Day 322

I was ready for something completely different today. I felt like I've been so reliant on either pencils or pens, that I've fallen into a bit of a rut with the project. So today, while my students worked on their own projects and I lamented the absence of my computer which prevented me from doing any office work, I decided to work on my self-portrait.

I discovered a small 4x4 inch wood panel that I had primed a couple months ago. So I grabbed a couple pencils and started off to work...

Wait a minute!! I thought I was trying to break out of a rut! Pencil would've created a nice effect on that surface, but it wasn't different enough.

So, I grabbed a starburst-shaped stencil that I had cut two or three years ago and a couple cans of spray paint to create a background. Then it was time for some acrylic paint . . . but no realistic colors!!

All in all, I had a lot of fun making this self-portrait. I have a thought about what it means to me personally, but after giving so much explanation yesterday, I think I'll let the image speak for itself this time...

#322 September 7, 2011,  Spray paint and acrylic on wood panel
Sounds: Butch Walker & the Black Widows, The Spade

Day 43

A couple days ago, I had a good time reworking an idea from a painting of mine - so much that I decided to do it with another one!

A few years ago, I did a painting called "An Unwinnable Situation," in which a person is precariously balanced on a tightrope with a seemingly endless drop below. The end of the rope was on fire and the walker was being attacked by blackbirds. Obviously the idea was altered slightly in this image - which is much more whimsical - but the idea behind it is the same.

I think that in a lot of cases people really want someone else to fail at whatever endeavor they are working towards, and sometimes all of the negative aspects make a person feel like they can't "win" at all. Perhaps it's a job, or a relationship, or a project that's maybe a little outside the norm. Who knows, it could be that this perceived expectation of failure is nothing more than a person's fear of trying something new or different for themself. What I do know is that is sure is fun proving people like this wrong...

#43 December 2, 2010, Spray paint collage
Sounds: Son Volt, Retrospective: 1995-2000

Day 23

This portrait is obviously a continuation of yesterday's thought. I was enjoying the self-portrait that I had made and reflecting on my comments that accompanied it, and I was moved to make a similar image for today. As I said previously, one of the benefits of cutting a stencil is that it can be re-used many times over. I had already cut stencils of Abraham Lincoln and Conway Twitty (as well as Fonzie, Venus Flytrap, and Johnny Nogarelli . . . if you know your pop culture!), so I figured that I should use those again for a self-portrait!

For the record, those stencils were cut for a series that I completed entitled "The Purveyors of Cool." The image of Abraham Lincoln, despite all of his greatness as an American president, has become somewhat kitsch; and all of those other guys? Well, they're cool in a very strangely uncool way!

#23 November 12, 2010,  Spray paint and acrylic
Sounds: Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits

Day 22

This portrait is quite different from any of the others thus far...the creation of the actual artwork itself took less than 15 minutes. However, it's worth mentioning that the preparation work for this piece took approximately two hours!

A couple years ago, I really got into the art of Shepard Fairey. For those that don't recognize the name, he's the guy that created the famous Barack Obama "Hope" image. It was at that time that I began experimenting with hand-cut stencils and spray paint - the paintings that I created at the time were what I called "diversion pieces" that kept me occupied while I was on a creative slump with my usual painting style. I discovered that while the process of cutting the stencils was extremely tedious, the ultimate results were pretty fun and made some interesting images.

A nice side benefit is that the stencils can be re-used over and over, which makes the process a little more bearable. The ghost image on the upper right was made by shifting the stencil and lightly misting the painting with some white spray paint.

#22 November 11, 2010,  Spray paint and acrylic on bristol board

Day 19

When it comes to art-making, I've always been a traditionalist. In fact, I've recently spent a lot of time attempting to break the bonds of "plain-ness" and take chances with new materials, either on their own or in conjunction with others. The mediums I used today, while they are very common, are not generally used together to create portraits. And I think it goes without saying that the visual is quite different from what I've been producing in this series.

This process all began about a year ago when one of my students and I were discussing how it was very difficult for each of us to create abstract art, given our natural proclivity to produce realism. After a long conversation, we challenged each other to work in a looser, more non-representational manner. The good news is that we were each relatively successful with our results, and we each felt an artistic burden lifted from our shoulders!

For me, "the self-portrait project" has many reasons and purposes. Of course, by repetition I would expect for my drawing skills to grow exponentially. On the other hand - and perhaps more importantly - I'm excited to see what possibilities I can discover as the project develops...

#19 November 8, 2010,  Spray paint, Sharpie markers, watercolor
Sounds: Duran Duran, Decade: Greatest Hits

Day 14

I am absolutely fascinated by what some artists can do with a can of spray paint. I've used the medium several times with varying degrees of success, and I certainly plan to use it many more times as this project continues. For today's portrait, I simply used it as a means to create a very quick and loose background.

One thing that was interesting about today's art-making process is that I was actually quite frustrated with my artwork at one point. In fact, I was so irritated that I actually swiped my hand across the wet paint on the face and smeared it! At that moment, it seemed as though I had a new lease on the portrait - that I could do whatever I liked because the artwork was already "ruined" and I was sure that I would actually start again on a different artwork. Sometimes an artist is so worried that they'll "mess up" on a project that they're afraid to take any chances on it. Since I believed that this portrait was already a lost cause, I had no problem experimenting with technique, color, style, etc. In the end, it was that experimentation that led to a fairly decent work of art.

#14 November 3, 2010,  Spray paint and acrylic on bristol board
Sounds: Chris Whitley, Living With the Law

Day 8

Other than my art and the people closest to me, the one thing that has consumed much of my time in the past several months has been running. In fact, in this calendar year alone, I have ran more miles than I have at any time in the past. I thought it was fitting to document that passion in at least one of my self-portraits.

This portrait also marks a huge departure from the previous works in this project. It's obviously the first one in color, and it is the first in which I intentionally went abstract. For inspiration I looked to one of my favorite sources: the illustrations in childrens books. In this case, I specifically looked at the work of someone I consider to be one of the best: Jon Scieszka. While my finished product is really nothing like his illustrations, sometimes it's nice to look at other artists' work, just to have a place to start.

#8 October 28, 2010,  Mixed media (spray paint, acrylic, collaged items) on bristol board
Sounds: The Dead Milkmen, Death Rides a Pale Cow: Greatest Hits