Still Life

I made a painting from life last night. It was my first. I intended to learn something about plain air painting before setting out into the wilderness (or more likely somewhere along the coastline) to paint the sun rise. I became enthralled with mixing colors and stayed up late into the night. When I was exhausted, I dated the study and went to sleep. I woke in the afternoon, much too late for sunrise.

Jacksonville

After spending a week or so down at my folks house in Crystal River I felt well and rested to return to Jacksonville. I packed my car full of art supplies and books and made the drive back through bands of rain. I picked some lovely flowers from a median along the way- they are still doing well in a glass of water on my studio worktable, nearly a week later.

I was happy to be back. Upon returning to the studio, I felt as though I knew exactly the next steps to continue moving in. I built a wood holder, then a bookshelf. I unloaded my spray cans and tools. I installed a pegboard and a bicycle hook. The studio now feels like there is more of a flow to it. I took the advice of my friend Shaun in relation to setting up a studio. His advice was to arrange in this order from left to right: books, materials, tools, work station, preparation station, and finished work. With this set-up it is easy to view myself as a cconduit through which art is channeled and created. Flow. 

I finished a logo that I'd started for a local church. The second visit entailed some detail work on a scroll with a heavily seriffed font on top. I enlarged the font digitally and brought it to a print shop where it was printed to size. I made a carbon transfer onto the church wall so that the font would be exactly as pictured. After a total of 20 hours or so, I am happy to be through with the logo. And it looks wonderful.

I helped a family who I met in San Marco (trying to seek refuge from churches with no luck). I helped them get back on their feet by buying them lunch, paying for a night at a hotel, buying them groceries, and subsidizing their bus tickets to Michigan. They were very grateful. I am blessed to be able to help those in need when the case arises.

I also finished a drawing that I began down at my folks house. It started as a doodle, then progressed. I outlined the initial pencil drawing with a gel pen, then went in with a 3B pencil to establish some rough values in the case that I choose to paint it or finish it with markers. Well, that was a slippery slope, as I began to enjoy shading the drawing deeper and deeper. I took it back to the studio reluctantly, dreading having another piece of unfinished artwork lying around, but to my great joy, I found plenty of time to finish it today. 

I am now working on more black and white studies of graffiti-inspired landscape/cityscapes. I enjoy the process of making them as the options are merely to go black or white- no colors or midle tones to crutch on. Working this way has been a fear of mine for some time, but it seems to act like a crossword puzzle at the end of the day. The rules are simple- if you're looking to show a defined line, black must touch white to the point that the eye can recognize a pattern. Becoming comfortable with this one rule, and learning its boundaries is wonderfully rewarding. I feel that working with a full range of values after working with hard black and hard white will be less difficult in many ways.

Laurel left town for a family trip to Europe and while I do miss her, her abscence represents an upturned hourglass in which I can create in the studio without the option of distraction. 

I may move into Shaun's studio a stone's throw from my current studio. We are moving his belongings out now in preparation. I plan to use my current studio as a woodshop where I can work large scale, and the CoRK studio as an illustration lab. 

Crystal River

John and I brought four value paintings to an easily readable level, and we began another black and white drawing on of exterior of one of his class folders. It was time for use to add colors, but also time for me to leave town. I seem to have wooed John into coming to Jacksonville after he wrapped up some obligations he had in Miami, tentatively two or three months worth of obligations. I am thrilled to have aonther potential collaborator of such high caliber whom I can work well with. I packed two of our value paintings (watercolor paintings) to work on in his absence, with the idea that I might ship him the paintings with new developments once I've had some time in the studio with them. He expressed wanting to do the same with the two paintings of his, to keep our exchange going.

I drove north to my parent's house in Crystal River, where I was greeted warmly by my mother, father, and their two wonderful dogs, Mandy and Mac. Although I have never lived in their new home (new as in their moving in three years ago), it is beginning to feel more like home than before. It is always a place where I can rest, wash, and not worry about creating anything. Invariably though, after a day or two, I become consumed by the urge to create. The love in the home, the beauty of the southern landscape, and the solitude are enough to jumpstart a big project within my imagination. I often try to curb it by making small drawings, which I can finish in one sitting, but with the tools and time alloted, I tend to make small projects into larger ones, for sake of keeping my hands busy, or something. My sleep schedule usually begins to bend into the late hours. It is a marvelous place. 

I took the dogs on a wonderful morning walk as the sun began to rise, diffused by miles of fog- that is, the sun rose like a soft light growing in intensity. It was nearly three hours after the first sign of light that I could detect even the faintest qualification of hard light and shadow. I took many photos with my relatively new camera and was delighted with some of the images I captured of the dogs. I also took many shots which I intend to use as reference for illustrative works. 

I invited my best friend, Sarah, to come down to Crystal River to join in on the atmosphere. My parents left this morning to visit my sister in Panama City, and Sarah arrived shortly thereafter. My beautiful grandmother, Donna, arrived as well with her little dog, Trixie. Sarah and I went for a walk down a lovely trail along the Rainbow River. As the sun set we observed hundreds if not thousands of fireflies along the trails' edge blinking their messages to one another. 

Tomorrow, Sarah and I plan to go Kayaking. 

