Echo-Land

Testing a new puppet

2012-01-07T00:58:00.002-05:00

Some experiments with color keying:

How to make a grand piano

2011-12-10T13:01:00.009-05:00

TADA!

Now all you need is a concert pianist and a duck:

Concerto in A Minor

2011-12-09T12:35:00.002-05:00

A little animation test I did using sound recorded with my amazing student Lizka, who did all duck noises and some of the great piano playing towards the end.

Chopin's Nightmare

2011-10-23T23:06:00.002-05:00

an animation experiment I made with some old screen-tests and new drawn film.

Mutant Fish

2011-08-24T00:06:00.001-05:00

6 new monos

2011-08-06T23:03:00.004-05:00

Cheese of the Day

2011-07-22T23:10:00.001-05:00

Watercolor from the rose garden. Nice Summery day after a week of a mid-July winter.

Jean, Louis, Louis and Miguel

2011-07-13T01:26:00.004-05:00

Portraits of Modern "Primitives" Artists:
Jean Schubnel, Louis Augistin Dechelette, Louis Vivin, Miguel G. vivancos

Map of Eugene, OR

2011-07-13T01:12:00.003-05:00

Paintbook Journal: February-May

2011-05-02T23:00:00.001-05:00

April Nonsense

2011-04-08T12:36:00.006-05:00

Some old drawings I found:

End-of-March creature maddness!

2011-03-27T15:08:00.005-05:00

Le Cheese

2011-03-08T16:50:00.001-05:00

Few Demos from my watercolor class at the Craft Center this term

Monotypes- Friday March 4th

2011-03-06T17:10:00.005-05:00

Experiments for my creature book:

Monotypes- from Friday, Feb 18

2011-02-20T23:38:00.003-05:00

Dallas Paintings

2011-02-20T23:22:00.008-05:00

Here are some of the paintings that I had in my show in Dallas, Oregon at L'atitude gallery.
I will be posting them on my website soon, as well. Enjoy!

New Monotypes 1

2011-02-19T01:38:00.008-05:00

Some new monotypes from last week. Some more from today, but they're still drying.

comign soon to Dallas, OR!

2011-01-02T01:51:00.004-05:00

Here's a quick preview of some of the pieces I will be showing in L'atitude gallery in Dallas, Or. Opening on Friday January 14th!

Holiday Cards

2010-11-18T14:05:00.005-05:00

I've made some of these as part of a collage demo in my children's book illustration class, and I will be selling these and others at the "$40 Show" at the LVK gallery in the first week of December. (Nov 29-Dec 2)

Art at the Booksmith

2010-11-01T20:51:00.005-05:00

This summer I visited Boston and saw the new design my friend and mentor Diane Bigda has done for the children book's section of the Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge corner. It featured some of my Zoo Book art that hung from the big tree in the middle of hte space. I was excited to see it, I felt like a celebrity!
here are some images of the tree and the art:

Project Space

2010-08-06T02:41:00.013-05:00

August 4th was the opening of my show in Salem, OR, as part of Salem Art Association's Project Space. It was a lot of fun, and featured an amazing performance by Gaga and the Ladies that blew everybody away.

When applying for project space, I had no idea of the dimensions of the space that I would have all to myself (90 feet long and 40 feet wide old department store space)! These were interesting past few months trying to create enough work to be a match for the space.

I've made 4 very large paintings to add to 4 already existing big works, about 6 floor and ceiling large sculptures and many many small paintings.

In the front of the gallery I have displayed a separate body of work called the copy pieces which use the same methods of working as the other pieces but deal more with questions of mass production. Here are some wolves that are up in the show right now:

Very dear friends of mine agreed to play at the opening reception. Their band currently adapts lady Gaga songs into an amazingly complex interpretations using strange and interesting instruments, among those instruments a Theramin, a Jaw Harp, an Udu, beakers and washboard, to name a few.
Their music not only is fantastic to listen to, but also remarkably corresponds to the spirit of my work (not coincidentally, I have been influenced by and worked collaboratively with many of the artists in the band). The idea of the hand crafted adaptation of the mass produced consumable, and reestablishing room for personal invention within a prefabricated, prescribed playing field, talks as much to music as it does to the visual arts and crafts.

