Rented a studio space at Over the Moon studios in Asbury Park. I had (4) 3 x 3 ft panels on which I planned to do some spontaneous encaustics. Slashing that much hot wax around seemed like it was best done away from my living space and Over the Moon worked out great. I mostly like the results of the last month’s work, but I am my own worst critic.
Submerged, 3 x 6 ft,. ….encaustic and pastel dyptych on panel
Heavy Sky, 3 x 3 ft, pastel and encaustic on panel
Spent some time painting this one. The human skeleton is not an easy task to draw/paint. It’s got many angles, planes and junctures that drive me crazy. I’m willing to accept that it’s not going to be perfectly anatomically correct, but if there are any glaring errors, I have to fix them (if you see any, don’t tell me).
The title comes from a lyric in Iggy Pop’s, Lust for Life. It seems fitting that a beauty queen would feel like he/she is worth a million in prizes. I mean it takes a certain amount of narcissism to enter a beauty pageant. Of course, there is no shortage of narcissism in the world today, especially in the USA. Everybody wants their 15 minutes, …not even, everybody wants lasting fame/Superstardom. Everybody wants to be famous for being famous. Thank you Kardashians, thank you Tick Tock, thank you Instagram, Snap Chat, thank you shitty pop music.
Medusa got pretty bleached out over the winter, so I gave her a make over for the summer.
Been working on this piece for a few days. Came together pretty quickly. What’s different about this piece is it’s a merging of the two main techniques I’ve been using for years, encaustic and oil painting. Using the two techniques actually isn’t new, I’ve been blending the two media for years, it’s the styles that I’ve been keeping separate. Oils painting is great for fine details, depth of field, rich layered color; it’s very specific. But encaustic, because of it’s physical properties, it’s usually less specific. It dries almost as soon as it hits the canvas, it’s thick, it’s textural, and to use it properly you have to re-melt it so it binds to the substrate and any other layers of encaustic wax that were already laid down. The re-melting makes it difficult to hold onto exact shapes, lines and forms, so encaustic frequently looks kind of blurry, dreamy, floaty. (There are ways around this if you want hard lines and shapes, but I’m not going to get into that, right now). So, what I did here was paint the detailed parts almost to completion in oil, blocked in the background, and then started working the encaustic over the oil base. The other reason I used encaustic is because it takes transfers very well. …transfers meaning, an image from a printer. The ink used in copiers and printers is essentially carbon in a plastic matrix, and if you rub it hard on encaustic, it sticks to it. The transfers are the next layer on this piece.
Transfers added 4/27
Another tarot card, this one you don’t particularly want in your reading. ….The Four of Cups Tarot Card can represent missed opportunities, remorse or regret. It can also signify becoming self-absorbed due to depression, negativity or apathy. The Four of Cups can indicate that you are feeling bored or disillusioned with your life, you may be focusing on the negative or feeling like the grass is greener on the other side….So, I may have over done it a bit here in the imagery, but I had the idea and you know, artistic license. The idea of wine pouring into the mouths of skulls fits well (in my mind) with missed opportunity, and of course in the distance is the greener grass.
Experimenting using india ink and graphite on vellum. Vellum is kind of a recent discovery for me. I mean, I knew of it, especially when I was doing a lot of printmaking. Some of the printmakers in the studio were really obsessed with paper, so I heard of vellum, …and cotton rag, and mulberry paper, and abaca, and Rives BFK and Arches and all the choices and lingo that is really kind of wonderful. I think those specific choices that artists make, the paper, ink, paint, ground, size, all of it, is what makes good art so special and individual.
Vellum was originally made from calf skin, but it is supposedly now made from cellulose, although I read that modern vellum has a plastic polymer added to it , so not recycle-able. However it is made, it is translucent and has a silky surface with a microfine tooth. It takes graphite wonderfully although it doesn’t adhered well so very smeary, kind of like a pastel. You have to fix a drawing on vellum with that nasty spray to get pencil to stay put. I’ve been lightly putting a final coat of thin matte medium over it which is tricky. You have to apply the matt medium in one stroke, the second stroke with smear the pencil. …..so this is weird information to know. My head of full of little factoid snippets. It’s a mess in there.
Both of these are mostly done. Really, many of my paintings I don’t consider “done”. I don’t even like to use the word ‘done’, sounds like I’m making roast beef. Usually, when I look at something I’ve done, I only see how it fails, how I can improve it…Unless it’s sat around for long enough. Artwork I’ve made that is 5 years old or more, I can actually look at objectively. It’s as if another person made it. When it’s ‘matured’, or possibly, I’ve matured or become a different person, I can look at it and see what is truly good or bad about it.
Hamlet mourns Yorick in the cemetary after his death. Yorick was the court jester from when Hamlet was a child, so Hamlet did know Yorick well. Later in the play, or it may be the same scene, I never actually read or saw Hamlet on the stage, (I know, my cultural upbringing has a lot of holes in it….but I know every Nine Inch Nails song), but later…Hamlet says, “To be or not to be, that is the question”, which is the very essence of the Memento Mori and Vanitas paintings. Life is fleeting, time is short and our worldly existence is temporary and possibly insignificant in the larger scheme of things, what ever scheme the Universe may be finagling .
The picture below was taken by my self of myself, while working on this new piece of a skeletal Beauty Queen moments after she is crowned most beautiful, the tiara on her head, the roses clutched against her bosom, and black bone dust streaming down from her hollow eyes. I already have a title for it, borrowed from Iggy Pop’s song, LUst for Life. There is a line in it that I always liked, “ I’m worth a million in prizes”, that’s the title.
