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-

October Catch Up

Having a full-time job again has been good... I can pay bills, buy food and gas, etc. without so much worry.  I haven't been blogging lately, but I've been actively Tweeting when I have a quick thought.

At the beginning of the month, I had the opportunity to submit artwork designs to Tyler Coomes aka Tycoon, he is a music producer on Dr. Dre's Aftermath label... Tycoon released "The Dark Side of Tycoon" (my last blog post), an album based on audio samples from Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." I drew up a few concepts for the cover art, all playing off of Pink Floyd's original artwork.

^^^This concept has the prism being wrapped with audio cables of various sizes (all black of course) and audio cables matching the colors of the rainbow exiting out.

^^^This one has replaced the prism with an MPC machine, which many beat producers have used over the years (a staple instrument in the hip hop biz), rainbow light or audio cables shooting out as before.

My concepts didn't make the cut...  Either one of these would have been fresh to create for the album, I still plan on making the first concept into a piece in the future, just for me~

The Bogeyman artshow (10-6-2011) at the MAC SPA was fun, it was my first time to show with Eric Matelski, an artist and friend that has been promoting 100+ artshows each year for the last 5 years...

The space looked great and Eric was grilling up fajitas for the patrons.
I didn't get a chance to meet Stan Yan, but I was still highly entertained by his illustrations, my favorite indeed!

Good times~

My studio-mate Delton invited me to help him bomb/tag a lobby for a wine tasting and release party. Infinite Monkey Theorem is a Denver-based winery, they just released their line of keg-wine called "Monkey Shine," a witty spin-off of the alcohol, moon shine...

We painted for 8 hours in the fumed out room, tags over tags over tags, multiple colors and styles gave the room an urban feel. Delton spent most of his time painting IMT's Monkey logo as the centerpiece to the madness...

The party was the following night of the Bogeyman show, on the rooftop of the historic "Ghost Building" on 18th and Stout in Denver, the cops stopped by a couple times so IMT was doing something right!

People were drinking wine out of mason jars in the spirit of the Prohibition days~
Last but not least for October, Delton and I came together on our first real collaborative art piece in two years! We rocked a Nintendo Entertainment System and converted it into a custom wall-mount arcade.

The finished piece consists of a CNC-routed acrylic cabinet, aluminum, MDF, flatscreen tv, and of course and original NES unit. Painted by Delton, and assembled by me. The unit was part of an 8-bit inspired artshow at Family Affair on Larimer Street in Denver. Please visit my Flickr page to see the piece built from start to finish. Thanks to Alexi for assisting us in the CNC-router department!

Delton and I have been discussing the rebranding of Broken Bread Arts, which we are going to be turning into Studio 72, this arcade unit is just the beginning of our collaborative efforts...  Stay tuned, and happy Halloween!

Plein Air

I went on a field trip with Delton yesterday and tried my hand at plein air painting...  It was sort of like live painting at events, with people all around asking you what you're doing or telling stories of their art experiences, but it's different.  I'm used to doing abstract work, but I really wanted to try to translate what I saw into something tangible yesterday...  Painting next to Delton makes my work looks like child's play, but I'll continue painting with him because it will only help.  Today is the last day of the Denver Plein Air Arts Festival hosted by the Golden Triangle Museum District, I'm not sure if I should get my piece stamped and try to submit it into the competition, I would rather submit an abstract...  Maybe I need another board to paint!