Miami

I am in Miami and doing very well. I am visiting my friend Johnny, using his garage studio to make drawings together. I have never met someone with such openess in his art making. He is very talented and I am happy to be making art with him. We are discussing his movng to Jacksonville. 

Easter Sunday

I drove down to my grandmother Camille's house in Titusville for Easter. On the way down, I stopped at a nursery and purchased a charming little honeybell orange tree. I loaded the tree into my car, and arrived in Titusville to meet my parents and grandmother in time for dinner. We ate Vietnamese food. 

In the morning, our family went to a church service. After the service, I asked the pastor if I could plant my little tree at the church. Reverend Pat agreed that it would be a great idea, introduced me to Tony, the landscape guy, and together we found a suitable spot. I dug a hole and planted the little tree, a woman came behind me and began to cry as I put the tree in place. She told me that she was a caregiver to an elderly gentleman who died due in her belief to the apathy of the local medical community. She told me that she felt his presence here, that this tree was for him. I hadn't given the tree a purpose, it just seemed like the right thing to do, but this dear woman knew why I was planting it. What a blessing!

After church, our family went to a local food distribution organization, where we donated bread, deviled eggs, ham, and desserts. We sat and ate with the aforementioned woman and her gentleman friend who serendipitously went to the same spot after church. 

Our family parted ways in the afternoon. I set out for Miami to visit a friend, but on the way down began to feel increasingly individualized to the point that I thought it best to sleep under the stars that night. I found a museum with japenese gardens via a road sign, and took my backpack and sleeping bag through the 'Park Closed' gates. Surely they didn't mean those signs for me. Twenty yards in I realized that the groundskeeper's house was on site, and I faintly made out the shillouette of a cop car in the distant streetlight. I didn't want to take my chances, so I walked back down the entrance road and found a service road, which opened up into walking trails. I found a great spot and set up a little camp, whereupon I was met in a few hours time by a swarm of hungry mosquitos. I bundled up and waited to become tired, all the while being eaten alive on the small points of my skin that were not covered by my sleepiong bag. I couldn't get to sleep so I packed up camp and set back to my car. Walking towards my car, I began to have what I would like to call an episode, in which I decided the next appropriate course of action would be to go to Argentina. I arrived at my car where I parked a few blocks down the road, then set out to the nearest airport. I pulled in to a parking garage in the Ft. Lauderdale International Airport where I began to pack up for an Argentina trip. After cleaning out my car and going through my things, I saw that I didn't need to go to Argentina, rather just to take some time to rreview where I'm at, what my goals are, and what my appropriate next steps are. 

I will sleep in my car tonight, in the Ft. Lauderdale International Airport 'Hibiscus' Parking Garage, section 4K. 

One Spark and Beyond

Plenty of updates:

Shaun and I completed the mural inside of the Atrium of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville. An offer was extended to me to handle and assist hanging future MOCA shows.

The One Spark Festival was a success, particularly for Shaun and the MoCA's Project Atrium campaign. Shaun won the vote from the panel of jurors, which came with a $10,000 check and a trip to Berlin in September. Shaun has expressed that he would like my presence in Berlin. We are discussing logistics. Shaun received a second check in the amount of $1,700 from the public opinion vote. He will contribute half of his total winnings to the museum, to help fund the continuation of their Project Atrium Series.

I met a wonderful woman. Her name is Laurel.

I bought a chest of drawers. It cost $80 at first, then another $300 to fix my car window that blew out when I loaded up the piece of furniture and closed my trunk down onto one of the legs. I felt silly making this mistake, but was fortunate to find a glass repair company that could help me remedy the situation within a day's notice. The chest of drawers is now in my studio under my work table. It functions wonderfully.

I may move in to Shaun's studio at the beginning of May. I believe it will be invigorating to have two livable, workable spaces. I may use my current studio for heavier work; large paintings, woodwork, etc., and the CoRK studio (Shaun's space), for studies and illustrative works. Having two studios will also be wonderful in hosting friends and visiting artists. I am very blessed.

I am making studio work at a satisfactory clip. My sleep schedule is bending into the laters hours, as it is easier to stay with a project once it has been activated than to do... anything else really. I aim to create a body of work (cathartic as it may be), prepare it for display, then shop for an appropriate venue to display it.

I will travel south to Titusville beginning tomorrow for Easter Sunday. I look forward to spending time with family, and cooking in my grandmother's kitchen.

Museum Days

Shaun and I are now painting in the Museum of Contemparay Art Jacksonvile, or MOCA, for their atrium series. The wall which we are working on is fourty feet tal by sixty feet across. We work the wall in vertical strips from side to side, as our industrial lift permits. Today Shaun had a video interview for the museum's documentation video. I was handed the list of questions to ask Shaun, which I read off verbatim for the most part. The questions were somewhat dry and implicit of answers that all parties who have contributed to the project would be comfortable hearing. One of the benefits of the interview process was that the museum was closed down for the duration, and that the privacy curtain ( which we have been working behind to keep intact the secretive nature of the project) was pulled back. It was the first time in two weeks that Shaun and I had seen the space from a distance greater than fifteen feet. We were both thrilled to see that the mural looked incredibly healthy. After the interview came to a close, Shaun and I worked with an uplifted spirit. 

I must say after working with Shaun for the past few weeks, we still get along incredibly well. He is a gentleman who works to give more than he takes. Positivity is the name of the game for him. There, I said it. :)