and for my next trick!

  The past couple of weeks I have been working on developing some still lives for my next semester painting class.  Below are a couple of my works-in-progress.

  I am awaiting a soviet gas mask for the deer and need to sculpt a face for the monster as well as make a body suit for it and find some stuffed birds to perch on his arms.

  The content for these pieces comes from my dichotomy of being a rural/urban hybrid.  I have been thinking over the past couple of years how to integrate my upbringing into my present work.  I decided to make still lives that combined relics from my childhood and present day art objects (monsters, designer art toys, etc.).  When thinking about my childhood no big pop culture memories stood out.  While this was frustrating, I did remember very distinctly my father as a hunter and helping him skin deer and break the necks of rabbits before they were butchered. 

  And hence the present project: creating these wild creatures that are half taxidermied animals and half contemporary art objects.  They speak both of my upbringing and of my life today. They combine the rural life that made me what I am and the life I have created for myself of my own volition. 

oil paintings

 While I learned lots of handy techniques this fall in oil painting, I don't think I finished a single painting! Hah!  It was like cramming food only for nutrition, not for the sake of taste, which is something I, among other artists, am prone to.  Not necessarily a flaw.  So, here are a couple of the last paintings I worked on, the self portrait being the ending piece.  I have come a long way since my August black and white still live.  woot!

skinning cats

In a few short days I will be hanging Paul Demaree and I's show @ the Firefly for the month of December.  Most of the stuff will be things previously blogged about, but below are a couple new pieces.  They are constructed of Masonite, collage, acrylic, cut paper, wax, and black sharpie.  Enjoy! (and I apologize for the not so great smart phone photos, still living life with out my digital camera)


"The Danger 97's"

"Siamese Dualing Roosters"

Below: This year's Cinema Center Art-a-ment.

again with the collaborations

One more collaboration: This time between myself and the beautiful Laura Brandenburg.

a side note

Here are a few oil paintings from a class I am taking with Justin Henry Miller out at Saint Francis.  Yum! I was unable to finish the second and the third is an indirect painting currently in progress.  It will be layered with glazes.  Yum, again!

a freaking massacre

Hello, fellow bloggers!

The month of October has found me very busy and I apologize to those of you who check my blog everyday for keeping you so keenly waiting.  It has been nice to have at least one or two art shows a week but it has been a bit nerve-racking on top of my regular duties.  Our fair city has kept everyone on their toes the past few weeks.  Last weekend I got the chance to show off some of my new screen printing skillz a the Monster Mash-Up Blast-O-Rama.

"Medusa" a seven color hand-pulled screen print on paper

"Zombie" another seven color (i think) hand-pulled screen print on paper

"Hannibal Lecter Porn Theater" 4 hand-stenciled, hand-pulled three color screen prints mounted on wood.

And lastly here is a six color screen print collaboration I did with Mr. Eric Stine for the same show.  

Winter is coming and hibernation is about to set in.  My poor little camera has lost a couple nuts and bolts which makes blogging even more difficult.  If any of you bodies out there hear of/know of any point and shooter sales give me a heads up!