"666" series of paintings

To continue catching this blog up to the present let us take a look at my past again...

When I was working on this sextet things were not going my way.  Just before this painting I was selling my work on a regular bases.  I was also spending money like there was no tomorrow, thinking that this sales wave would never end.

It did, and as sales of paintings had stopped for several months, I was less than broke and fast going into serious debt to characters that I should have just stayed away from.  I started throwing parties where I sold paintings for next to nothing just to get some cash together for food, which sucked as I was only eating rice because I could buy a 50lb bag for twenty dollars.  If I was lucky I had canned tuna to go with my rice.  Things sucked.

This 6 panel work is a self-portrait from a previous studio.  It was painted to simply reflect the moment in a clever way. 

Adam M. Considine  1998

666 a

oil on canvas

666 b

oil on canvas

666 c

oil on canvas

666 d

oil on canvas

666 e

oil on canvas

666 f

oil on canvas

We all go through the self imposed lessons of being broke...

...It sucks, we find a way to survive and do better next time.

Artwork of the month: Nintendo and the Annuciation.

I have always found this painting funny.  My first memory of truly looking at it was with Philip Hoffman jumping in place circling his arms like wings in front of it saying "pew pew, shoots it right into the womb like a laser, LIKE A LASER" and seriously I can never get that moment out of my head when look at this painting.  

and why would I want to...

Just look at it, teasing the 2d world like an original nintendo game, 8-bit and all.  The bird shooting jesus like a laser beam... 

...shooting the kid right in there.

Girolamo de Santacroce

Italian, 1503-1556

"the Annuciation"

1540, oil on panel

A good comparison is Kid Icarus, the original Nintendo gem from 1986.

scene from a Nintendo game with lasers.

With this side by side comparison of lasers and angels from the golden age of video games we can reveal the truth of the annunciation.  Jesus was shot into the womb with a laser beam.  Right out of the mouth of a dove, or dirty street pigeon just take your pick.  

Shark composition studies

These studies were improvisational and completed while watching live sharks at the underwater world aquarium. Living in the midwest it was the only place I could go to see live sharks.

I sat around the aquarium for a couple of days just watching and thinking about how to abstract a shark. I am sure the employes labeled me "the creepy silent guy drawing" and thats cool I am sure I was just that.

Here are a few of the studies from that time.

This was back in a time when I was exploring the ideas of representation as abstraction...

...maybe I will paint like this again someday as it does have a bit of merit.

"Shark Compositions" series of paintings

This series was a painted during a time in my life (1998 - 1999) when compositional abstraction and my ideas of being the mental state of your work as you work on it was completely new to me.  I had been a portrait artist that converted to still life, and abstraction just felt right. or so I think, memory fails us as we go back and look a our lives, as I am sure it is for me.

Artist statement

This series was intended to present the various mental states of an individual soldier during and after war.  The mythology of the Hawaiian Islands to represent the identity of a shark as a metaphor to symbolize said mental state of a soldier.  The mythology of the pacific islands believe that when an individual is acting out of place he is wearing the spirit and identity  of a shark.

As a source of inspiration I looked toward the behavioral traits of schizophrenia; conflicts of confusion both rational and irrational, violence, an adolescent-like lust, and lack of self-control, as the foundation for my methods used in the application of paint.

War being what it is induces an almost schizophrenic-like psychology to the fundamental beliefs of right and wrong.  Wrong is only in question when it is committed on the individuals perception of interpretation.

Adam M. Considine 1999

Shark 1 "Knights" 

oil on canvas

60" x 48"

Shark 2 "Wounded a" 

oil on canvas

50" x 96"

Shark 3 "Wounded b" 

oil on canvas

96" x 60"

Shark 4 "Civilian a" 

oil on canvas

48"x 24"

Shark 5 "Enemy" 

oil on canvas

70" x 20"

Shark 6 "Liberty" 

oil on canvas

24" x 30"

Shark 7 "Artillery" 

oil on canvas

48" x 60"

Shark 8 "Civilian b"

oil on canvas 

48" x 24"

Shark 9 "Civilian c" 

oil on canvas

22" x 18"

Shark 10 "Lady Liberty" 

oil on canvas

60" x 48"

Shark 11 "Acceptable Civillian Death" 

oil on canvas

22" x 30"

Shark 12 "Wound" 

oil on canvas

18" x 22"

Shark 13 "Village" 

oil on canvas

48" x 24"

Shark 14 "Death" 

oil on canvas

30" x 15"

Shark 15 "One Foot in a" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Shark 16 "One Foot in b" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Shark 17 "One Foot in c" 

oil on canvas

60" x 36"

Shark 18 "Four of Hearts" 

oil on canvas

36" x 36"

Shark 19 "The City" 

oil on canvas

48" x 36"

Shark 20 "Conception" 

oil on canvas

60" x 48"

I had a good time working on these...

...I sold all of them.

Artwork of the month: The Doryphoros

This month I want to write about one of my favorite sculptures at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Doryphoros.

This sculpture is a Roman copy of Greek bronze sculpture.  Wealthy Romans has marble copies of Greek sculptures as a status trend.  This copy of the Doryphoros is one of five left in the world and this one is almost completely intact.  And it is in little old Minneapolis, permanently.  

The proportions of the Doryphoros are in perfect balance between tension and relaxation.  

take a good look at the pose he stands in, looks familiar doesn't it.  We all stand this way, we rest while we stand.  

The man is not simply standing, he is in motion as the sculpture shows us the balance of his gait.

Roman 

The Doryphoros

120-50 B.C.E.

Marble

I have spent 11 years admiring this sculpture...

...I have yet to tire of its visage.