Art or not

I've been thinking about the notion of art a lot lately. Really, I should say the notion keeps coming up and making me think about it...there was a recent art show, "You call that art" , commemorating, I believe, the 100th anniversary if a show bearing the same name. Loved the idea of this show. Loved the effort of the Center in doing the PR for this show. Still loving the idea of someone asking "is it art?"...

From a totally different angle comes the continuing artistic development of my dude, Stuart. He and I have been getting together and painting for a few months now. Amazed at how much talent he has. How well he takes to the paints. Fish to water comes to mind... 

The carpent who worked on my house; fitting pieces of clapboard into the existing siding of my 100 year old house. What an art.

Whatever you call this:

http://www.designboom.com/architecture/rex-and-front-shade-nasher-sculpture-center-with-surya-11-13-2013/

This notion is drawing some parallels to work in progress as well. "dancin' in the sun" is basically finished, but I'm working on bow ties to place in the cracks on the base in order to "call it art"ful...just how I'm rollin'.

Then there are the quick pieces. I posted a few on my page, and I've been working on a few more for the holidays; pieces that I spend about an hour on that I can still call art...this is also one, I hope:

I definitely am thinkin' it's seasonal. Hope you enjoy.

Art alanche...

Over the last two and a half weeks, somehow, I've managed to get a sculpture almost finished, and 6 paintings complete. It's not that I planned an art avalanche, but it did start with Plein Air Saturday a couple of weeks ago. During that day, while I didn't finish that painting, I discovered that with a few hacks, I could capture the essence of a piece much faster than I had been. I'm just going to throw them out, use or discard as they may or may not apply. Also, it may be worth repeating, I'm no trained artist. These little nuggets have been painstakingly mined over 35 years of work, and are probably well known by most fine artists. The list:

    Loosen up- studying the works of renowned painter George Bellows made me realize that there is a definite place for the quick study approach, outside of the area you, as the artist,  consider to be the focus of the painting.

Consider priming the entire canvas with you base colors, thinned out with turpentine. Using white or yellow for areas I want to pop. Purple or blue for areas I want to be darker and richer, has. Given some of these pieces a much better sense of depth, and highlighted the foreground better than adding highlights at  the end.

Step away. If you're like me, you may never like certain pieces. Realizing I'm not the final judge let me ask for feedback, before I added that extra brushstroke that leads to hours of fine tuning...

Normally, at this point, I'd be posting images as examples. This time, I'm just going to point you toward my portfolio. See for yourself. The last two weeks vs. many years of work.

Www.facebook.com/kengoodsonart check out the photos in the portfolio folder. This commercial message brought to you from my couch...

Plein Air Saturday

If you were passing by Cup A Joe in the Short North, you may have seen a distinguished, silver haired gentleman painting a scene on the west side of Hight Street. That would not have been me. You may have also seen a dude in a sock hat with paint all over his jacket making a freak show on canvas. That would have been me. 

I've always claimed that everyone's an artist, it's simply a matter of finding your amuse, and following it. Yep, simple...sounds like I'm making jokes, But what else would you call it? If you've experienced art, up close and messy, when you're doing it to the best of you're ability, it sure feels simple. I've maintained that the only thing to do to let it out is to get the F out of the way. 

That's what I witnessed on this excursion, on this thing another friend calls Plein Air Painting. This thing I would have much preferred to experience in CBus when it was warmer...or on a beach in the Caribbean. But, the experience is part of the art, right? My friend and I had made a deal; he'll teach me to play guitar, and I'll do whatever I did...I'm not gonna call it teaching; let's call it getting out of the way.  

A lot of folk I talk to had an art class at one time or another. My friend, whom I'll just call DG,since he's got no idea I'm posting about him, is typical in that regard. What is atypical is that he is another engineer, besides being a musician. Two so called left brained types making art in the street, one who's been doing this as long as he can remember, the other, basically, changing instruments, and getting the F out of the way...

I am going to show you his painting so far, with out his permission, hop I don't get sued. Just keep in mind that neither piece is complete. So, DG's progress:

Nicely done, DG...shows a fine eye. A good start at perspective. Great use of color. 

Then, the freak show:

'Nuff said... Maybe I'm a better teacher than I am a painter.

To be continued...

Studies and styles

I went to see the George Bellows exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art. mr. b is not only a Columbus product, but a New York artist as well. In every sense an extremely technical, polished painter and drawer. Amazing show, but that's not what this post is about.

I've been going back to my roots over the last few paintings. I had an art teacher in College, Babette duSang Jones, who taught  introduction to Painting. She had us pick up oil sticks and we would work them on newsprint. Mostly forgettable paintings, from me, anyway, but she would pile up desks, tables, whatever she had in the studio, and we would do our still life sketches and paintings. I recently decided to do some still life studies of my own. Wild flowers from my yard, arranged in a cool vase, resting on my messy sculpting bench. 

