Pictures From A Collector

A collector of my work sent me these pics today.  She recently redid her home and wanted these to have a prominent spot on her walls.

I like seeing my work being cared for.

Mahalo.

Hawaii #7 “I Had To Buy Shoes”

I finished the painting at the last hour.  This was a challenge to complete by the year, and as I was working on it I got two walk-in tattoos that each wanted something slightly complex.  I put my brushes down, did a couple of tattoos and then completed the painting.  I signed it 2020 as I finished it today.

I become a character who’s construct reflects the thing in its entirety.  Every aspect of my daily life is that character, that idea.  My paintings are titled directly what I want you the audience to see.  Simply understand the words and look at the painting.  No exegesis whatsoever is needed.

This is my preferred orientation of the piece.  All of my paintings can be hung with any side as the top, however I always have my favorite view.  

Hawaii #7 “I Had To Buy Shoes”

Oil on Linen 24”x12”

Aloha.

Divinity School

I have been working on this painting for a long time.  I started it sometime around February of this year, and for a long time it sat on the easel unattended.  I was too busy tattooing to spend time painting, and I had to think about the work for a while.  As soon as I could see what was going to be I started working in every spare second I had.  It is 12”x24” oil on linen and all brush work.  This study  got our of hand for a while and I had to reestablish the balance.  My work is a constant rebalancing of harmony toward disharmony and then back again.  I like to create compositional problems that need to be solved.

I have enjoyed the difficulty this composition presented me with.  The base sigil was created during a particularly cold season where I was so chilly that I found it necessary to purchase two pairs of shoes.  I have not owned a pair of shoes for at least 4 years.  I had a pair, but then they were so old and I never wore them so I threw them away and reserved myself to wearing slippers daily.  Slippers are flip flops, and living on Maui normally is too hot for shoes.  The base sigil was complicated, and from the beginning disharmonious with itself, however purposefully so.

I would like to have this completed before the new year, albeit, I may not be able to as there is so much work to do before it is resolved and considered a composition worth hanging.  Realistically I need 4 days of real work on this painting for it to be finished and I only have two.  

Aloha.

Hawaii #6 “Spanish Dancer”

A year ago I was free-diving in Kapalua Bay and I came across a Spanish Dancer.  They are a crazy nudibranch that looks like a dancer's dress when they swim.  I spent an hour following it, just watching and enjoying my time.  It was pretty damn magical.

I spend a great deal of time in the ocean. Snorkeling, diving, fishing, surfing and simply floating around enjoying the peace of being tiny in this massive impartial force.  I continue to work towards my formal composition painting as this was a good experiment with that, I can not see where it may influence the formal work.

I did not plan this idea, I simply let the painting tell me what it was.  That is normally how this expressionistic work pans out.

It was really fun to paint, and it just became as I worked on it.  I had no plan, and I didn’t realize that it was the moments I spent with the Spanish Dancer until it was nearly complete. 

Mahalo for checking me out...

...more to come soon. 

Hawaii #5 “Valley of the Ghost Hand Puppet”

I was finally able to finish a painting.  The last seven months have been very busy tattooing.  I am still working toward my formal composition painting with each of these minor works.  I like the direction this is headed, however I am not prepared to take on the character yet.  I have the construct built, I do not have the liberty to become it yet.  Soon I will be set up where I can remove myself from the daily grind and get to work on the formal composition.

Hawaii #5 “Valley of the Ghost Hand Puppet”

I had a really good time painting this.  It reminds me of snorkeling, floating in the water, peering down beneath rocks and reef, and periodically looking at the mountains reaching deeply into the valley.  There’s more to it than that, but this painting was simply fun.  At one point I felt like the painting itself had failed and I had to rescue it from itself. 

I have been so crazy busy doing tattoos at the shop that I’ve just had no time to really finish this piece.  Which I believe was good because it gave me time to contemplate how I was going to rescue this painting.  It desperately needed to be rescued from the poor compositional choices I made early.

Below are a couple photos of the stages. 

This was really fun and I’m glad to have completed my fifth painting in the series. I am not sure how many of these I have inside me until the series is complete, but I will make the attempt to just keep going.  Everything is heading towards my formal composition “The Peloponnesian War” oil painting.  

2018 was the best year of my life, and I am looking forward to producing more work in 2019 as time allows. 

 Mahalo

Hawaii #4 “Blue Moon over Ukumehame”

Hawaii #4  “Blue Moon over Ukumehame”

Oil on linen. 

My study of Hawaii continues down this compositional rabbit hole, and I am getting somewhere.
I can see elements of this within the formal painting.

This is an abstraction of my time surfing at 1000 peaks. 

I think this is the best study of Hawaii I have come up with yet.  I absolutely love this painting.  I am going to continue with this color form direction with the next study.  This just feels like surfing to me, and I think this one I will keep for a while before I sell it.

This was a enjoyable to paint, and surfing is wonderful. 

Aloha...

Hawaii #3 “Dissonant contrasting organic forms”

Hawaii #3 “Dissonant contrasting organic forms”

New painting finished finally. This was just fun to go all out with what is strange.  I am working on the reading for my formal composition, and I can see it not happening until 2020.  Hopefully I will be set up and able to have the time and space to devote to the work when the time comes.  For now I am happy with the study work going I am doing on linen.  It is all improvisational and playful in its intent, however it is not a work that I complete in a single sitting.  These studies take some time.

I like how this turned out.

Hawaii #2 "To Slide"

I have completed my second study here on Maui; it is simple.  I was working with the octopus and its name “he’e” meaning too slide as it slides along the ocean currents.  This is still all preparation for my large composition.  It is nice to get my hands back to where I want them to be.  

I am still not ready in anyway whatsoever to go on to my formal composition.  I need a year of study and character development first.  It’s definitely fun so far.

New work Hawaii #1 "Between Interruptions"

I have been living in Maui Hawaii for 5 years now.  The majority of my time has been spent tattooing, spearfishing, surfing, and enjoying my life with Athena and our dogs. I have been clearing my mind in preparation for a major compositional oil painting.  This is the first study for the work.

This winter I started a new oil paining.  Nothing too serious, I simply had an idea to work out.  I worked on the painting when I was not tattooing; which is mostly never being that I have been almost booked solid for a few years now.

My life here on Maui is so very different than what it was in Minneapolis.  I have found that the ocean is everything to me.  All I want to do is play in it as often as I can.  With this new painting I decided not put too much academic thought into painting it, and simply paint. I work on it as I have time and at my leasure.  Everything is improvisational as I am only reacting to the work as I do it.

"Between interruptions" 2017

More to come as I finish them. 

Aloha...

Picture From A Collector

A collector of my artwork sent me this pic of my painting in his office space.  

Mahalo.

Compositional elements

I am working on the abstract ideas for my next piece, The Peloponnesian War.  These quick studies are compositional elements that I plan on using in the total composition.  I won't use all of them, but I will keep the good ones that fit the emotion I am working toward.

I will not start the oil painting until November...

...I have a lot of study work to do until then.