Quiet

I think...

Portrait of Watts within (shaped reality) 18" x 14" oil and acrylic on wood 

Shaped Reality

The internal is externalized in curious darkness.
The cave expands in distinct ways.
Absorbed in creative light, I see.

Portrait of Christine within (shaped reality) 24" x 20" oil on wood

Portrait of Valentine within (shaped reality) 22" x 25" oil on wood

Dentro

Don't look at the wall. Look through it.

Portrait of self within (shaped reality) 12" x 12" acrylic and oil on wood

Portrait of Darcy with inscape 12" x 17" mixed media

Expanding Thoughts

"When darkness is at its darkest, a star shines the brightest." ― Louise Phillippe

Portrait of Megan within (shaped reality) 14" x 10" oil on wood

Portrait of Trace within (shaped reality) 25" x 15" oil on wood

Thinking Space

“A good traveller is one who knows how to travel with the mind.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson

Portrait of Daniel within (shaped reality) 22" x 25" oil on wood

Seeing through

Looking out far to see inside yourself.

Jessie with skull of Canis dirus (shaped reality) 20"x 32" oil on wood

Inside Kelly (head study) 4"x 4" oil on wood

Inside Taylor (head study) 4"x 4" oil on wood

Inside

Through the dark. 

Inside my head.

Light penetrates deep.

Inside Kelly 8" x 10" mixed media

Inside Taylor 8" x 10" mixed media

Claire: inner space light 12" x 12"

Prisoner's Cinema

Deep into the cave
The interior search for illumination 
Time undefined  
Perceptual isolation

Progressive light show phenomenon

Vivid colorful consciousness

Prisoner's Cinema: Erik (self) 28" x 38" oil on wood

Prisoner's Cinema: Claire (#2) 31 7/8" x 50" oil on wood

Prisoner's Cinema: Amanda 33 6/8" x 39 5/8" oil on wood

Prisoner's Cinema

Prisoner's Cinema: Trace (#2) 23 1/2"x 43 7/8" oil on wood

Prisoner's Cinema: Jessie (#2) 32" x 35 7/8" oil on wood

Prisoner's Cinema: Mikey (#2) 36" x 40" oil on wood

More

"Everything is autobiographical, and everything is a portrait, even if it's a chair." ― Lucian Freud

Portrait of Time 13" x 19" mixed media on broken table

Inside Grindio (Self #2) 11"x 14" mixed media on a Trace canvas 

Together

What is painting?

Do you sense how all the parts of a good picture are involved with each other, not just placed side by side? Art is a creation for the eye and can only be hinted at with words. - John Baldessari

My friend and fellow artist, Trace Mendoza, gave me an old metal art box and these interesting surfaces that he had painted on over and over again. I did an oil study on one of the surfaces and placed it within said art box. Here is the resulting matter...

Noelle study in a Trace art box 7 1/2"x 13 1/2"x 6 1/2" mixed media

Taped Setting

The space around the figure is very interesting to me. I usually create an environment that's tactile and with perceived depth through shapes and the contrast of black and white tape.  Overlapping the figure with tape adds to the ambiguity of grounds (fore, middle, back). It suggests the in-between, like the very finite moment you are teetering between dreaming and waking up. Here, that reality is permanent.  

Claire with slight head motion in front of jutting light forms 12" x 16" mixed media on wood

Bert reconfigured 12" x 15 3/4" mixed media on wood

 

Tape Edit Part II

John (Tape Edit) 1:1
In the beginning was the Tape, and the Tape was with Human, and the Tape was Human...

Tochito (shorty) 12"x 19" mixed media on wood

Trace space 16"x 12" mixed media on wood

Bryce between perceptions  16"x 12" mixed media on wood

Tape Edit

Man looks in the abyss, there's nothing staring back at him. At that moment, man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss. ― Hal Holbrook 

I've been working on a series of mixed media portraits. For the most part, I use black/white tape, charcoal pencils, watercolor, and Mod Podge. The piece right below is the first of the series where tape started to take over my surfaces.

Mikey with void (revisited) 10 3/4"x 15" mixed media on paper glued onto masonite

 

Noelle with diagonal light form 11 3/4"x 19" mixed media on wood

 

Noelle with crystallizing light beam 12"x 16" mixed media on wood

Facind Paint 2011

The kind of audience that doesn’t spend the time to really look at a painting suffer from what David Perkins calls,  “audience impressionism”.  

Audience impressionism is a special case of that general problem with human cognition […]: hastiness-a disposition to reach a quick resolution driven by the rapid intuitive mechanisms of experiential intelligence.

Click to Enlare

  

Erik (self-portrait) 50"x 26" oil on wood

Erik (self-portrait) detail

Jessie 18"x 28" oil on wood

Mikey 18"x 28" oil on wood

Claire 11"x 14" oil on wood