I'm not gonna lie, I am not crazy about either one of these paintings, but they did their job, there are usually many lessons in going down memory lane, but this one was about painting curvy glass, making actual straight lines, and painting the light

The first one, I managed one out of three, maybe two:

I'm going to call the next one a success, I've finally seen the light:

Spinning wheels

I've been struggling of late with what is worth posting. Not that I'm not being productive, mind, but maybe too productive...I've been on site for the AMA Hall of Fame Museum Motorcycle days, I've been in the bronzecasting studio twice a week, painting and sculpting at home, and getting out in the local arts scene; most recently at Urban Scrawl. That is a must see event if you haven't checked it out, and 400WestRich is going to be huge.

I'm working on a million pieces, and I've shown some level of progress on this site for a lot of them. Progress on an art piece can be so incremental, at times, that I'm hard pressed to see it from one set of progress photos to another. So, I've procrastinated posting them. I've decided to break down the wall, to some extent, anyway, and show you the mess my studio is in at the moment. I hope you enjoy it as much as I making this mess:

Looser or more refined

I would typically say that my sculpting and painting has been a celebration of loose, colorful, or sketchy, even. For my latest sculpture, "Seated", I am exploring how refined I can actually make a sculpture, and then, whether I actually feel its fit to show.  

This first photo is pretty close to the beginning. I won't actually Showa sculpture sooner than this level of completion anymore...they can change too radically;

This next photo was around the 50% stage for the face. Rockin' the dreads, but still needing some finihing;

This last photo, the face is close, the figure maybe 40%, but you may see the change, already;

Next time i post this sculpture will be right before I make the moulds for the bronze. 

Now this is progress...

 I've been digging in the yard and moving rocks for ta little while now, and it's a beautiful thing. Not only am I still semi upright, but I'm making real actual progress...

I had started reworking the pavers in the yard several years ago, trying to move towards having actual outdoor studio and chillout spaces back there, so I could sculpt while I had the grill goin'. I also started an organic garden project in the yard almost two years ago, with containers. There are pavers under the grill and stuff in the back.

Seemed like a good idea at the time... Did I mention that the yard is land locked, and I've got to bring everything down the long side of house? Bags of dirt, sand, gravel...great workout. As of today, I've got the pavers done, grill together, and I'm just trying to figure out yard furniture, while waiting for a contractor to run some power for the outdoor studio. Here's what we have to deal with:

Not too long before I can weld and sculpt in that yard...by the way, anyone want some plastic furniture?

The cycle of art

The last month has found me trying to finish up the yard, for my outdoor studio, as well as starting numerous other projects. Several paintings and sculptures, which I'll tease here:

APR sunset progress 06212013 

Female figure progress: 

I do have a lot of sketches right now, and these are rough as well.

More soon

053113

Had the privilege of hangin' out with one of my oldest homies the other day. We went to eat, then I took him to the show at the AMA Museum. If I keep this up, I have made up stories for all the pieces I don't know anything about. We came back an hung out in my studio/living room and talked for a while. I was playing with wax while we talked,, and a small kneeling figure came out of it. Had a great ime with my dude, and had no idea why I made that figure.

The next day, I'm looking at it. It had a pious ET kinda vide, so I just started with that, refining it, making the proportions better. Spent a lot of time doing stuff that adds little to the vibe of the piece  ...just because. The Muse said so.

Memorial Day. Today, I woke up and went through the usual morning stuff, after sleeping in, then sleeping some more. I slept till 8:00 am...After breakfast, on my second cup of coffee, I found myself working on the figure some more. Long story short, this piece came out of it.

SoliloquyII

Baby steps...that's how it always feels at this stage. I've spent most of the last two weeks polishing, wire brushing, grinding down tool marks, getting rid of those last areas of extra metal. This is the result, not a whole lot different than last post:

I've also been looking for  base for this piece. The last one was a third smaller, and would work on a tall wood base.

This one, not so much. I'm leaning towards a flat limestone block where she would rest asymmetrically, or 'sculpturally', I hope...

I've also been working on patinas, as I mentioned in the last post. Ric and I agree, that much needs to be the same between the two pieces, so it looks like shiny bronze boots are in this year...

Stay tuned.

Soliloquy II patinas

Been cranking away on the sculpture. She has most of the metal growths removed, just some minor surgery remaining. Then a sand and buff episode, followed by patinas. The first piece was dark shiny skin, with the dress darkened, but damned if I remember how I got there...I have Brass darkening solution here at the home studio, and the other night in class I tried out several jars, including the mysterious "?" jar... I even tried Magnesium oil that my doc gave me for pain...hey, it's a chemical...

First, the progress:

Yup...Shiny...

Here's the detail on the original, please forgive the pixillation, that's the tech:

Most of the patinas didn't do a whole lot; the bare bronze is on the left, with darkening solution on the right. Kinda muddy messy lookin' deal, to me; remind me to use it on my next abstract...

Magnesium oil makes a natural green, except messier; I can get there better with hot sauce or something...

Finally, The "?"on the left, versus the darkening solution on the right. So far, the darkening solution is winning, tho if it were a game, I'd have asked for a refund on my ticket...

I also started trying to figure out bases. This new sculpture is half again as large, so a wood base just doesn't have enough weight to it; we've pretty much agreed that it needs stone. I don't know how to carve stone, so that's another class...

