THE RUDEST AND THE NUDIST

My transient bloggin' ass has returned, with a painting to show y'all. There's a ghost of a chance I may return soon with a better photograph taken of this painting under better lighting conditions, but here's the REALLY CRAPPY PHOTO of it. This is actually a piece collaborated upon by Lindsey Wiseman and me, which we originally started one night back in 2010. It sat for nearly two years until a couple weeks ago when Lindsey and I decided to dust it off. It's neat to see how you have changed, as an artist and as just a person, when you re-visit old works like this. Anyways, I'm not going to wax sentimental all up on this, so here's the pic .

Untitled 2010-2012

26" x 46" 

Chris Hecht and Lindsey Wiseman

OCTOBER

Holy cow, you guys. It's been almost another whole year since my last blog post. Are blogs a thing of the past anyway? Tumblr's kinda where it's at right now. I do have a Tumblr, though I really just use it as a portfolio instead of the more informal atmosphere of a blog. If you want to see either Tumblr, I have two--

This one's for Art with a capital A
http://ChrisHecht.tumblr.com

and this one's for cartoons n doodling
http://CJH-doodles.tumblr.com

Okay, enough advertising for STUPID CRAP. In recent news, I am currently working on a new portrait, which I intend to submit for consideration in the 94th Toledo Area Artist's Exhibition, for which the deadline is the 22nd of this month. Didn't I post something to this effect for last year's TAA? Yeah, well, this year I think I have a better chance of getting accepted. It's not that I believe I've grown much more as an artist, per se, so much as I think I've gotten a little more clever. The unfortunate truth is that the TAA exhibition seems to lean significantly in favor towards artists dealing with the figure, at least as far as 2-dimensional work goes. Last year's exhibition saw a heavy saturation of outstanding portraiture and other figurative work. One of this year's two jurors is Joe Fig-- noted figurative artist and recent participant in the 'Small Worlds' exhibition. If I had to bet, I'd say a figurative piece stands a better chance than large-scaled landscapes in this limited space. So anyway, here's a couple shots in-progress of one of the abstracted portrait pieces I'm submitting!

Not really much to see yet, huh? I'll post again when it's done, man!

Also, listen to this, ya dorks!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m63A3jBtSkk

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!

Sunday December 19

Hey there boys and girls, I have one painting that is a work in progress, and here it is. Maybe I should just call it done and move on? Not sure. Some parts of it I really dig, but some not so much. Don't know.

Also of note-- I graduated college yesterday! Instead of a picture of me wearing a silly-looking cap and gown, here is a picture of me like 12 hours and 7 beers later.

End of Semester Painting Blowout!

Hello, Inter-Net friends. I have been all kinds of busy lately, what with the end of the semester/my undergraduate schooling coming to an end! Like many of my contemporaries at the School of Art at BGSU, I will be participating in the BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition which opens March of this coming year. More information can be had here: http://art.bgsu.edu/galleries/current.cfm

I am still unsure of whether to show my figurative or my landscape work for the exhibition, but I get a feeling the answer will become more obvious to me as the time draws near. Anyway, here are five new acrylic landscapes I have been working on for Dennis's class. They are each almost entirely finished, but I tend to get the impulse to tweak each further by just a little bit so don't consider this absolute.

South of The Spot

24" x 49"

Speedway

22" x 42"

West Monroe

22" x 42"

Frontier

22" x 42"

Edge of Uptown

22" x 42"

I am pretty satisfied with all of these. I will most likely continue to go back in and add some fine small details in ink and that will be that. I will continue to make more paintings like this, only I think I'd like to work even larger! Dennis thinks its the natural progression for my paintings and I can't help but agree. The only obstacles are logistical ones-- simply, I need a larger car to move them! Been thinking about getting a cheap, seriously shitty van or truck with the sole purpose in mind of moving paintings and things.

Also been considering submitting my work for consideration in the Hudson Gallery in Downtown Sylvania http://www.hudsongallery.net/gallery/index.html

Its a very nice gallery space, located in the Northwest Toledo suburb of Sylvania, where I was born. Some of my reference material used in my paintings (both bodies of work) are photographs taken right by the Hudson gallery, even! Still considering it though, as I'm not entirely sure my paintings quite fit with the aesthetic the Hudson appeals to.

Time for some video fun

Hey you crazy cats, I don't have any relevant art-related things to post right now, so I thought I would link a couple old videos that you really shouldn't ever see.

This first one was filmed sometime around April of 2009, for a video editing project in a class I was taking. The, uh, "scope" of the film is very much the kind of hackneyed crap that would be produced when I have complete creative control over that sort of thing. I decided it was going to be a "cover" of that old Sears air conditioning commercial everyone saw during the 90s. You know the one, "Hotter?" "Like yesterday." "Yesterday? Yesterday you said you'd call Sears." "I"ll call today." "You call now." "I'll call now" and so on. My take on it is darker, but also, more stupid. I think I must have watched Taxi Driver or some Robert DeNiro flick the night before we filmed this. Anyway, just watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn62v5R9OuA

The second video you have the singular pleasure of viewing is entitled Super Hi Fi Kung Fu Action 2. This is the second installment of what was really a project that lasted throughout all of high school. Filmed in 2004, over several short filming sessions scheduled over a period of a few months. As such, and as we were/are indeed amateurs, the inconsistencies in this video are comically bad.

