Painting (both kinds)

the wall of grotesques


previously, the wall of forks

Today I was very industrious and finished the wall. I wound up painting the whole damn wall with a 2.5" trim brush, standing on an amp road case to reach the ceiling. Insane! Good exercise though. It took forever, but now the wall is a whole new place, as you can see from the photos above. The forks will reemerge at some point I'm sure, but only after a good cleaning and probably not 'til we get a new (hopefully larger?) apartment. Who knows when that will be...

p.s. I have (due to several requests) made new images clickable so they can be seen at a larger size. Enjoy.

* * *

The window adjacent to my desk is open slightly, and the breeze coming in is causing goosebumps on my arms. It is nearly ten o'clock, and I didn't wind up taking Tara Lynne to the Met today; maybe next saturday; we could go with Kelley. I'm looking forward to Kelley's visit and hearing about her adventures abroad.
This Blogger™ interface allows for changing the date and time of a post. It temps me to write a missive from the future...

friday

Minerva, fifth of my Mythological series

my dreams are bound together with waxed sail thread, glue stick and cello tape.

Once again, today was beautiful, sunny and breezy. tonight is cool and clammy. the clamminess is a minor nuisance compared to a normal NYC summer in which it is hot and unbearably humid. this summer's weather has been downright friendly. wow that's a lot of words devoted to weather. but it really has been swell for the past month.
(swell.) ha!

one of the nuisance factors regarding the clam being the length of time my second layer of primer is taking to dry on a newly-stretched canvas. I ran out of gesso and resorted to the bone white latex which i bought to cover up the "Lunatic" on the wall. Previously the Wall of Forks. Yes, that's right-- the wall is no longer of Forks. It will now hold the series of Grotesques™ until it's time to show them. (all other walls are quite covered) That's what the new canvas is for- number five in the series: the Patron Saint of Hoodies. Anyway, I need to go back to Blick™ and get some canvas pliers, gesso, and spray varnish. (perhaps Elijah™ will be there to hold the door again.)

how's my random capitalization? When I forget to unplug the camera from the computer it stays on and drains itself of life. such a pessimistic thing. nearing time to get together with my Third Brain™ travel mates and buy our non-refundable tickets for our next trip. I believe we have decided to fly into Heathrow after all; Anders will try to plan a reading somewhere in London.

Let's see... anything interesting from recent dreams?
:: checking text files ::

tidbits:
"the other [roommate] gave the impression of someone who might be mean to animals when no one was around, but also a bit of a looker."

"beth had made me this tiny sort of book with a bunch of strange metal things in. there were some cool weird blades that came in sleeves with clear top and foil backing, plus some very tiny chairs that fit into a little tiny paper room that was one of the pages." (damn. i want that book. beth, make the book!)

"my mother cheered the shabby blank walls by hanging bolts of colored fabric and paper, but most of what she had involved a repeated picture of a doll or a face, and the result was somewhat unsettling until we got used to not seeing it."

"he asked odd questions which made it clear he hadn't any idea what was going on, but was trying to appear cool about it. i left the answering to our shrewd Puck and tried to enjoy the misleading answers he gave. some of the glitter was coming off, and i wasn't at all sure i could navigate using my available stars after all."

belated

fireworks seen from the roof

I just emptied the camera and found this (among others). the mini table-top tripod is brilliant.

Oh and crap. I just realized that I must have missed part two of Empire. Despite my previous comment, I still would have liked to see the whole thing. alas.

drip drip

i think it's valla again

Walking about in the rain in sunglasses and without umbrella is an example of behavior found perplexing by many. However, one can have the park nearly to oneself on such a day.
I've had to put a pot on the floor under the hole where the rain has been coming in, drip by slow metronomic drip. (the towel i'd put there last night was thoroughly soaked by the time i woke up.)
Got the lease renewal forms in the mail from the landlord this afternoon; do we renew? or look for a larger and/or less expensive spot? Can we logistically move in September?

These and other questions remain unanswerable at this time.

bombs

Condolences to Londoners.

* * *

It would be nice to think that this tragedy won't lead to a greater expansion of wrong-headed policies on the part of the US or the UK (though, sadly, it seems inevitable at this point).

::BEGIN RANT: Bombings of civilians is absolutely detestable, but it's foolish to think this is all new since 9/11.
It seems the greatest Weapon of Mass Destruction wielded in the world of late may be the brutality of Ignorance. As we have so lately seen, it is abused to rationalize war; it is what nightmares are written from. It is helped along by the largest entities in American media-- issuing half-truths and lies of omission; focusing on sensational stories of lurid court cases and celebrity hijinx rather than on increasingly dangerous policies (both foreign and domestic) or even the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (oops- I forgot: "Mission Accomplished!").
The U.S. descends righteously into a new dark age, with instances of Christian fundamentalism on the rise. Superstitions are embraced with new fervor; rational thought and empathy become the onus of dreaded Liberals and Intellectuals. Here in America, "Religious" becomes patently equated with "moral," even as religion is the very thing ostensibly spreading divisive fear (oops- Terror) and hatred through both the Islamic and Christian worlds. (Isn't it clear by now that the equation goes something rather more like this: Religion = Politics?)
The clear and dire need for enlightenment and greater understanding through awareness is shunned for (blood-stained) traditions of "faith" and unquestioned "patriotism" as the world approaches its End, once again, amid fear mongering and abuses of power... :: END RANT::

and now : the deluge

"loud dog bark!"