Peace

AMA museum, to be continued

This is going to be a short one. I just wanted to show the first images from my Motorcycle museum show. I delivered these two on Friday, and I'm in the process of framing the rest of them, and I'll post better images soon.

On another note, I check out the Nutrition doc the other day; she's gonna be a badass for old hippy artist dude...I already feel better from the recommendations she's made, and expect to see more improvement after I give her some blood to test...why does this stuff always need my blood?

The artin' continues...

Have you ever had one of those days that just made you happy to be breathing the air? I had one of those recently It was on the day we celebrated my father's 80th birthday.  I'd been working on a painting of Evelyn, my second mother:

I was going to give this one to my brother. I'd started it before Christmas, and it wasn't dry enough to travel when he went home, so I thought I'd meditate on it to see if it was really finished...it turns out it was, and it turns out the Muse thought it'd be the perfect gift for my Father's 80th. So that morning I woke up early and worked out, then started working on one of the paintings for the Motorcycle Museum, which I'll post once I submit them to the Museum.

All day that day I just felt lucky. I woke up happy could give them a 'picture for their fridge'... It was a beautiful day, I had been artin' a lot...I'd even gotten back in the gym. Working out always straightened out my attitude, but that was a special day.

Now, all I had do was to make good on my promise to my brother, because I have a second chance; he's coming home  in a few weeks. This new one started differently, and I think it's going to be a much better portrait:

If my luck continues, anyway...

The catch all

I haven't posted in a while; there has been much going on and my little brain takes a while to process these complicated things...

I've got almost all of the paintings for the Motorcycle museum finished, submitted, and, I believe, accepted. I'm working on one more for this show, then falling back to try to catch up on gifts I 'gave' to my brother that I've never finished.  Sorry, but I'm not posting those until they are hanging in the show: that'd be bad mojo.

Moving on; I spent most of the day in the Bronze studio yesterday, SoliloquyII is really coming along. As the goddess Helen says, 'Shiny!...

I just put in applications to the Greater Columbus Arts Council for a supply grant. I'm thinkin' I make too much to qualify; actually, I'm thinking I make too much to be applying, but I do want those folks to learn who I am, and this seems to be step 1...they really oughta have an operating manual for 'how to be in artist in {insert city}'...

One of my coworkers's SO had an accident some time back, and they asked me to create a sculpture with the rods they used to hold her legs together while she healed. That's the kinda piece I love, but I warned them my process could be glacially slow. I've come up with a concept that takes a couple of long steel rods and imbeds them in a rock, then attach the rods to the two rods in a sculptural fashion...Here are the raw materials, arranged in a random fashion:

Speakin' of operating manuals, I'm about to go get one of those, too. I'm finally back in the gym for real, and now, it's time to figure out how to eat. The problem for me since surgery has been that every time I make some progress towards fitness goals, my back would go out, or my hips would jack me up. My little pea brain finally realized that the only way I could change this cycle is to lose some weight...lots of weight. So, my dude Ric Stewart hooked me up with his Doctor, and I'm off to see the Wizard. Video comin', but don't expect P90x...I'm not THAT dude...

Back to Artin', as my fried Daric says

Peace

Soliloquy II gets poured

I cut the pouring of Soliloquy II down to about a minute. There was actually a days worth of building the box and filling it with sand so the mold was pretty much covered, except for the top, which we set on fire when the bronze hits the side of the box. No danger, tho, the sand and fire brick around the mold keep the box from doing much. Check it out.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=274123146050680

I've mentioned it before, but it's worth repeating; this was a recreation of a piece that was stolen from me a few years ago. My sculpture teacher, Ric Stewart, talked me into remaking it, even larger. He's the bearded Gent runnin' things.

This piece doesn't have that sense of movement of the original, but it was definitely gratifying getting it cast. I posted progress earlier, and will continue.

A short update: Working on multiple art projects right now, and trying to implement cashflow management software.  I'll get more into the artwork soon...I did get to spend some time helping Ric trim gates and vents off Soliloquy II.

Our progress so far:

Long time y'all!

Happy 2013!

I'm sorry, it's been a long time since I posted. It's been all good, tho. Still Cancer Free! recently accomplished a few things from that first post, so I had to shout it out.

Soliloquy II, right out of the mold; cast Bronze.

Two years, one month, I believe...since I said it on this blog. It had been stolen from an art show, originally. This is her big sister.

It's still kind of difficult to see her in there, but this is the alien baby, basically. Tubes attached everywhere, with a central tube running down page right. She's posed with her left arm and leg straight out, right leg straight, right arm across her chest. She came out with all her fingers, all her skirt, right down to the dreads...That is a tough tough casting job. Thanks Ric Stewart, Bronze god for walking me through every step. Most of my peeps know that I'm gonna make you do that whether I know what I'm doing or not...just a li'l quirky.

With that, tho, we cast the largest piece Ric or I have every done, and she's got no holes, and everything cast. I'm gonna predict we'll even be able to see my fingerprints on the skirt...
The original:

Pushing many many buttons right now, so I'll still be hit and miss, but thanks for hanging in there.