exploring by way of a series

 

sometimes you dont know where you're going until you get there...

the past few days i've been exploring ritual masks of various cultural groups--

african, mexican, american -- first nations...  and thinking about the transformative power

of something hand made that took a dancer or shaman and assisted them in transcending

from the day to day world to a more magical spiritual realm...  i hope to capture a taste

of that ritual magic in my work and bring it back to our day to day lives.

images here of recent carved block and silk screen images in progress

sometimes i wonder how many little blocks will i have to carve before i am done with a topic.

sometimes you're never done and you revisit that imagery over and over for years not realizing the deeper theme but just following where the inspiration leads you.

sometimes exploring art is really you exploring yourself.

sometimes it is just fun to make things that look really dang cool.

just keep working, you'll know when you get there.

art is dead

i can tell you as an artist, sometimes all we think about is marketing, merchandising, competing, deadlines, applications, displays, selling, trying to make a living...  when you create in this mind set it can kill the very essence of what makes art art... a lucky few come naturally to a style that people can't get enough of and their needs merge seamlessly.  others have a patron supporting them removing that financial burden. the rest of us have day jobs and use what time we have left over to create whatever it is we're moved to make, helping to keep the art pure and unsullied by commercial appeal.  for the true artist art is often a compulsion, that drive to express and bring to reality some strange vision. this is the soul of living breathing art.  keep art alive. buy art. and make what you feel.
this keeps it more interesting for everyone- viewers, creators, all.

Carved Grotesques

current series of gargoyle inspired block prints and stamps

I've had a long running fascination with gargoyles: when I was young I watched the animated cartoon series on television and as an adult I've taken photos of "carved grotesques" (as they are also known--which totally fits the idea of my block prints perfectly!) wherever I have had the fortune to find them.  While I  knew the function of most gargoyles (serving, in addition to mere ornamentation, as a downspout for rain water to keep buildings from damage)  I only recently read of the practice of using anthropomorphized creatures on buildings (especially churches) to assist in converting Pagans to Christianity...  because in medieval times creatures had been attributed various mystical powers... and so these creatures were carved and have adorned public spaces for years, even centuries... and now I come along to continue the legacy in my small way, conveying my own perspective on them. As I'm coming to realize, these themes we use as artists are deep rooted and repeat without our always being aware of it.  I guess I am still that grade schooler loving the dark mystery of watchful sentries hovering above...

tower of london

miller and paine building lincoln nebraska

near mirror lake st petersburg florida

 

 

 

 

 

cemetery near dublin, ireland

state theater st petersburg florida

gargoyle screen print on shirts

when i see this, i make this

I recently spent a weekend in Palm Beach/West Palm Beach for an art event and was amazed by the hedges and shrubbery walls in use. It gave everything such a green lush yet private feel. And it reminded me of my love of strange topiary.  A good friend lives near a house with one monolithic shrub out front that the owner must pass thru to enter the front door. It seems magical like Edward Scissorhands was there.  If only....