2011 has been a shit year, you guys. I haven't hardly painted anything. Here's a couple for ya.

This one was completed a couple days ago. I referenced a photograph I took of Illinois Avenue in Maumee for this. I'm halfway satisfied with it, though I think the composition could have benefited greatly from more untouched canvas than I left.

This second composition here is actually a smaller painting that I made early in this year. I was never crazy about it, thus I didn't think to document it sooner than now.

As for news and such, you can take your ass to downtown Toledo right now and see 3 of my paintings on display on the first floor of the Secor Building (425 Jefferson Ave) through the rest of this year, as part of the Reclaiming Toledo exhibition. Or go down to 1700 Canton avenue a few blocks over, to Bella's Art and see a couple more of my paintings on display.

I gotta get out of this little town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFyv6Y2J9Lw

Gallery Loop 2011

Once again, I've managed to not update this blog for a few months! It's been an eventful few months, though; mostly good! Anyway, to address stuff from my last entry-- No, I didn't get into this year's Toledo Area Artists Exhibition at the TMA. Space was limited and entries were very, very numerous, so naturally more established/skilled (lol) artists than I made it in. Anyways, I'm mostly updating about yesterday's Gallery Loop in Downtown/Uptown Toledo. Over 20 venues participated and the event was a real humdinger! One gallery in uptown actually opened for the first time last night-- Bella's Art in the District (1700 Canton ave) -- and that's actually where some of my paintings are on display. The place is small, but the turnout has been pretty great! To top it off, one of my large paintings has a potential buyer! Anyway, the place is mentioned in the current issue of Toledo City Paper, page 18:

Don't know why my name is in bold, but that's cool. And, check it out, 1 and 1/2 of my paintings are in that photo, haha!

As for current stuff I'm working on-- I've got 3 more landscapes I've been doing, hopefully I can get at least one done by tomorrow, because there's yet another exhibition here in Toledo that I'm trying to submit work to. More details on that later! Other than that, Jory and I are really making good progress on our cartoon! We finished our first little clip, though it's not uploaded to the internet yet, as the file size is huge; but I'll post a link once it's up. Anyway kids, thanks for reading and I'll post again with some work before too long!

More things

Heya kids. Here's a couple things I did! This first one is a painting I finished yesterday. It's along the same lines as most my landscapes, but this one is actually...watercolor. I know, right? I thought I'd try working smaller and on paper, and since watercolor is so easy to dispense with, this was the most convenient option. This measures something like 9"x16"-- really small compared to my normal landscape sizes. I am pretty satisfied with it, and plan on doing many more small ones like this on paper, just to see where it takes me.

This is a bad photograph of a bad painting I did of and for my father around Christmas time. It's a little shameful that I'm posting it just now, but I thought it wasn't bad, especially given that it's a portrait done by me (lol).

That's all the work I have for now. Tomorrow I find out whether or not my work was accepted to be in the Toledo Area Artists Exhibition, which opens later this summer, at the Toledo Museum of Art! I'll be back with the results soon, follower(s?)!

5/29/11

Hey boys and girls, you gettin' excited for the new Transformers movie coming out this summer? That's a Michael Bay film, you know? Well shucks kids. I, without any explanation or pretense, happen to have INSIDER INFO on the new movie, slated for late June!! Here it is, gang!

Gee whiz, what a sizzler!!

Drawin' Creeps Again

Alright, here's a couple of drawings that have a level of quality disproportionate to the long amount of time between now and the last time I updated this blog! Haha! This first one here is actually an older drawing I made, like a year ago.

Growing up, I spent a lot of time in motorcycle parts stores with my dad. This illustration is of one such place, called "Banzai Cycle Supply." It was owned by the guy on the left, who went by the nickname "Banzai" from his career as a drag racer. The other guy I only knew by his nickname, simply "Biker Bob" and was a common sight at the shop. They were a couple of decidedly-hardass old guys, but were real soft-hearted, and I miss them greatly.

Whereas the above illustration depicts a sentiment on my part, the following one certainly does not. This one is more recent, done a couple of weeks ago. This one isn't anyone in particular, but it is my visual depiction of the Internet, personified. Maybe it's a little based off of someone I know, ha ha ha!

BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition

I have 4 paintings in the Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Thesis Exhibition at BGSU! They are hanging in the Willard Wankelman Gallery. The opening reception was last Saturday and it was packed! I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Here's some photos:

Me in front of my display

The largest of my paintings, Reynolds

Uptown, perhaps my favorite

Westgate

My current artist statement, pertaining to this series of paintings:

"A visual artist can serve a number of roles, some of which are unintentional: one who envisions the intangible, an instigator, an observer, or a recorder, to name a few. I’m not sure if I am any or all of the above, because painting for me is a means of expressing my impression of a place. Interpretations of my work, or any artist’s, can be as varied as the differences between one individual and another.

Urban sprawl, industrial decay, suburbanization, light pollution, and the menagerie of manmade and natural elements in an environment are the vocabulary for my paintings. I choose to render familiar places such as strip malls and city streets in a manner that is abstracted, yet unmistakable. These common places are often overlooked and underappreciated, but they compromise a large part of modern American society’s identity. My choice of subject matter are these familiar things that perhaps constitute, at least in some subtle way, a part of my collective self. My paintings are all self-portraits within varying degree, as they all contain my vision, impression, or expression of the people, places, feelings, and events that have occurred in my life."

The exhibition will be open until April 3, and there's a lot of talented artists displaying this year, so check it out if you're into that sort of thing!

As for what I'm currently working on, I have several paintings and an illustration I've been tooling around with, expect to see some of that up here within a few days. Have a new series of photographs I plan on using as references for upcoming paintings. Here's one!