I can hear church bells from far away, and it is threatening to rain.
Thunder is a brilliant sound.

A dog barks.

excerpt of a dream

"At the beginning I found myself in what appeared to be an ancient city- it was a re-creation of some kind and there were tests. (It was a kind of game- something to amuse.) Some things looked familiar and some did not; like they'd started out with history but had become irrevocably lost in fictions along the way. The result was something very surreal but beautiful. The colors were all of a very unhistoric nature, subtle as the colors of a sky. All of my answers turned out wrong, though, as I was drawing them from Rome; I'd have done much better to have simply made things up. I was not allowed to stay.

Down a canal in a boat, dropped at a normal street corner away from the magic, and made to wait for a bus. Upon its arrival (it was more of a mini-bus), I was told that i was only to take up the space of one-half seat, as there were other stops at which to pick up other people. The "person" with whom i was to share my seat turned out to be a fat and miserable young girl; one of those sad children who has put entirely too much stock in the speech of rules and what one ought or ought not do. It rendered her very dull and not a little cranky.

So i imagine that was how I arrived late to the house."

* * * * *
There was more. There was a fish and other glittering things.

Today: another long walk. I should more accurately refer to the iPod™ as my escape 'Pod for the buffer zone it invariably creates. Very useful in such a crowded city as this.
Tonight: Acoustic Arcade show at Southpaw: Kevin Omen and others. (alas I will arrive late.) Recycling.
At length: need to add more old jazz to the pod and digitize some of those creepy old tunes from the smithsonian folk collection.

skinny

Oh, and this chap looks like this now that he is finished.
he has cool hair and pointy sleeves.

reveal

two of the grotesque portraits

I had two dreams over the past few days that I now wish I'd written down, if only because I've been having so few that I recall lately. They've been on the boring side to boot.

Damn, the air is so clammy here tonight.
Had a lovely walk through Prospect Park early this evening (pre-clammy, still sunny)- there were so many people, everywhere- insanity. Thanks to the 'pod, however, it was serene, if surreal. (Sunset Coming On is best listened to out of doors, especially when the sunset is, in fact, coming on...)

I've been experimenting with music (if that's what it should be called) the past few days, as I have been feeling taunted by and fearful of the current grotesque painting. I even went so far as to put them out there in the ether on the dreaded MySpace.com (see link entitled quirky little tunes). [Edit: this is no longer true. I find that site irritating and it was just a whim anyway, so i've deleted that page.]

only tuesday

Hell. It was one of those days where everything started happening before I'd got a chance to feel my eyes open, to breathe the air of today. And a difficult day to get started on the things needing to be done; namely because I didn't want to get started. But all went well and here I sit slugging through some of the less interesting bits.
I had so many words in my head earlier today. Good ones, I mean. They've gone.

The end result of last evening did not follow the plan of last evening.

To my great surprise one of the networks began a series tonight called "Empire," in which the rise of Octavian (Augustus as he would later be known) is followed, complete with the dramatic insertion of a fictional ex-gladiator as his protector after the murder of Julius. Why do they do that shit? As if the history of the Roman Empire just wasn't goddamn interesting enough or had too few dramatic figures in the non-fictional telling of it.
Wankers.

saturday

Three things today: invitation, painting and poster.
minor: digitzation of cds for the electroPod, grocery shopping, morning pages.

painting in sunshine makes such a difference.

The show on the Science Channel™ entitled "Hot Rocks: Geology of Civilization" is a new favorite; an example of the potential of consilience within the sciences- social and natural. The two are inextricably linked, and the overriding tendency to teach them in alienation serves only to mislead, or at the very least to paint a very incomplete picture.

summer speeds quickly past.

graphic noise

Got the news yesterday: electrofork posters shall be included in the Museum of Design Atlanta "graphic Noise" show. Cool. So that makes it one proper gallery and a southern leg of the Smithsonian™ in one summer. Perhaps this signifies the start of my gradual weaning off the work-for-hire circuit of freelance design. Oh I hope so.
:: must paint more ::

but for now, back to logo designing and Gorillaz™ listening.

new site

the boy with echolocation powers

Though I'm late in the telling here, the *spankin' new* electrofork site is up and running. I was planning on spamming all of my email contacts but have thus far been, at turns, too busy or too lazy to do so. There's always time. I only spam about once a year so another week or two can't hurt. If you're seeing this page having not linked from electrofork,, go there now.

In other news, I finished the above piece of artwork for the Echolocation project by Canopic yesterday afternoon. More info to come on that, I'm sure. While I'm linking, here's the blog of Allan Lorde- fellow illustrator and gig poster designer, who kindly linked to my blog today.

Hmmm.... blank. There will be more paintings soon, but I will probably post them at electrofork where they more rightly belong. Mean time, I will try not to be so neglectful of this, my dubious online presence known as blog.