I worked on another version of my Corset Girl. Through work, I have access to large advertising posters (about 5ft x 10ft or so). We get them fairly frequently, and after a season or so, they are usually cut apart and discarded. They are CMYK printed on a very heavyweight cardstock- almost the equivalent of a double-thick illustration board (oooo ahhhhh). Recently I've started taking a few of these cropped smaller pieces with me after they've been properly cut apart. On the right, is the first use of it. The board is 16x20 inches. I used white latex house paint and a cork from a wine bottle to block out areas of the background surface.
Other than that, a few things have sold... the Sepsis / Malevolence / Contusion signpost series was sold and is going to live in LA. That's the third piece of art that I've sold to a resident of LA- weird. It also looks like the first painting in the semi-abandoned faerie painting series will be going to Melbourne, AUS. Cool.
Posted at 10:03 PM on Thursday, February 24, 2005
There are a few weeks a year at work where it's gets too hectic to really work on art. I get home and I'm just too tired. This was one of those weeks.
Here's something that I put together at the end of last week. I'm sure tough guy John Wayne never wore a scrap of pink in his life. Now he has. On 12" vinyl.
There are a few weeks a year at work where it's gets too hectic to really work on art. I get home and I'm just too tired. This was one of those weeks. Here's something that I put together at the end of last week. I'm sure tough guy John Wayne never wore a scrap of pink in his life. Now he has. On 12" vinyl.
Posted at 4:57 PM on Saturday, February 19, 2005
So right, on with it then... This piece turned out to be a 6 layer. If you'd like to see some more process shots, here's the first and after that here it is in state 2 of 6. Another feature of this particular piece had a lot of very small cuts. It started to drive me nuts at times so I had to take a few breaks while cutting the overlapping layers within the corset. There are also a few tiny straight lines within the corset that were fun to cut as well. This is definitely my most detailed stencil to date and my most 'complete' piece so far. But that's to be expected as I get more of a handle on this stenciling thing right? I'm definitely getting more and more into the backgrounds which was always the intent. I felt that I had to figure out how to confidently construct a solid 'main image' from stencils before worrying about the backdrop. Why? Well because the backdrop isn't any sort of a departure from the ideas I'd been interested in prior to discovering stenciling.
An illustrative image combined with visible process, or layers deconstructed and left evident for the viewer to take in (or not). Meaning: it's there and evident if you're interested in such things, but if you're not, the background is still layered and interesting as is the piece overall. That and using found / interesting / built-up substrates, too.
The piece was really designed around the shape of the drawers. When mirrored adjacent to each other, the drawers created a 'keyhole' type space in the center of the frame. I worked the figure so that it might appear that she was looking over / toward this space. I decided to include the text from the current (and abandoned) community project theme on StencilRev: "they made me do it". [btw, for these projects, a theme is voted upon by the regular artists on the site, they then create a stencil designed around the idea- this one was dead in the water though.]
The text can be removed so that the figure is looking into an open void, or the text can be replaced to say something else entirely. Anyhow, this piece on it's way to the Melbourne StencilFest along with that red-alligator-skin screamer... I'll let you know what happens and if the Aussies like 'em.
Other than that, I got in a fight with an abandoned kitchen chair... obviously I won.
So right, on with it then... This piece turned out to be a 6 layer. If you'd like to see some more process shots, here's the first and after that here it is in state 2 of 6. Another feature of this particular piece had a lot of very small cuts. It started to drive me nuts at times so I had to take a few breaks while cutting the overlapping layers within the corset. There are also a few tiny straight lines within the corset that were fun to cut as well. This is definitely my most detailed stencil to date and my most 'complete' piece so far. But that's to be expected as I get more of a handle on this stenciling thing right? I'm definitely getting more and more into the backgrounds which was always the intent. I felt that I had to figure out how to confidently construct a solid 'main image' from stencils before worrying about the backdrop. Why? Well because the backdrop isn't any sort of a departure from the ideas I'd been interested in prior to discovering stenciling.An illustrative image combined with visible process, or layers deconstructed and left evident for the viewer to take in (or not). Meaning: it's there and evident if you're interested in such things, but if you're not, the background is still layered and interesting as is the piece overall. That and using found / interesting / built-up substrates, too.
