I felt oddly impacted by the death of Roger Ebert for whom I have been a long time fan. I follow him on twitter and his keen mind has illuminated many a different topic for me. But, mostly, I remember him from back in the days of “Siskel and Ebert” a show I watched every week. Roger was such a commanding wit. Today, most often, if I want to read a movie review I first go to Ebert’s website. I will miss his reviews of current movies and saddened by his loss.

Sometimes I feel such angst and jealousy by the accomplishments of other artists that I want to dive my head into the ground and stay there. Still, while I can understand angst, I despise jealousy/envy and mostly keep the green monsters beneath the bed where they belong. At the same time, I am so grateful for the brilliance and success of the truly talented. How banal life would be without those to admire and aspire to. Before the internet, one had to buy books or go to galleries and museums to see the work of others and now the myriad of images and artists at one’s fingertips is overwhelming and maybe that is where some of the angst comes from, there are so many accomplished artists to be jealous of, I mean admire.

Some art is on such a high plain I can not even be jealous of it. I can only internalize the impact so as to take the miracle of it with me. The work of Francis Bacon does this to me. Apparently he was quite a scoundrel and despicable as a human being but I don’t care and I don’t need to know it and knowing it does not change my opinion of the work. The work stands on it its own like disembodied legs. How grand it would be to stand in the studio where he worked and marvel at the complete irreverence for the environment while the man vehicle was sprouting master pieces from amidst the chaos. Here is a great little video:

I’m inspired by the method of using damaged photographs and images as source material for portraits and ideas. I can see myself doing the same kind of thing using damaged printed material (because I have a hard time damaging an actual photograph even if its not a friend or family member). Of course, even if I were to employ the exact same methods used by Bacon or any other artist, the work would still turn out like my own, there is no getting away from one’s self. So, using a method developed by another artist is copying but its not copying the art itself. Its a learning device.

I’ll be leaving for my parents house in the morning so I must get some painting time in. NOw.

I’ve sketched so many tree fems that I just about have a forest!

Oil on canvas

I was thinking of Rapunzel when I started this, but she just does not seem like a Rapunzel, so I gave her a pair of scissors and I’m calling it Hair Cut~~

The tones in her face remind me a bit of Dave Cooper’s work which I love. Not familiar with Dave Cooper? here is a link, though it was hard to find a gallery with several works showing:

http://www.booooooom.com/2010/01/12/artist-dave-cooper/

Also found this animated cartoon with his images which is a delightfully twisted, contorted, bubbly ride. The bouncy character animation is just as I might imagine and the raunchy romp in jello at the end is fitting!

Lots to do today.

I’ve been stuck the past couple of weeks, ruining every attempt at painting. This morning I felt a little unsticking…

My most recent painting is about a dream I had.

oil on canvas.

I have no explanation for this piece, it was very intuitive with a life of its own, I was just a conduit, really

Oil on canvas, need to finish the foreground and background of “Quagmire”

And I have started some ornies, hopefully in time for holiday buyers.

On our walk I spotted a bird, I mean its wings:

superfetation |ˌsoōpərˌfēˈtā sh ən|
noun Medicine & Zoology
the occurrence of a second conception during pregnancy, giving rise to embryos of different ages in the uterus.
• figurative the accretion of one thing on another : the superfetation of ideas.
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: from French superfétation or modern Latin superfetatio(n-), from Latin superfetare, from super- ‘above’ + fetus ‘fetus.’

See this piece in person on exhibit in Detroit, October, at “Damned”.

Oil on canvas

In the theatre of the absurd, the puppet master is a single female figure who thoughts are split between ideology and reality at she manipulates her alter ego puppets below and colludes in her own subjugation. The idea comes from the notion of some to over turn Roe v Wade and take away a woman’s right to decide for herself what to do with her own body.

I did all the under painting in acrylic so this painting took less than a week to do. this painting will be featured in the Damn Show:

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My little girl pug Sassafras loves to sit on garbage bag, it doesn’t matter much what is inside them but clothing or blankets or towels are particularly appealing to her royal needs Yes she is descended from Royalty sired from Prince Pugliese, its true!

So she spied this garbage bag in the craft corner of a closet and crawled right on in to make herself comfy

This is a photo of the hub swimming at night, I think it looks cool.

I have quite a few paintings that I am painting over as they were just unsuccessful, this is one that I have painted over. Its kind of a hybrid. I kept the legs from the painting it used to be and what sprouted out was this somewhat whimsical figure. The canvas is fair big 18 x 36

I might use it for our holiday card with the caption “Happy freakin Holidaze!” I think its funny and reflects the stress and unhappiness so typical of the season