Art Progress

Emily’s Notebook

5 X 7.5 X 1.25”
Mixed media, acrylic, and collage on panels; antique buttons; waxed linen; and paper.

I made this book for my wife. She is a professional harpist so I wanted to create a playful image reminiscent of music in general and harps in particular.

Notebook 1

7 X 6 X 1.25”
Graphite, acrylic, and collage on panel; wood; ink; paper; and waxed linen

The cover of this blank book s a subtle exercise of tone and finish. As with much that lies on the art/craft border it’s hard to get a real sense of the pleasure of a piece like this without holing it and feeling the weight and texture of it. Still the two details give a little sense of the direction of the book.

Sketchbook 2004

6 X 8.5 X 1”
Mixed media, acrylic and collage on wood panels.

Not a whole lot to explain. I made this book to use for sketching ideas and tracking progress. The numbers are the first 10000 decimal places after pi (or maybe only the first 7500). They were printed using a font generated from my handwriting. The palate swatches were from a bad print of something for a costume design project I’m working on. The head is intended to make people think of a Mozart-like musician and there’s a little cut out from some catalog that continues the musical theme.

The colors and images were meant to be compelling but not necessarily comfortable. That’s what the drawing process is like for me.

The details showcase the numbers and the waxed linen that holds the signatures in place.

As a bonus, here’s an image and detail of the sketch book it replaces.

Yesterdays Vine

8.5 X 11.25”
mixed media, collage, comic book panels, and acrylic on paper
(previously Progress 001)

Yesterdays wine is an edgy work that examines the influence that comic books have had on my art work. When I was first introduced to Comic books they were a kind of rubiyat for me – a joyful expression of the relationship between text and image.

I’m not as optimistic about the potential of comic books as I used to be and that comes through in the work. There’s also a little cautionary theme about the attractiveness of violence in this work.

ARC Structures

7 X 9.5
mixed media, collage and acrylic on paper

This work is an exercise in subtlety. Fairly tight geometric drawing is layered with other mark-making structures including handwriting. The contrast of tight and loose was intended as a statement about the paradoxical nature of linguistic definition.

I was particularly pleased with the extremely subtle color and texture that I achieved. I don’t know if it comes across well in these small JPGs but the details should hint at it at least.

The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection

By Robert Farrar Capon

Note: my copy was from a local library but a more recent version can be found here.

Capon is a dietary iconoclast. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The Supper of the Lamb is a cookbook in roughly the same way that Moby Dick is a book on whaling.

His assertion of the value of real objects is refreshing. More important is his meditation on the synthesis of priest and sacrifice (or lion and lamb) found in the paradoxical person of Jesus Christ. He would, I’m sure, disparage my comparison of this to a Hegelian triad but I think the description is fitting.

I disagree with his position on wine but even at that I can’t disagree with most of his reasons for his position. Nether do I think we would see eye to eye on some doctrinal positions. Still, the book, while maintaining a highly entertaining flow or meandering of thoughts, lead me to think of eating and food in a more Christ centered way.

Cyrano Tree Design

7 X 11”
Acrylic and graphite on paper

Here is a rendering that I just finished for a tree to be used in the November 17-20 production of Cyrano de Bergerac (http://www.bju.edu/events/finearts/calendar).

I used graphite and acrylic medium for all the darks.

Finished Greenville Pieces

Acrylics, Toner, graphite, and collage on wood panel boxes.
7 X 11 X 1.75” each

Here are the Greenville-SC-inspired finished works. They each deal with an aspect of Greenville’s past and future.

Greenville 1

“Greenville 1” combines photos of two angles the old family courthouse that was recently renovated by Design Strategies. This is a great example of the power of design in revitalization. Design strategies has preserved the beauty of the old architecture while making use of an essentially derelict building.

I’ve combined these photographs with images and painting that focus on mathematical design and its potential for preservation of the past as well as construction of the future.

Greenville 2

This work is really about history. From long past handwriting to a more recent Greenville parking garage. Sometimes it’s hard to think of more recent things in a historical perspective. New buildings are constructed, sometimes without regard for their future impact.

Greenville 3

“Greenville 3” focuses on Greenville’s history of faith. Open religious activity is part of a growing and active community. To underscore this organic relationship I have paired digital photos of one of Greenville’s historic downtown churches and a loose landscape like passage.

Third Greenville Piece

This is number three in the Greenville SC series. This one will be about past and foundations. I won’t be posting an in-progress image for the second piece.

First Greenville Piece

This is the first in a series of pieces about Greenville SC. The works will be focused on Greenville’s historic legacy, architecture, and potential future.

The Classic of Tea

By: Lu, Yü

It is quite possible that something was lost in translation. I found this mildly interesting but not exciting. The barely-sequitur appendix of historical tea legends was fun to read. The book was half commentary on how Chinese tea is. I found this book at the library and was not shocked to discover that it is no longer in print.

An Old-Fashioned Girl

By: Alcott, Louisa May

Fairly typical of Alcott. Alcott’s presentation of the liberation of women, it’s methods and ideals are very interesting to compare to the current iteration of that movement. There are humorous meta-textual insertions throughout the book that give you the idea that Alcott enjoyed writing what she did but understood that it wouldn’t be thought of as great literature.