Perpetual circle of creation...

It's been hard for me to get motivated to do my personal artwork, I know everyone has their own pace and schedule and responsibilities outside of art, but I feel like I should be producing more... It has been months since I've felt the interest to create anything new. I think part of that is due to my studio space and it's quirks. A lot of weird things have happened there which are completely beyond my control, since then the vibe hasn't been the same and I've lost my drive... I'm currently searching (with my studio mates) for a new space to reclaim my artistic sanity, right now things are a struggle.
I have been working a bit with Delton on one of his projects for Breckenridge Brewery, just a little woodwork and laser etching but I enjoy helping with technical parts of gigs, plus lasers are fun!



On other fronts, my day work is going great. I've been staying happy and productive at Demiurge, we are still doing "nail birds" along with other artists' projects around the country.


Work with my fabrication partner, Brian, is going well. We have completed our railing project for Common Grounds Coffee, a set of stair stringers for a private residence, a sign package for an office building in the Denver Tech Center, and another sign package for a new food establishment on 15th and Platte called eat+drink...

Oh yeah, we made a few things for the cooks at the new Squeaky Bean also!

Future things have almost become the present... Last week was the groundbreaking ceremony on the GreenBox property at 3310 Brighton Blvd, a Focus Propery Group project. That is where our 60ft public art wall will be installed! We had a chance to speak to the developers and contractors involved on the project, and we brought a sample of what our wall will look like and do...

 
Hard hats and neon vests were abundant, along with coffee and bagels... We can't wait to fabricate and install this piece!

 

So overall my productivity has been up, but I need more improvisational creation in the mix... I'm thankful for everything I have going for me right now, so I'll just keep pushing forward-

Updates

Hello folks! long time no see? I've been active online (mainly twitter), but blogging can be a pain sometimes... But my friends have been telling me it's time for an update.

First things first, I got a jobby job working at Demiurge, which some of you may or may not be familiar with. It's a sculptural metal fabrication outfit that has done some pretty awesome work in their days... I was hired during the second production of "nail birds" for New York artist, Will Ryman, and for my first month on the job I spent my days preparing thousands of nails for the bird. Here's me learning how to TIG weld...

 I don't think I have permission to post photos of what I do exactly but please feel free to do some research. It's really nice to work on art of this scale, although it's not mine with my name on it, this kind of creation keeps me satisfied during the day.

My studio (Studio 72!) mates and I made the decision it was time to get a bigger space in March. We stayed in the Wazee Union building, tripled our square footage, and have stayed extremely busy! Please come visit us on May 12th for our monthly Second Saturday's open studio night, we will have new work on display from Delton Demarest, Karma Leigh, Alexi High, Dan Castillo, Alex Tischner (no link), and myself.

I sold another large painting in Feb/March, one of the paintings (The Traveler) I originally created for the Rackhouse Pub when they opened their doors. "Beneath the Surface" which I previously thought had sold at the Heart Art Auction, did not sell because nobody paid for it at the end of the night... So that is still in my possession.

The Traveler

I created 10 new pieces for an April show at the Yellow Feather Coffee shop on Santa Fe. None of them caught anyones fancy, but I blame it on the lighting... I really just think the pieces were the wrong color for the walls.

@ Yellow Feather

Luckily I have a May show at The Laughing Latte which has different color walls and different lighting that are more complementary to the same work. I hate to recycle my pieces so quickly, but if they get seen more it can't be bad! I did begin working on a new series that was originally meant for Laughing Latte, but I found myself running into the same situation with wall colors not completenting the art and vice versa... I think I will start researching wall colors before creating art for a space to avoid this in the future. I feel color is more important to my work because it is abstract and not imediately accepted or relatable or whatever makes less abstract portraits fit in more places. I felt bad at first that I couldn't hang my newest piece up, but the fact is it was simply wrong for the environment, and I think it would disrupt their business.

Progress photo of the latest.  Acrylic, aerosol, and oil pastel on wood. (found object)

Cast iron border. (found object)

I showed it to a boutique in LoHi that was very interested to have it, and I posted photos on my FB page, and I'm pretty sure I sold it to one of my friends over the phone today!

The public art project (wall thing) that my fabrication partner (Brian) and I landed is beginning to pick up a bit of steam. We are working up color samples and material samples that will be used in the fabrication of the wall, they need to be presented to the client and to the city for approval and probably permitting. More on that when it goes down!

I have been busy making signs and fabricating other cool stuff with Brian, our latest clients are DVSN West, The Pour House, Rackhouse Pub, Arts Street, Go Lite, and AIS Industrial & Construction Supply... Please visit our website to see some of our older work: Monolith Fabrication Studio

Painted logo graphics on brick.

Other updates? I think my son may become a sculptor... After he's done conquering the world, of course! he likes to make things out of my scraps, pretty amazing things, so look out for him- 

Rusted steel and glass. 2"x2"x1/4" (found objects)

Thanks for visiting and sorry for the hiatus!