The show will remain on view through August, and is located at 150 liberty street NE, Salem, OR 97301. It is part of Salem Art Association, Project Space.
More great photos of the set-up and the opening were taken by Phil and Barbara, artists and members of Project Space.
Thanks to all the wonderful people of Project space, Kathy Phil and Barbara, to Jessica and all the gagas (Paige Lyle, Robo, Katie, Matt and Scott), to my sister Poli , and a special thanks to Robo Mertens!

Photo by Jesku Robinson from hte opening:

Stabbing Pinky

2010-01-25T02:39:00.003-05:00

Things

2010-01-25T02:37:00.001-05:00

Collaboration #2

2010-01-25T02:35:00.003-05:00

Collaboration with Robo

Crochet+Painting

2010-01-04T03:41:00.004-05:00

A collaborative piece with Robo Mertens :

Random little things

2009-12-24T20:24:00.004-05:00

This guy looks like he fits the season. Happy Holidays!

This was an illustration for Dostoyevski's The Insulted and Humiliated
(Униженные и оскорбленные) Smith and his dog Azorka.

And some road kill:

CAtStallation

2009-10-24T03:07:00.009-05:00

I see this guy around a lot

2009-08-12T23:11:00.000-05:00

Small Book of Random Crap

2009-08-12T15:16:00.013-05:00

...........Cover.....................One can't escape oneself............Pink blob and furryface

Mrs. Bendy-Knees

2009-08-11T23:36:00.001-05:00

I thin this is what I look like when I do Pilates and/or other exercise:

Two Ladies

2009-08-08T13:41:00.001-05:00

Two other ladies

2009-08-08T13:33:00.002-05:00

Can I eat this?

2009-08-07T14:50:00.001-05:00

Big cats, and Modernism is cute

2009-08-05T20:03:00.001-05:00

Master Life

2009-07-15T18:23:00.013-05:00

I found this book randomly at the library, I decided it needed some illustrations.
Here's a test for the title page with a grumpy dude:
_

Some prints that may or may not look modernist

2009-04-25T03:04:00.003-05:00

Is it any wonder

2009-04-16T16:27:00.003-05:00

?*-

2008-08-05T02:09:00.012-05:00

.......
This is my idea of the least marketable style of illustration.

................................................................................................Mr. Runny Nose syndrome....

Travels

2007-09-18T13:04:00.003-05:00

So I've made it to the other side of the continent, and that's exciting. I found this painting I did while doing my long-distance apartment search and frantic packing. It was based on pictures of places I saw on Craig's List combined with my own anxieties.

This one I did while visiting my sister in California. It was an utterly packed beach, a rather amazing visual. There were actual oil tankers floating in the distance.

cabbages

2007-07-27T22:54:00.001-05:00

I went to Chicopee last weekend, and spend the morning drawing chickens, cabbages,
tomato- bushes and the neighbors :} (I might upload those soon too).
........
............
Then the other day I was at the Farmer's Market, and these are two ladies that I saw.

Garden in Flames

2007-07-11T23:13:00.001-05:00

I've been working on this painting for a few days, and it seems to be morphing into something unexpected. I can't argue with that. I'm not sure it's finished either.

Here's what it looked like a few days ago: (and I thought it looked kind of cool in B/W)

Shark Dream

2007-07-08T17:25:00.001-05:00

I was getting off a giant boat onto a pier when I noticed this shadow of a shark down in the water. I tried to point it out to other people who were with me, but they wouldn't even bother to look at it.

Three Boats

2007-07-02T21:04:00.001-05:00

Monotype and acrylic.
Pretty old piece, but I found it and it reminded me of a dream I had a few nights ago.

Flowers and Seashells

2007-06-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

crossing the street

2007-06-27T19:23:00.000-05:00

It was so hot today the sidewalks were melting.

scenes from afar

2007-06-21T23:15:00.001-05:00

Drawing granny and the backyard.

.....

An older drawing I did from when I was watching my neighbor's plants in my apartment.

