Just wrapped up one deadline as a new one was dropped on me...and then another. Commitments too enticing to pass up.

1. New Orleans themed fundraiser at LVAA Water Tower - Tim Faulkner calls me Friday, July 17 about show he's hanging for LVAA fundraiser. A can't miss. I'm too honored and excited to even consider turning it down. I'm leaving town twice though before I need to get it done so it is going to be tough.

I'm not going to be able to spend as much time hashing out an idea on the computer like I have lately. Just roughing in basic spaces and background and starting painting before rest of subject matter included.

I already started a print that had a voodoo theme. Something I started with my cat "Mojo" before he died:

sketch:


I thought about a painting all weekend and started working through two ideas.

Ash Wednesday: This idea puts a man draped on a Riverwalk park bench like he's been crucified, sleeping off the Marti Gras fun early into the next morning. An angel prays a devil nurses hang over above his head, each with beads AND ashes smudged on their heads. At his feet aren't the same lamenting saints Jesus often is seen with. Instead, he is flanked by two fellow partiers sleeping off their binges.

sketch:


painting:


Jazz Funeral: The idea for this evolved from a simple depiction of a signature New Orleans funeral procession into something that mirrors the X's marked on voodoo tombs with the X's spray painted on Katrina houses...even incorporating the X into the composition itself.

Katrina House:


Voodoo Tomb:



Sketch:


Painting:


2. Twist of the Wrist; Louisville Art of the Motorcycle Culture Brought to you by our good friend Brad White, it is set to be a one night event for the 1st friday hop August 7th. It will coincide with art car weekend and the vintage motorcycle show at KMAC. He has a great space lined up in the old Arctic Ice building on main.

Open or Closed Coffin: For this I researched a vintage motorcycle, put a shadowing figure on it, flanked him with an angel with a helmet and a devil with the wind in his face...also a live possum and a dead possum. The bike from the front resembles a crucifix, resting on a cracked skull like is common in Crucifixion scenes. All this to convey something an old biker friend once told me. The only difference a helmet makes is an open or closed coffin.

sketch:

By my sister:

As stated in the chart we are obviously postmodern people - or at least kicking and screaming in a postmodern society. But who writes the chart? How many people does it take pulling in the same direction to make a society? Is it just the media who decide now? Are more people living on the fringe than living in the society as stated? How many pieces of fringe are there? Is it clunky, heavy corded fringe, or is the fringe gossamer and fine? How much yardage does it take to fringe the entire society?

And what's all this about purple? If the light is reflected in a certain wavelength and we in a society call it purple, why isn't it purple? Are there other non-colors?

Tim Faulkner stopped by last night.

I showed him stuff new and old. Prints and paintings. He like a lot of it. Told me that I'm "in The Gallery". Now all I need to do is produce and let him take care of the rest.

I already feel the pressure that makes artist take heroin but that is just because I'm so scared of commitment, responsibility, and more work.

Show maybe the middle of next year. Stay tuned. In the mean time will have prints for sale on his site (soon) and work hanging at River Bend Winery, and a piece here and then at his First Friday and Sunday Salon events.

Labels: Faulkner, Fine Art, Gallery, heroin, Louisville, Old Louisville

The Gallery Owner comes to my house to dig my work today.

Let's see him be polite when he walks into my 3rd world abandoned vicorian house 1st floor and look at what a slob I am. I am a child of postmodernism, the product of postmodern conceptual-minded art professors. Formalism give me hives. Making archival pieces, taking care of pieces, being neat clean and professional...it all makes it less fun for me.

Maybe that is why I don't do it more. It is a nihilistic diversion. I do it to relieve my creative agitation. Self gratifying rubbing of my artist bone. I don't much care for the end product. I just pile them up. I have to get the shit out of my head and move on. I don't do it for the money, for the recognition, or for the chicks. A little of each is nice but not enough to motivate me to do anything I don't want to do. The art is an end in itself. I couldn't really give a shit if it sells or if it is hung on a wall. That's why I'm someone who makes art...not an Artist.

Labels: artist, Fine Art, Gallery, Kentucky, Louisville, nihilism, Old Louisville, postmodern