As for a little background on the "story" of this video, there isn't much to tell. During high school, a few friends and I were way big into old shitty kung fu movies, so we thought we'd try our hand at making our own shitty kung fu movies. In keeping with that aesthetic, we intentionally filmed most the video without audio, then dubbed over each character's dialogue with a different person. This ensured an astute level of shittiness, but we unwittingly raised said level to the realm of the profound by way of our inexcusably bad flow and cuts throughout this eleven minute feature. The flow is so bad that we, at one point, had to hault filming for more than a month because I injured myself while choreographing a particularly stupid move late in the video. That change in time is indicated in the film by the short clip of leaves falling inexplicably between 2 shots meant to be part of one scene. Anyway, I think that's all I have to say about this one for now, so just watch it, if you feel so inclined.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_aDRfB16vk

Current Figure Stuff

Hey internet pals. I keep alluding to a supposed body of work that deals with the figure instead of landscape, and here are some examples of said work!

These are 2 kind of smallish acrylics on just regular illustration board. Also used some india ink for the black outlines you see here and there. I consider both of these to be just studies. Still experimenting with finding a balance of all the aesthetic devices that capture my fancy-- Impasto, glazing, and detailed linework.

All my reference photos are taken in a bar, or similar low-light or oddly-lit location. I spoke about this in my previous post, if you want to know more about that.

Expect to see more work like this in the future, because I'm definitely enjoying it!

Jojo

15" x 20"

Tombo

20" x 28"

Also, for no reason at all, listen to this song that's been in my head for awhile now-- La Llorona by Beirut http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id5miD_uZDk

Reference Photos

Most of the paintings I put on this blog have been my landscapes, but I do want it to be known that I am working on two bodies of work at the same time. The other is figurative. I was inspired to do figure painting after many trips to the bars with my friends on Friday nights. I find the way bar lighting is cast upon people to be very attractive. Most the light in the bar is from neon signs on the wall and windows; there is rarely an actual traditional light fixture on in this place. Anyways, I really dig that, and have been working on some acrylic paintings based off pictures I take in bars or bar-like settings. Here's a few reference pictures to ones I'm working on. Check back later when I have some actual paintings uploaded.

My buddy "Tip Top" Tommy Steele

Yep, these 2 are of me.

I don't know if this is really relevant, but a lot of the time when I'm working on these types of paintings, I have a couple specific songs playing either in my head or on the stereo. They're both by David Bowie, from his album Young Americans. I suppose really the whole album is suitable for listening to when I work, but the following two songs in particular really do it for me:

Fascination

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

Right

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifIi6ewkFvs

I think when I listen to these songs, it puts me in a different mood and for some reason it makes my brush strokes a lot more confident.

Current Works

Hey there buckaroos, look where I've been spending a lot of my time:

That's right, painting until very late on a Saturday night! As you can see, I like to work on several paintings at one time. Chalk it up to too little attention, too much energy, or whatever theory you have. Anyway, here's a closer look at the individual paintings.

This is the absolute most recent one. Got inspired to try depicting a more urban landscape after a recent trip to Columbus and then a trip to Detroit last Saturday. I feel this painting is largely a success, and I am content with where it's at.

This one weighs noticeably more than the others due to all the paint I layered onto the foreground via an impasto technique. It was originally a sort of pthalo blue, but I decided to push it to be more about an exchange between olive and terracotta colors.

This one actually progressed very linearly from start to finish with really no major snags. I think this was my first time using solely a palette knife to render an entire building, but I am pleased with its outcome. I did, however, add on some black line with a pen afterwards in keeping with my own stylistic tendencies.

This was one of the more troublesome paintings of the lot. My reference for this was actually set at night, and I am inexperienced painting landscapes without any natural light. Composition also became a problem, but this was not apparent to me until well after I started it. In the end, though, I feel confident about my remedy to its composition and believe this work to be at a good place.

This is the first of these paintings that I started, but I was very unhappy with it at one point. I got too literal with the linework and ended up letting this one sit for a few weeks while I progress the others along. When I did pick this one up again, I decided to push the yellow and alizarin, letting those colors partially obscure the too-tight linework. That being settled, I am now very pleased with this one!