And finally, lying around is all there is to do on this vacation

Lake

2007-06-17T11:25:00.000-05:00

A day trip with the folks

drawings from the winter

2007-06-14T18:41:00.000-05:00

I found these drawings I did one snowy day this past winter. We had a great model named Becky, and I hope to draw her again soon.

mew

2007-06-06T22:10:00.001-05:00

Bleak House

2007-06-02T13:34:00.001-05:00

Some characters from Bleak House.
Lady Deadlock here on the left, and above is
Lady Jane, Mr. Krook's cat.

"I'm bored, bored with my life... bored with myself.."

That was a good show!

Garden Portraits

2007-05-23T21:45:00.000-05:00

These are of Diane's garden:

My window:

Here is a birdhouse I painted.. I was trying to make it folksy.
beep

Cats and Bananas

2007-05-20T00:05:00.001-05:00

This Banana painting was a test I did for a possible assignment for Natural History drawing class. I think it can be a fun assignment, especially if you enjoy partial fruit. And there's also a kiwi here, naturally.

Also, I think it's good to end the week with some photos of Tristan the cat in the bathtub. My favorite part is how it looks as if the foot of the bath is actually the cat's giant paw. mrrrau
mew

Mrs. Tea-bag loses her marbles

2007-05-18T17:40:00.001-05:00

I can't seem to fall asleep before 4AM these days. I blame my disintegrated mattress and my grim prospects for the future.
What is worse is the time I'm wasting trying to fall asleep. If I wasn't so tired I could do something productive.Last night I was somewhat productive and did some sketches, and today they turned into an idea to do some B/W spots.
I tried doing some with ink, but I don't think that they were successful. At least I think they are too creepy to be marketed as illustrations for children's books.

I also did this crocodile painting. Poor Mr. Crocodile in the big city.
Something is not working there for me, too many leaning verticals perhaps.I don't know. Maybe it's because he's facing the wrong way? I also added this little test I did with a previous version of the painting. I'ts pretty lame, but I think maybe the black umbrella works better. You tell me.

.......

Mrs. Thing and Mrs. Entity go to the museum

2007-05-16T20:12:00.000-05:00

I saw the Edward Hopper show at the MFA with Diane today. It was what you would expect from a hopper show- lighthouses and ten thousand views of a house. There were several paintings that I liked, mostly the ones with the single female figure in a still environment. When I look closely at his paintings it always seems to me like it was very painful for him to produce them. I can trace all the movements of his brush on the almost-geometrical shapes and it gives me the chills.

The woman-guard at the Chinese furniture room said that there's a Tornado warning, and when we came out of the museum to catch a cab the sky was almost turquoise. It rained buckets, but no tornado. When I got home I did some sketches to go with the greyness of the storm and tried to capture the rain pouring outside my window with my camera.

Sunday Sketching

2007-05-14T12:05:00.000-05:00

Did some drawing in Diane's garden this Sunday. I was sitting by the catnip plants, so the cats were all around me..

As bright and sunny as the day was, my painting came out pretty dreary:

...and this is Diane's portrait of me:

Supplies!

2007-05-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

there's too much crap on my destk...

Puppet-man

2007-05-10T12:28:00.000-05:00

This is a hand puppet I made a while ago, inspired by the puppets Paul Klee made for his son. There is a very cool Book on the subject, with great reproductions of the puppets. My favorite part about the book is when they show the puppet theater he and his son constructed, where the puppets preformed.

Fleurs

2007-05-09T22:50:00.000-05:00

Dug this up

2007-05-09T11:31:00.000-05:00

Old monotype print- Avocados and lemons... makes a nice lunch.

rock n' scroll

2007-05-08T22:07:00.000-05:00

I think I got this blog thing... at least enough to get started!
Here's another painting/collage to get things rolling..

Just some people I saw walking down Boylston street...

Hurray, Blog!

2007-05-08T20:26:00.000-05:00

I started a little blog so that I can post work in progress and other things.
A place to go online when you're (I'm) bored....

This one is from a trip I took to Chicopee, MA about a month ago. It's watercolor on paper.