#3

I really enjoy this one. I think it's the most successful in terms of color. I began with burnt sienna and painted dark, light, and mid tones before I applied color; helped a bunch I think. This, like the other two paintings, looks better in real. I think the wet on dry look is most successful in this piece as well.

John Mack handed me a paper today, asking that I take note of all the chemicals that I have in my studio.... that means I need to get my oils out, just as soon as I finish this last painting tomorrow. Just wait... they'll make me take all of my paints out. I'll have to make art out of paint chips on the floor.

blah

walked into my studio today and was totally disappointed in how the painting dried. Looked too matt so I worked over it... 3 more times. had to mix some gloss into the paint... get a wet on dry look.

#2

I don't think it took me as long to paint this one... but it was pretty close (about 3 hours).
I learned that It's more difficult for me to paint dense spaces. I do think this piece is more successful up close as opposed to the first painting I did where it's more enjoyable from afar.

God Damn this weather!!! it's cold! I shouldn't complain though... I'll be in Utah next week

new painting

I think I did this one in three hours.... not quite sure though. I really like it! I do have some issues with it and I hope to resolve them in the next couple of paintings I plan on doing.

1. Since the tree outside of my studio has been trimmed, it has been very bright, thus affecting the lighting in the painting. I think it's too dark so I will paint my next painting in the evening (under florescent lighting... not very fond of that either)
2. The canvas really absorbs the paint so I either need to put more gesso on the canvas or thicken the paint up abit... it will take a few attempts to figure out. Last time I did a painting like this, it was on resin so the surface was really slick. I tend to be really attracted to slick surfaces when it comes to paintings like this. I'm also going to purchase more of this matt medium for oils (can't remember the name). When it's mixed with the oils it's like butter.
3. The stretcher bar is too thick.
4. I almost want to varnish the surface but my painting teacher is sooo against that.
   
5. I need to utilize gravity and spontaneity more in the next paintings.
6. If all else fails I'll glaze back into this painting (probably a really good idea but still need time away from it)

There's alot that I love about this painting too though so yeah... I'm pretty proud of it. I think it's a really great start.

awww shit...

I'm going to grad school

Agnes Martin

I love this woman with all of my heart

(these images don't do justice)

A r t of I n v i s i b i l i t y

The Clear, Moving Work of Agnes Martin

By Jeffrey Lee

[from an article originally published in weeklyWIRE, August 3rd, 1998]

Words about visual art are always beside the point, and it's especially hard to say anything about art that is as drastically reduced as Agnes Martin's. How is it that Martin, with her evenly spaced horizontal and vertical lines and her hushed palette, has produced a body of work that is so moving? 

The Taos artist's grids, some of them traced in lines of graphite so faint they seem to be emerging from or disappearing into a mist, prompted Nicolas Calas to call Martin's an "art of invisibility." It's tempting to read a "beyond" into them; the surface holds so few clues, so little to go on, really. Martin's own statements about what she does tend to verge on the mystical; but whatever they do for the soul, it would be a mistake to let their mystical suggestiveness overshadow what they are, first and foremost: gorgeous, uncompromising challenges to the eye. You could mistake Martin, who was honored with a Whitney retrospective in 1992 and a Golden Lion at last year's Venice Biennale, for a Minimalist. But the hard, machine-edged lines of Minimalism are worlds apart from her precisely repeated, subtly varied lines, each of which shows the human presence of her hand. The occasional, but deliberate, breaks and wobbles--only one or two in each drawing, usually tiny and easy to miss--are crucial to an Agnes Martin composition. When she writes about her work, the artist uses words like "joy" and "perfection," but the geometric purity it aspires to is a Platonic ideal, imperfectly translated to canvas or paper. With its purposeful "flaws," the quiet, joyful space between real and ideal is exactly what Martin's work celebrates. More than anything, Agnes Martin's works on paper narrow and focus the eye's attention. You have to stand close to them. You have to "read" every line. They demand intimacy and a kind of commitment. But what they give back, in their simplicity and richness, is indescribably moving.

- Jeffrey Lee

Days like today make me hhjaappe

Here are some images of recent projects

new project

Here are two new peices I've finished from a new project I'm starting. I've decided to give an inch and incorporate technology into my art makings by going digital. I'm basically just dipping the tips of my toes in the vast ocean that is technology, but hey... you've got to start somewhere.

my first blog

some work