The Art of Investing in Art Part 2

The Art of Investing in Art Part 2

You're Invited

We are having a party at my Studio/ home on Sunday Feb. 14th, 2010 at 3pm. There will be food from 3-5pm, provided by my wife and Blair Miles of In Blair's Kitchen . Thank you both! My newest series Native 149 will be on display as well as my public installation. I will also, have screenprinted copper plates and scupltures, all of which are in the Native series.

Also, thank you to my neighbors Charlie and Rachel for commisioning a painting form me this morning. They requested a piece similar to my Petal Wars series of 2006. They have been wanting one for quite a while. I am glad to be working on a painting for their lovely home.

Also, thanks to Tom, who is at this moment working on my new website. Thank you man looks great so far!

Well, I must get back to work. It is a very busy week!

Synergy- Cloud Rain

And the Earth said to the cloud "Rain." And so the cloud rained. Sometimes you just have to stop and listen. What is it saying to you. I'm pretty sure I heard it loud and clear today, "Artist make art." And, so it began...

I have been playing around with the Native 149 series on the computer. Taking my oil paintings and manipulating them. However, sometimes, what you intended to do gives rise to something even more creative and inventive. So here I am now on the phone with my friend a machinist and prototype maker trying to figure out how to etch or emboss my ideas on to an aluminum sheet!

As a side bar I find it ironic that I used to work with aluminum in my last career as an airplane mechanic.

I gotta go, he can help me so I'm off to the shop. Wish me luck. And, here's to alchemy!

Coming Soon

A review of MOCA LA. On our way to have lunch with Ana Burkhart!

An Interesting Day

All set for project mayhem. The first installation is set for February 14th, 2010!

I have spent the last couple of days in the company of my wife's filmmaker friends. As we are ramping up for my PR campaign, my wife is also reimmersing into the world of film after a 18 month break from the industry. She was set to produce a feature film called Justify and was in pre-production when she discovered she was pregnant with our son Julian. She is diving back into her documentary on filmmakers, revolving centrally about Amy Holden Jones, writer of Mystic Pizza. She and the original team are applying for the Women In Film Foundation's Film Finishing Fund Grant, next month. I am very proud!

And, having all these filmmaker's around has really got me thinking about video content and the contemporary artist. Not only video content for the web but, also, video installation. Which is so hot right now. I think that I am giong to venture into that a bit and see what happens. Art is all about experimentation!

Oh, and did I mention that Heidi form James Gray Gallery called today!!! I was so pleased that she took the time to look at this blog and my website. Thanks again. Also, she has asked us to bring my Native series up to her gallery for her to look at. They are all really wet right now but, as soon as they are dry enough, we are on our way!

Also, I spoke to my friend Ana Burkhart who is in PR and she had SO many great ideas. She is going to do an article for examiner.com. She writes a column on women in business, so the article will be about how my wife, Aimee, is a filmmaker who has turned the cameras on her husband in order to create active income in a time of economic recession, or something like that!

Looks like Andi Hamamoto will be doing an article for aol.com, as well. She writes a column on love, so her story will be about the husband and wife team on how love can cause synergy when two partners get on the same page with their business. Go team love!

I will keep you posted on the articles and will add links as soon as I have them.

Also, I found an editor for our video content. Thank you Michelle! Michelle Opitz who is an aspiring film director, who ended up as the producer of Justify, will freelance as our editor. Yeah, I am so pleased.

First Things First & Evolution Explained

I would like to acknowledge that I may, at times have mispellings and or grammatical incorrectness, I will not apologize for this. Instead I ask that you bare with me. I will do my best and I will try to keep you stimulated with my ideas and hope that you can look past my imperfections. That being said...

I would like to discuss the evolution of my current series of paintings called Native. This idea came from a figure drawing class I attended at the home of artist Arthur Johnson in Kalapana, Hawaii. I am not much of an art class guy but, I was vacationing with my family and met up with the local artists on the beach and ended up as the guest artist. Anyway, we discussed the most simple ideas of human proportion, as illustrated by DaVinci's Vitruvian Man. Although, as I went home and pondered about the distillation and or simplification of human form I was left with three numbers 1-4-9. I began sketching, it started with one simple figure. Then I really could not stop I kept drawing these simple little figures in groupings of 1, 4and 9. They just poured out of me for a couple of days until I had covered every piece of paper in our little vacation rental. I really felt like I was on to something. Upon my return to my art studio, I experimented with how I would put these little figures on to canvas. I tried watercolor, I tried ink, I began very simply, dark figures on a white or tea stained canvas.

They were missing something. I paint in oils, I needed to try them in oils, into my style and to see what would happen. Out of this, the landscapes, which started out very eleborate, began to distill . I was coming into a beautiful simplicity. A symphony of light, shadow, form, color and spacial plane, all playing together to form a balance.

As I create these images now, they feel RIGHT to me. I believe that they are now correct and whole and that I am doing the idea justice. I am inspired, hopeful and grateful to these images for coming to ME.

I am still working in my studio, on canvas, but I promise to get out there and get this out into the world very soon. Unfortunately, it is raining, again. I think I'm going to have to get creative with this public art project. Any ideas?

Evolution 1