Showing posts with label art education. Show all posts

Monday, July 25, 2022

Icon. Procreate and I Pad pro.

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Design experiments, Digital drawing. Procreate App.

Tuesday, April 5, 2022

A recent art exhibition at Grafica.

One of my satisfied buyers.

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Saturday, March 12, 2022

Thoughts and wonder.

Ink drawing/ enhanced digital image from Graphic Fairy web site.

Monday, March 7, 2022

The dragon is a symbol of evil, in both the chivalric and Christian traditions. In the Orient, it symbolizes supernatural power, wisdom, strength, and hidden knowledge. In most traditions, it is the embodiment of chaos and untamed nature.

Don't count your chickens.

"People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately."

- Oscar Wilde.

Head with steel worm.

The (Gun) Worm that Turns

Soldiers once used “gun worms,” metal claws mounted to the end of wooden ramrods, to clear bullets and wadding from the barrels of muskets that had failed to fire. The curled tip inspired the winding shape of a corkscrew, once known as a steel worm.

During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew.

We were compelled to live on food and water for several days.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Organic patterns.

Organic patterns. 12 - 4" X4" Black canvas boards and Posca Pens.

Sunday, February 27, 2022

Bee symbolism.

Bees are the connectors between the spiritual and material realms. ... The fertilization of flowers requires the work of pollinators, which is the role that many types of bees fill. Because of this, in many contexts, bees can spiritually represent fertility, birth, growth, new beginnings, and new life.

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Geometric/Organic tile.

Acrylic tile. 4" X 4" canvas boards and Posca Pens

What is geometric and organic design?

ORGANIC: shapes, often curvilinear in appearance, that are similar to those found in nature, such as plants, animals, and rocks. GEOMETRIC: any shapes and based on math principles, such as a square, circle, and triangle.

POSCA 8-Color Paint Marker Set, PC-5M Medium

Friday, February 18, 2022

Plays at Belleville East.

I began my twenty-eight year teaching career at Belleville East High School in 1966. It was a new school and several of the campus style buildings were still unfinished and the art room was not equipped and ready for use. Art classes were held in a regular classroom without art tables or supplies. We were told that everything should be ready in a few months; t was about three months before we move to the new art building. Those three months help form my teaching philosophy at Belleville East. My mantra became manipulation of materials at hand and creative problems solving. We made projects out of building scraps and and found objects. We used copy paper and number two pencils to created our art work on typical school desks. Those early exploration into creativity continued even after all the equipment and supplies arrived.

In addition to teaching art I began to work on school plays. I was the faculty technical director for over fifty productions. My skills manipulating materials was really challenged. The beautiful new school did not have an auditorium or theater. There was a building used as a lecture hall that could be divided into three separate areas and it was used primarily for study halls and meetings. It had a few theater type seats and a raised lecture are made of concrete. The space was about twenty by thirty feet with no wing space, curtain or back stage areas. It also had to wall on each side that narrowed the space even more. This remained as the only performance are until after I retired when a new theater was built. A few plays were put on in the gym until the principle asked me if I could use the lecture space for productions. That first play was a challenge. No lights, no curtains, no dressing rooms, no tools just a bare concrete area. I purchase a portable light dimmer and had it wires to a small utility room. The dimmer had to sit in isle and was operated without a booth. We bought a few lights and the custodian attached a pipe to the ceiling and we had minimal lighting. We also bought a follow spot and positioned in the back of the room. I built flats in the hallway and made a few sandbags to support them. It was lucky that the first play was “A midsummer nights dream” and we got by with a few flats and some platforms. The student bathrooms in the hallway served as dressing rooms. I owe a lot to that first play and it taught me the value of creative problem solving. For the next thirty years I technical directed over fifty plays. Each play added more creative additions to that lecture center. The wall were removed a wood floor was added a light booth was build. I watch a small unusable space become an intimate proformance area. My only regret is that I did not get the opportunity to use a real theater.

Thursday, February 17, 2022

Painting experiment.

Painting experiment circa 1990's. Acrylic/enamel paint, found objects, old brushes. Sheet of masonite 4'X4'. Governor French Academy Studio.

Sunday, February 13, 2022

From the expanse of space to the microscopic view of structures.

The primary influence on my work is the natural world, from the expanse of space to the microscopic view of structures. I am not interested in reproducing what I see. Instead I am seeking a way to go beyond the world of nature and into the place between what we can see and what we cannot.

My interest, at either end of this spectrum of this reality, continues to feed my imagination.

Monday, February 7, 2022

Benedictine interior hallway.

Asemic patterns. Snow, water, ice salt, crystals. February 2022

Friday, January 28, 2022

Altered book

What sets art apart from other technological endeavors is not the innovative use of technology, but a creative misuse of it. To use a tool as it was intended, whether a screwdriver or spreadsheet, is simply to fulfill its potential. Misusing a tool by peeling off its ideological wrapper and applying it to a purpose or effect that was not its maker's intention-artists can exploit a technology's hidden potential in an intelligent and revelatory way.

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Title page of proposed biography.

“One of the basic abilities that should be taught in our schools is the ability to discover, to search for answers, instead of waiting for answers and directions.”

Viktor Lowenfeld (1964)