"Sweetest Skull"

Been awhile since I posted last! I am alive and doing very well. Busy as hell but that's the way I like it! Been doing a lot of painting and drawing, and definitely growing while I do it. Concurrently working on two different bodies of work-- one is still the large-format abstracted landscapes reminiscent of the Fauves, and the other is actually figurative. I use acrylic for both, and I have to say its been working out pretty well! I am getting more bold and skilled with acrylic, which is exciting because I am really not as crazy about watercolor as I was a few years ago. Haven't had the chance to document any of my works done so far this semester, but I did manage to quickly scan in this drawing. Drew this in a really short period of time upon realizing today is Sweetest Day. I fucking KNOW this just screams cliche' in at least 4 ways, kids, but don't go busting my chops over it.

Also, for anyone living not too far around Detroit, there is going to be an opening at the Klein Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan (approx. 20 minutes north of Detroit), featuring work by Alyssa Monks, who does some sweet-ass figurative work. The opening is this Saturday (October 23) at 5 pm. Here's the Klein gallery's website, it shows Monks' work as well as all the info you need if you're interested in going. http://www.dkgallery.com/exhibitions/

More Paintings

As indicated in my last post, a whopping forty minutes ago, here are some more recent landscape paintings. They are newer than the painting in my previous post, and are closer to what I am moving towards. More elements of drawing in all of these, in addition to the loose application of paint, be it heavy-handed at times.

"Waterville 01"

"Southwyck Ruins 01"

"Interstate 75 01"

Derr time for some Art with a capital A

Thought I would finally photograph a large painting I made during the late Spring of 2010. Its approximate size is 48" x 54". This was made during a class, and I feel this is the direction all my painting is headed-- abstract expressionism. This one is only a few months old, but I have made several newer ones since. With regards to my painting, it will continue in this vein of abstracted representation. I chose to paint the often overlooked, everyday grain that makes up a vast portion of American, and in particular, the Midwestern Identity. This painting doesn't represent that thought enough, but soon I will upload newer paintings that help solidify that notion. However, this painting does represent thoroughly the type of style I will render this theme in.

Acrylic on Canvas

But anyways, I think its a bunch of bullshit.

I can't sleep, so I was rootin' around my folders of crappy sorta-recent art and found these eeerrrrrm....humdingers. Here, you look at 'em.

Anyone who plays Gang Garrison Zwei, sometimes nonchalantly referred to as "Team for Tress 2" probably recognizes the Soldier here. There was a propaganda-making contest for it at the end of last year and this was my entry.

Here is three minutes of Photoshop. A project for a digital arts class. That guy on the left there is the notorious "Tip Top" Tommy Steele, you've probably heard of him before, he's kind of a big deal.

Another project made for that digital arts class. This was done around the fall of 2009, so it is kinda old, man. This piece in particular has to do with my own memories.

Fartin' Around with Books

As my ineloquent headline implies, I made a (very) short book recently. The project was for a class on bookmaking and the scope of said project was... to make a book. You following me here, reader-guy? Time for some pictures.

Here is the outside of the book. Simple soft-spine binding method. Titled "Home" but I kind of came up with that just on the fly and scribbled it on there in pen about a minute before I handed it in.

Page one, if you aren't counting end sheets. Although this is kind of an end sheet. Wraps around so the last image in the book is also this type of silhouette thing.

Page two. Guess who.

Text reads "I don't really have a Home." The more I look at it, I think this could be my favorite page. Originally it was my least favorite.

Text reads "Lived in apartments most my life." This is actually my least-favored page in the entire thing. Too much rendering here. The entire book was set on the notion of rendering as little as possible to give it this kind of disparate, lonely feel. Why? Because I had like a day and a half to make this thing from start to finish.

"Once you move out, someone else moves in. Can't go back. Its not Home."

"But maybe I consider places where I have memories to be home. Like school."

E.L. Bowsher High School in Toledo, Ohio. Demolished.

"Or a favorite mall."

Southwyck Mall, that is. South end of Toledo, built in the early seventies. I lived half a mile away from it during my high school years, and spent every Saturday there with my friends, pretty much the entire time I was in high school.

"But those places got demolished." Interesting video (not mine) shows the mall at the beginning of its demolition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qxig3UIWqM

"Oh well. This city is still home."

This is another favorite of mine from this whole project.

"In fact..."

"It probably looks a lot like your home."

That's it, man. I left part of the end paper in this one just so you can see it.

So, I didn't have much time at all to work on this project because of the limited time frame we were given. I was well-aware of this fact and thus chose to keep all the illustrations minimal. In my opinion, this aesthetic choice meshes well with the overall isolated feeling the theme of the book seems to impart.

This book really doesn't contain a story of any sort. I don't know how to categorize it, other than just an illustrated experience. The subject matter is one I've been leaning towards more and more in my paintings-- under-appreciated landscapes, typically the result of suburban growth and industrial decay. However, at the end of the book, I make acknowledgement of globalization, which, admittedly, was a choice I made out of simply not really knowing where to go with the "story." For that, I am a little ashamed and I think it makes the book read like a brief, illustrated foray into a schizophrenic's reminiscence.