The piece was really designed around the shape of the drawers. When mirrored adjacent to each other, the drawers created a 'keyhole' type space in the center of the frame. I worked the figure so that it might appear that she was looking over / toward this space. I decided to include the text from the current (and abandoned) community project theme on StencilRev: "they made me do it". [btw, for these projects, a theme is voted upon by the regular artists on the site, they then create a stencil designed around the idea- this one was dead in the water though.]
The text can be removed so that the figure is looking into an open void, or the text can be replaced to say something else entirely. Anyhow, this piece on it's way to the Melbourne StencilFest along with that red-alligator-skin screamer... I'll let you know what happens and if the Aussies like 'em.
Other than that, I got in a fight with an abandoned kitchen chair... obviously I won.
Posted at 9:25 PM on Thursday, February 10, 2005
Did you know that Melbourne is pretty much the stencil mecca of the world? Well now you do. There's more street art in Melbourne than NY or San Francisco, possibly even both combined. Stenciling isn't viewed as graffiti- street art is recognized as being something quite different. Which isn't to say that it's legal to walk up to any wall and spray a stencil, though there are a lot of areas where you can paint in the day and not be bothered. These aren't legal areas per se, they're just places where it isn't enforced as much. And from what I can tell, there are quite a lot of these spots.
In any case, there's a stencil festival that happens in Melbourne each year. It's a two week long curated show featuring the 'best of the best' international stencil artists. This year there's also a component that features black-and-white paste-ups from Melbourne's best pastie artists and there's also an open exhibition. So this week I worked on putting together two submissions for that exhibition.
My first project of the week was done on cardboard with a finish that looks like red alligator skin. Mmmmm,hmmmm. It's another version of the shadows / screamer piece (16" x 6.5").I scratched away some of the red surface to create the rays as I'd done on earlier versions of this piece.
The second piece is a new design. I guess this piece began when I came across two discarded drawers in an alley- I threw them into the bed of my truck and began thinking about what to use them for. Eventually I knocked apart the drawers so that I had 5 separate pieces: the three side walls, the front wall with handle and the wooden bottom. The drawer bottoms were made of a very thin pieces of cheap wood and both were warped and useless. [I came across the drawers the before the first significant snowfall of the season and drove around with them in the bed of my truck through that and the second snow = partially warped.]
I ended up coming with a stencil based around the shapes of the back walls of the drawers. I started by masking off a shape in the lower right-hand corner laying down a layer of a rather intense maroon (as you can see up there on the right). After that I cut a 'puzzle shaped' mask out of orange sticker paper, stuck that onto my base coat and laid down a solid blended coat of semi-gloss black and gloss maroon. Yup.
I've got more stenciling to do now so I can get these out on their way to Melbourne. So that's it for now... but before I go here's a pic of one my Binary Bot stickers on a trash can in Villa Velha, Brazil!
In any case, there's a stencil festival that happens in Melbourne each year. It's a two week long curated show featuring the 'best of the best' international stencil artists. This year there's also a component that features black-and-white paste-ups from Melbourne's best pastie artists and there's also an open exhibition. So this week I worked on putting together two submissions for that exhibition.
My first project of the week was done on cardboard with a finish that looks like red alligator skin. Mmmmm,hmmmm. It's another version of the shadows / screamer piece (16" x 6.5").I scratched away some of the red surface to create the rays as I'd done on earlier versions of this piece.
The second piece is a new design. I guess this piece began when I came across two discarded drawers in an alley- I threw them into the bed of my truck and began thinking about what to use them for. Eventually I knocked apart the drawers so that I had 5 separate pieces: the three side walls, the front wall with handle and the wooden bottom. The drawer bottoms were made of a very thin pieces of cheap wood and both were warped and useless. [I came across the drawers the before the first significant snowfall of the season and drove around with them in the bed of my truck through that and the second snow = partially warped.]
I ended up coming with a stencil based around the shapes of the back walls of the drawers. I started by masking off a shape in the lower right-hand corner laying down a layer of a rather intense maroon (as you can see up there on the right). After that I cut a 'puzzle shaped' mask out of orange sticker paper, stuck that onto my base coat and laid down a solid blended coat of semi-gloss black and gloss maroon. Yup.
I've got more stenciling to do now so I can get these out on their way to Melbourne. So that's it for now... but before I go here's a pic of one my Binary Bot stickers on a trash can in Villa Velha, Brazil!