Jordan talks about.  He stresses anonymity, a quality which I have often admired and sought.  This zen within non-holy moments really intrigues me.  I feel as though my own work escapades are becoming less and less separate from my “work.”  Art is more than just paint and panel, ink and paper, it is me.  It is everything that I do because I make art and I don’t shut off that persona when I am washing dishes or making people lunch.  It is easier to tell that I am making art if you see me drawing something, but there is something that happens with daily contact which is unique to me or to you.  I am analyzing those situations and responding with my tongue and body language as brush.  It never shuts off. 

A long time ago my exes dad was telling me about one of the many self-help books that he was reading.  It talked about finding flow and realizing other people had stories.  Essentially everybody lives in the same moment but experiences and sees that moment differently because of their own prior experiences.  We studied this in art as well.  We called it perception and logged it under Roland Barthes “Writerly Reader.”  I’ve been thinking about flow again; how I navigate in and out of my story and other people’s stories.  These three pieces have started to serve as the intermediaries between the other panels that I am working on with disparate mechanical bits.  They are the flow that will help me move from one story to the next, an intermission of sorts.

I intend to be as malleable as possible within the self that I have found.  Stick to your guns but roll with the punches.  Bob and weave.  Keep up.

Til next time.
Peace
-Mike

I am gaining momentum on my show for November.  The work is starting to get to a level that I felt I had last December before I sold a bunch of the six by six panels.  Looking back on it, I wish I had the 700 bucks I made on those panels back so that I could use that same work in the series that I am working on now.  The pieces make so little sense as small salable items.  I would like them back.  And so I am on to a new era in my art making.  I am looking to accumulate a body of work that I am proud of, that I wish to put in a show.  I think that the days of making work purely to fulfill the needs of the rules that I have set up for a given show are beyond me.  I want to show the fruits of my efforts in a more cohesive manner.  I think my idea will more easily come across if it is allowed to grow and change with the ideas of the new work influencing edits in the older work.  As I gain knowledge of what I am doing on newer panels, I still have the old panels to work with.  The cross referencing within these two lines of thinking ultimately lead to a better understanding of what I am doing. 

A friend told me on Friday evening about Double Dee and Steinski’s Lessons 1 to 3 for hip-hop.  They are the ultimate in illegal usage of material, referencing endless pop culture and pop music.  I think, upon listening to these lessons, that my work is a visual version of this.  As I let my ideas work back and forth, my emotions tearing me between, cartoon and abstract expressionist-like work, I am able to discuss an entire new genre rather than working in two different means.  This, I think, is what I have been aiming for for years, but by not letting the work accumulate, I have been selling this growth factor short.

Here are a few of the pieces that I have been working on towards the November show.  They are not in their final order, as some of the color tangents are absolutely terrible, but I wanted to quickly show how all of the pieces are evolving together.  I am quite pleased with the work that I have produced over the last week or so.  I hope you like it too.

Now off to bowling.  Hope to have some stuff up for you soon.

Peace
-Mike

When I last lived in Seattle I would finish every studio night super charged up listening to Social Distortion’s Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell album.  I would ride my bike or the bus home to my apartment and blog in the wee hours of the morning.  I was as into my art in 2006 and 2007 as I have ever been.  The last three years, however, have been strange.  Beth and I split up in 2010.  We had been engaged for 3 years.  My work has suffered in one way or another ever since.

There is no blame for this.  I didn’t know how to deal with any of it.  I didn’t know what I thought or what I wanted, if I was to blame, whether I should be punished or what I could do that mattered any more.  Tonight my roommate pried it all out of me.  It was really by accident, but I can’t tell you how much different I feel right now.  I got home at 11 pm and immediately started painting.  The desire was there.  It was that old charge.  I don’t know if I will feel the same tomorrow.  I think it is a definite possibility.  It is a strange thing to admit to someone that something hurt you more than any physical pain, ever.  It sucked and I don’t want anyone to think otherwise.  I didn’t deal with it well and it got in the way, but just saying those things and feeling the enormity of those emotions weighing on me again, crying like I haven’t cried since my first grandfather died.  It all needed to happen and now I feel lighter.

I’m listening to King of Fools and my heart feels the flutter that it used to feel in 2007.  I feel ready for tomorrow.  I feel excited to be a teacher.  My life is good.  It is time to stop punishing myself and time to get going.  As Andy said in The Shawshank Redemption, “You gotta get busy living, or get busy dying.”  I for one want to live and this is how I do it.

 

You will notice that it is the 20th of June.  I haven’t posted here since last month.  Perhaps this makes you think that I have gotten nothing done during this month, but that is not really the case.  I have been slowly working on the four paneled mural and the condominium commission.  I have been intermittently been working in my sketchbook.  I have been thinking.  A lot.

Yesterday I left for work, my day job, not my studio life, and I thought to myself as I looked at a piece, “that is not that different than what I am trying to do right now.  In fact that is the same damn thing.”  It was big.  It all started this week when I made a piece a young lady whose company I really enjoy.  Do stop.  I am not positive of anything but enjoying her company just yet, but the piece was extremely important in turning me around creatively.  It was fun and I had been attempting to very seriously finish my big projects.  I was taking my art seriously.  It is good to take your art seriously, but sometimes it isn’t at all.  Sometimes you should really sit back and allow yourself to just enjoy the process.  Sometimes I forget this when I am trying to finish something.  Fortunately I wanted to make a fun piece this week and that fixed just about everything.  Here’s the piece.  My friend enjoys lions.  I can get behind that.

When I finished this piece, I immediately wanted to work on other things, but my gigantic mural project is in the way.  I have wanted so badly to want to work on something and the mural project has been in the way, but the interesting thing is that as soon as I started approaching the mural project as something that I just wanted to finish, I started to really get into it.  I started to try to make areas that were “done” much much better.  It is working now.  I had to make some quick adjustments to it today.  It felt good, like I was really painting.  Here is a quick, cruddy image of it.

I will post a better image tomorrow after I’ve worked on the piece a bit.  I hope you like it.  I really can’t tell how good or bad it is anymore.  I’ve been too close to it for 11 months.  It seems like it should be less work than 11 months.  Maybe it was just in learning the method.  I don’t really know.  Someday I will.

Peace
-Mike