The Rebuild

Ancient Egypt Comes to Reno

2011-08-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

Here in Northern Nevada, we a re very lucky to have the Nevada Museum of Art, in Reno.
The NMA's most recent special exhibit is a collection of Ancient Egyptian Artifacts from the Brooklyn Museum.
The exhibit here is called, "To Live Forever," and focuses on artifacts primarily related to preparations for and regarding, the after life. It is a very worthwhile exhibit to see, and the kids love it! There are kids activities and art sessions scheduled throughout the exhibit's time here in Reno. There are guided tours, and informational sessions as well. You should check it out. I did. Here is the NMA's page so that you can plan and schedule your visit:
Nevada Museum of Art: Special Exhibits-To Live Forever

In partial correlation, the costumed figure painting class that we are taking had a great Egyptian-esque model this week, Rick.
Kohl make up and all, he did a great job!

Here's my painting:

As you know, it's Gouache, and was a 3 hour session. I always debate about going back and finishing a painting from a live session like this. I'm not sure why, I guess I could. Any thoughts?

Here's a detail of his(Rick) face and collar. I really love gouache. Love love love. I do need to wash out all my jars though. maybe I'll do that before our next session.

Costume Class Session 1 at the Nevada Museum of Art

2011-08-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

On Monday nights from 6pm-9pm the Nevada Museum of Art School hosts the Costumed Figure Painting Class. This class is awesome! Our costume from last week was a Plantation Dress/Gown from the Civil War period. It was made as a direct copy of a dress in a museum.

I painted.

Tonight will be session 2. Can't wait to see what our model/costume will be tonight.

In which I actually paint something. really.

2011-07-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

See, I knew you wouldn't believe me.

I painted this weekend. With OTHER PEOPLE! Actually with several OIL painters. I was the one using gouache. Go figure. A friend of ours here in the NV/CA area had an Arte Al Fresco Day. We all got together and painted from a fantastic model, Carolyn. She does period costuming, and man is she great! She also coordinates the models for the Nevada Museum of Art's Costumed Figure class, which is instructed by Jerry Stinson(also awesome.)

It was a quiet eight hour day, lunch was had, wine was had, and lots of great painting time was had. I am apparently deep in though in the above shot, most secretively captured mid painting by my dear Andrew. My brain was really tired after the whole day making art. So much thinking goes on. Color, lighting, relationships, and then the whole nature of painting itself.

As you can see, Jerry was very conscientious of our model's needs. It is the High Sierra, after all, and the sun is the SUN up here. How on Earth is she holding up that parasol for 8 hours, you ask? She's using a shooting stick for hunting to rest the back edge of the parasol on. Genius! What did I tell you? She's a professional.

So, I painted, and we chatted, and I had quite possibly the best art experience in a long time!

Oh, and uh, here's what I've got so far, just in case you wanted to see.

Thanks, Jerry and Karen and Carolyn, who made it all possible!

Upon us

2011-06-04T09:50:00.000-07:00

Well, honestly, I can't believe that it's June, again. And when it's June that signals the end of the school year for we who are teachers. This year, the end of the year, it kind of sucks, because we've ended up with a budget shortfall/crisis/cluster in our great Silver State of Nevada. Our governor has decided that one of the areas to cut is education. For example, UNR is cutting their budget 49.8%. Aw, no big deal, right? That's only like, what, 72,000,000 dollars? Suck it up UNR. I'm sure you'll still be able to complete with the 1000 other colleges that students consider. Oh... wait.. How many degrees of study and departments have you had to cut?....

It the pre-secondary arena, I have been lucky enough, because really, luck and seniority are all that save us right now, to remain, so far, the Art and Design Educator at my school. They tell us there could be more cuts in July, so who knows how long my little harbor will last. It's not really something I feel that I can worry about though, because I have no real control over it. And I think, that at this point, if my position got cut, I think I'd go do something else other than teach. Not because I don't enjoy teaching, or think that it's important.

I think that I can understand how cuts happen, and the fact that everyone needs to work together to make it work. Somehow, it just feels like a playground brawl. No, it's your fault, nuh-uh it's YOUR fault! And nothing really gets done about the problem, because we're all looking for someone to blame. hmm.. Sound familiar? How about we type in... witch hunt or blame game into google search. So, my point is that this is nothing new to humanity. It is quite possibly/probably human nature.

Some people blame one party, or the other, or one representative, faction, union, or conglomerate or another. In the end though, it's our future that will suffer, and we are all to blame. But there is another even more important part of human nature, working together to solve a problem. And it is one of our greatest strengths as a species, and without it, our goals all just fall apart. How about we use THAT trait instead, eh?

Sketchbook from Julyish a few pages

2010-08-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Two WIP

2010-04-05T17:24:00.001-07:00

Cut paper and gouache. (coloraid, that is.)

Funny Faces

2010-02-18T18:33:00.000-08:00

Play time.

2010-02-18T18:13:00.000-08:00

Playing with ColorAid and Caran D'ache.

Sorry for the funky lighting in the bottom ones.

Catalogues

2009-11-20T08:47:00.000-08:00

So I just got the new CalArts grad catalogue for Film, which includes info on the character animation program, and experimental animation program, both of which I am very interested in. Not much information on courses in the books, but lots of lists. These are the professors. These are some alumni. Ooh, look, pretty! Not much for student work, i.e. stills.

Ah, the age of computers. Guess I have to do the internet shuffle to look at my schools in more depth.