A title that means something

So I do abstract art, right? And it's hard to title abstract stuff, right? Well for the first time, the title of one of my paintings told me what my painting was about...

"Beneath the Surface"

I painted this almost two years ago, but for some reason last night I fully processed it's meaning... A journalist from BurnAfterReadingMag asked me about the piece and what it meant to me, all my abstract-ness aligned into words and I could suddenly describe the piece, to my own surprise! I have made conscious efforts to title my pieces with meaning, but I had no idea I had been successful.

To me the piece describes the heavy armor that an individual uses to shield themselves, a steel suit of coldness and exaggerated self. People don't want others to see their true self, their complexity, their vulnerability... It's easier for one to stay inside and let their hard shell take the abuse. In the painting, the shell is lifting up and away from the organic beauty that lies beneath, like a butterfly liberating itself from a cocoon. Bam!

Score!

Remember when I mentioned I was working on a concept for a public art piece in Denver? Well I just heard back from my partner Brian (@Monolith Fabrication Studio) that our concept won! I'm not quite sure when we will begin fabrication, but I would hope to start in the next few months...

The piece will be installed in front of a parking lot where headlight glare is a concern. The client wanted to solve the issue from an artistic approach; functional, pleasing to look at, recognizable. Our concept is a 60ft long wall that produces a low-fi animation (similar concept as a zeotrope) when driving by, and a static image when one stands still. Here's a few photos of the 1:5.6 scale concept:

^^^Detail of the business branding portion of the wall. Vector files were made to scale of the wall for pricing out our materials and also to laser-cut a bunch matboard to make a physical mockup... Lasers are fun btw!

^^^This is scaled down dramatically from what the real wall will be, but it's still 11ft long and tricky to move around. Shown here with red matboard to simulate rusted steel.

^^^Video cameras on skateboards... If I ever get it edited, I'll post it.

I wanted to thank all of my friends that encouraged me during this last month of agony figuring out the inner workings and research for this project... There's a lot more to this idea than I had originally imagined, but now it's one step closer to reality! Good job Brian!

My art at I♥DENVER store

Please support me and all of the local artists by shopping at the I♥DENVER Store. I have original pieces and prints for sale there now! The store is on 500 16th Street, second level of the Denver Pavilions, right behind H&M.

Wow... 2012

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted anything! Having a full-time job can make blogging difficult... I've been tweeting and all that other stuff, but taking the time to sit down and purge hasn't happened until now! So just to clarify, I don't have a job at the moment...

I spent the first half of December working with my girlfriend Jen on her holiday event at Kaze Gallery, home to painter/tattoo artist Sandi Calistro.

13 artists showed work: Alan Bader, Chris Huth, Delton Demarest, Karma Leigh, Lui Ferreyra, Magnet Mafia, Matthew Clark, Rafa Jenn, Sandi Calisro, Sandra Fettingis, Scot Lefavor, Zachary Kuhlman, and Myself. The show was extremely successful, $990 was raised for the local non-profit, Slow Food Denver.

I sold an individual piece and also a handful of Magnet Mafia magnets with Matt Feeney.

I spent a week or so working on magnets and producing the arist plaques for the show, which came out awesome! The plaques were made of old fence planks and smoke acrylic pieces, cut on a flatbed cnc router... Thanks again to Alexi High and my son.

We had some fancy grocery bags printed up for the show too, Delton Demarest did an awesome caricature of my girlfriend standing in front of the 16th Street bridge.

----

I have also been working with my fabrication partner, Brian Greer on developing concepts for a public art project, we recieved good feedback on our idea and we'll be presenting physical mockups this month... Fingers crossed, I'm ready to share my work on a large scale! For now the concept is a secret, if it gets a green light I'll post plenty of pics, I'll post pics even if it doesn't get approved.

The site is in the River North neighborhood, a little industrial, a little urban, a lot cool...

Check out more work that Brian and I have done: Monolith Fabrication Studio

----

I painted a mural for Root Yoga Center two summers ago, but they have expanded since then so I had the opportunity to paint an interior piece on their new studio door... It was pretty fun to remember how I painted the first mural, which is visible from the north side of the 16th Street bridge. I have also done all of the signage for both of their studios.

----

I feel like I'm forgetting something... Oh well, Happy New Year everyone! I hope it's a great year for all of us-

Found Paper on Skate Deck

It's been about 5 years since the last time I participated in a Shoe Shine event... I was indecisive on the visual content I wanted to create, I started with paint and texture, but I ended up with a paper collage. All of the paper I used consists of ad posters and security envelopes.
I reclaimed all of the ad posters from walls around town... The ad posters get tagged with graffiti, the city paints over the tags with a soothing shade of beige, and I take it off the wall. I try to let some colors of posters' past show through during my removal, which is also what I try to do with my re-creation, I give them new life. New life and no advertising value, I read a quote somewhere that I can't recall now, but it compliments the idea of creation without an audience.

I have made a handful of "found paper" collages that I really haven't spotlighted too much. I'm still working on making them more impactful in person, I think I need more topography, more paper...