Reclusland

An update on my experiences with those tape patterns I work with.  A couple from the old place in Brooklyn and a new one in honor of the new Portland life.

Seems being home sick during the week makes for a productive weekend.

Also, I have discovered that anything done to this music is beautiful.  I could happily watch paint dry for hours, as long as this was the soundtrack.  Do yourself a favor and go download it.

So we’ve pretty much reached the end of Art Week here at Reclusland, but I wanted to end it with something a little different.  So here you are.

This is something I started doing after reading a book called The Artists Way (which works, let me tell you). It just kind of popped into my head one day to start using tape to make geometric patterns around my room.   I started out with duct tape, but that wasn’t too kind to the paint, so I decided to switch over to black masking tape.  There’s something about these that I really like, but then, my mind always has been drawn to patterns…

Here’s the last of the abstract pieces.  All of ‘em started with a blank screen.  No variations this time either, just single pieces.  Although, seeing them together like this, this are certain commonalities.

Sorry for the slow posts today.  I was away from the computer most of the day. Tomorrow though, I’ve got something a bit different, a sort of surprise to round out arts week here at Reclusland.

Stay tuned.

As promised, I’m also posting some of the other art projects I’ve taken up recently.  My girlfriend does a lot of oil pastels and one day she asked if I’d be interested in doing some with her.  I figured it was a good chance to try taking my abstract tendencies off the computer screen, so I’ve since sat down and worked out a few pieces.  The results are as follows:

I am happy with how these turned out, though I don’t think they’re necessarily finished art pieces.  The last three were oil pastel over copper-colored acrylic, hence the shine in the backgrounds (I’m hoping my girlfriend will post some of her pieces from that series, I’ll keep you posted).

However, I did play around with a photograph of the last one and came up with a couple pieces that I am really happy with:

(looks awesome on a white background)

Post number two in my little cavalcade of the arts.  A little simpler than I’m used to, but as with the last post, it’s the variations that I find interesting.

And for those interested in fluctuations, I’ve made a (huge) animated gif for this one. It’s about 4MBs, so either “right-click-save-as”, or give it a little while to load and run all the way through, so that it loops smoothly.

Art week’s starting here at Reclusland.  A bit late perhaps (for which I can only blame the dead presidents of yesterday), and covered in snow (at least if you’re in New England), but it’s starting nonetheless.

First up, four variations on a theme:

While on the 3 and a half hour train ride up to Boston, I got into a really productive work session.  Had some old blues records playing on the iTunes: John Lee Hooker, Robert Johnson, Blind John Davis, Son House.  Seems there’s lots of Johns in the blues tradition (although I think Son House has them all beat in the awesome name department).  Anyway, I do love the blues, the older and dirtier the better, and Ian’s the celtic form of John, so maybe I can take some small pride in (however vaguely) associating myself with these old bluesmen, and their ability to spin gold out of the straw (or it is lead?) that was their lives.

Anyway, 3 and half hours on the train and I not only got 2 sets of photos processed (the previous post and one yet to come), 2 fairly decent bits of rambling (again, the previous post, and an different “post yet to come”), but I also finally got back into my art work.  Here’s five new pieces, parented by, in equal parts, a speeding Amtrack train and a slow, dirty, blues rhythm.  Just goes to show how productive I can be when I’ve got a computer, but no internet…

Some more college collages, this time centering around a theme of technology and eastern spirituality.

Bonsai

Kundalini

Cold Mountain

IChing

Mandala

Rock Garden Zen

Recently found an treasure trove of some old work from college.  I won’t bore you with most of it, but some pieces still seem at least somewhat relevant, so I’ll be sharing them over the next few weeks.

These are a couple of collages I’d made for a digital arts class.  They’re kind of silly, but I still like ‘em.  Click for full size versions…

Found this scroll online somewhere. Thought it deserved cleaning up, so I photoshopped it up a bit. Here’s a close up of each sage. The entire scroll can be found here.

Quite the parade…

This time at home has really given me a creative burst. Here’s some new pieces (mostly) created in the past few days.



God as Blood and Hair (detail)

Fall on the River (detail)

Green Sun Blue (detail)

Snake River Spirit (detail)

Magnet, and the 10,000 Things (detail)

Some new artwork as well.

All my pieces have a lot of detail in them, but I realized that this isn’t really noticeable on the web. So I’ve decided to include an detail image for each piece as well. Click on (detail) below the thumbnail for an up close and personal view of each piece. It’s like you’ve got your nose right on the canvas*!

I’ve decided to leave off the dimensions as well. They’re all hi-res; that’s really all you need to know.

HGA (detail)

Jeweled Mandala (detail)

Whence Shadows (detail)

Yama (detail)

*disclaimer: these are not paintings. it’s a simile…

Some new artwork.

I made all five in one sitting and really like how they build off each other.

untitled 1

untitled 2

untitled 3

untitled 4

untitled 5

All are : 8″ x 8″ @ 400dpi

The last of the new abstract pieces I’ve been holding onto:

Azathoth	Bosch	Heart Chakra
Maps	Panels	Quintessence

Bosch, Heart Chakra, Maps, and Quintessence: 8″ x 8″ @ 400dpi
Azathoth: 4″ x 8″ @ 400dpi
Panels: 7″ x 3″ @ 400dpi

I’ve been doing this abstract stuff for about 10 years now. Here’s the best of the oldest; the ones from high school and college that I think are worth dragging out of the dark and dusty to present to you:

Carnival	Chains	Chaosian Glove	City of Bones	Crystals
Dark Water	Dream School	Dream Shards	Fathomless Blue	Fire and Ice
From the Depths	Gothic Pentagram	Green Jelly	Halley's Comet	Icey
If Gold was Dirt Cheap	Leviathan	Liquid Gold	Man and Machine	Mandala Reclusado
Misty	Moths to a Flame	My Dreams Are Leaking Oil	Nightmare	Phoenix Rising
Sailor's Delight	Severed Ties	Shore of an Ancient Sea	The Lost Continent	Threads

various sizes, all @ 72dpi (pretty much unprintable, unfortunately)

Here’s some new abstract pieces:

Holes

Winged Serpent

Wooden Deathshead

Snake

all four are originally: 8″ x 8″ @ 400dpi

Click on through to visit the art archives