The other day, when I told my mom, that I wanted to go back to school for an MFA, she said, "Why? Wasn't that RISD's job to prepare you to go out into the world and make a living making art?"

You see, I am an art educator, not a full time artist. And I know deep down, somewhere, my mom wanted me to be "bigger" than that. I know that she's proud of me, but she did say, when I was accepted into the MAT program, "Oh, that's great, just your father and I had such higher hopes for your future." I know she's proud, don't get me wrong, teachers, in her eyes are pretty close to the top of the totem pole.

Anyways.

RISD, you didn't fail me.
RISD, you sent me out into the world to be me.
To take risks, chances, and to put more creativity, communication design and art into this world.

Every day I teach 200 kids how to communicate with art.

Every year I teach 800 kids how to see, write about, think about, and create art.

I think that's pretty rad.

Sure, I want to make more art for a living. Sure, I want to have a career where I go to work, to make art.

But damn, there's something amazing about having 34 12-year-olds all MAKING stuff.

There's an energy in a classroom, working on a project, it's like sitting under high wires with head gear, I think, it hums.

And I love it.

So, you see, RISD, I'm in no way not on the path I want to be. I just took a detour to Nevada, to work at a school I love working at, with kids that need me maybe almost as much as I need them.

I love detours.

new Urt.

2009-11-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

Color, color, everywhere.

2009-10-18T19:47:00.000-07:00

With the start of the school year I have remembered how much a a procrastinator I am. *sigh*

Hey, at least I've decided I want to go back to school.
Hey, at least I've decided I want to make art for a living.
BTW, I am going to work to do colorscripting. :P

Holy cow, I'm out of practice. So. I have decided to create a color sequence of images for a story, as if I were working on a film project.

So far I have determined the story, it is Froggy Went a Courtin' as sung by Bruce Springsteen on his album We Shall Overcome, the Seeger Sessions. I will be using a Sierra Nevada Mining Culture theme. All the animals will be representations of the fauna found here in Sierra Nevada.

This is my assignment for myself.

This week, my agenda is:
Monday: Design Froggies
Tuesday: Design Miss Mouse
Wednesday: Draw the layout of the community of Froggy and Miss Mouse.
Thursday: Research Mining towns, ghost towns and Tonopah.
Friday: Sketch Mining Equipment and Miners.

I will try to post as often as I can.

website up and a-running!

2009-08-04T22:56:00.000-07:00

SQUIDARTME!

click above to see the new site!

wow. about time I updated the portfolio site!!! woo haa!!
Please drop me a line and tell me what you think. I sat down to relearn the new flash in CS3.. then to try dreamweaver. Yeah, so I made it in Iweb.

I love my Mac.

a little comic

2009-07-28T15:14:00.001-07:00

made for the random words art challuunge blog.
You can join in the fun here: http://randomwordsartchalluunge.blogspot.com/

Quillow!

2009-07-28T13:39:00.001-07:00

I spent 5 days making this quillow that folds into a peace pillow from a blanket sized quilt.

1 year mark....set....wait?...GO!

2009-06-10T13:52:00.001-07:00

So, we are 1 year into the 3 year plan to get up and out of Nevada and back to making art full time. it's not that I don't enjoy teaching, it's just that I want to be able to do it as a side thing, instead of the main thing.
So, I have been instructed to decide exactly what it is I want to do with my life.

Now, I find this to be a very daunting question.
So I started going back into the annals of my life to try and figure it out.

Wow, that was interesting.
I am going to be painting each day. Because I've realized/decided that what I love is color.
So, for now we're going to go with that. Whew.
Two years to get up onto feet that haven't held me since my senior year of undergrad, that's a little scary.
But nothing's worth doing unless it's a little scary... right?..

I LIED.

2009-06-01T23:09:00.000-07:00

Here are some more.

Drawrin' Class

2009-06-01T23:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a few, I'll post more laters.;)

Octopus.

2009-02-13T16:34:00.000-08:00

Here is a painting. I think the photo is kind of bad, but, I really wanted to post it, and didn't have the patience to have A help me with his mad photo skillz, because he was at work. sigh. oh well.
It's gouache.

Our new neighbors

2009-02-13T16:31:00.000-08:00

A young pair of Great Horned Owls.
We hear them at night calling to each other, and this is a rather blurred image of one on top of our local half-pine tree.

Ink?

2008-12-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

Just pencil for now, needs some refining, but it's my next addition to my permanent canvas.

New Work!

2008-11-30T00:44:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a while in coming around, but I finally have another finished piece to post.
Thanks be to those of you who've been bugging me about posting!
This is a piece in gouache, it's about 15x22." Took me about....10 hours with breaks.

The color has a bit of a hotspot because we photographed it on the table instead of a stand with better lights.
However.
It's an Opilio Crab(mostly, except for the front claw), and his/her view from the bottom of the ocean, more of a dream perspective. After all, wouldn't any deep sea crab dream of mobility?
(Can you guess my favorite channel is the discovery channel? I stocked up on Deadliest Catch this week with their marathon.)

Let me know what you think.

Chambered Nautilus!!!

2008-09-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

I painted this today in two sittings. From start to finish. Gouache, took about 6 hours.
WOo Hoo!

Just a RES

2008-09-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

Made this, gouache. At least it's a start.

Here we go.

2008-09-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

My goal is to post a new piece, finished, each week.
The only one who will lose if I don't, is me.