Caravaggio my Studio dog.

I rescued a puppy at a shelter in hayward Wisconsin.  I fell in love with my girlfriends dog, so i just had to have one.  Three years of training and I now have the type of dog I wanted.  He is now three years old and I couldn't go without him.  Check out some pics.

 Here he is in his first studio...

 Here he is in his first cone of shame...

 He still does this, if a window is open he will stand there and look out...

 2 years old

Here he is with his second cone of shame...

His special Carhartt hoodie for winter.  

New Chair design

This winter my friend Aaron Conner from Paraselenic Studio designed and built a set of chairs for "Roller Revolution" a roller girls store here in Minneapolis.  

We did a good job with these, and we do plan on tweaking the design some.  As they are we can make them with cushioned seats or decorative slats that have any direction to them.  

We designed these from scratch, taking some influence from a living room chair from the 50's.

Aaron and I after we finally completed our first set of chairs. They are very comfortable.

Painted, polished, and ready to sit in.

Thanks for siting in on my blog...

...check back soon there is more to come.

New painting -step by step.

This is a new piece I completed a few months ago.  It is an older idea that I started in 2008 that had to be delayed because of my accident I was unable to complete this until now.

It is titled...

BitTorrent #7 "Interventio, The story of Calypso" 

48x36 oil on linen

2010

With each work of art that i create i start with an academic study of my subject matter. In this case the story of Calypso from greek mythology.  I tried to read everything i could about her, the people that wrote about her and why, what was going on in the area the writers were living in, and what was the social view of live in general or the weltanschau at the time.  

For this piece i studied the painting "Calypso" oil on canvas 1869, by Karl Ernest Rodolphe Heinrich Salem Lehmann.  I Work at the Minneapolis Institute of arts as a gallery guard part time and over the past 5 years I have had the chance to truly observe this painting.  

After I feel satisfied with my study work (which i do because i just enjoy it), I then start to sketch out the composition.  Abstracting my study drawings until I find a composition that represents the subject-matter and in this case, the oil painting I was taking my inspiration from. 

Here are a few iphone pictures of the process on canvas...

To the finished oil painting...

  

Artwork of the month: American landscape.

There was an exhibit of paintings owned by local Minneapolis collectors at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts early in 2009.  For the most part I found the exhibit okay, but the idea of celebrating the wealthy was as distasteful as citrus after brushing your teeth.  Out of that revelry for the rich and their possessions I came to admire a brilliant example of expressionistic realism.

Last week I was surprised to find out the MIA purchased the painting in the exhibit that I felt was the best in show.  And here I believed that I would never see it again.

Theodore Robinson

American, 1852-1896

"Farm among hills, Giverny"

1887

Oil on canvas

"I must beware of the photo, get what I can of it and then go."

-Theodore Robinson


oh, the exhibit was titled "nobel dreams & simple pleasures..."
...wow what jerks.

My paint palette

I have been working with a new palette, or at least a new set of oil colors.  I prefer to work with Old holland oil paints, but recently i found a company called Williamsburg that creates oil colors at the same quality as the old Liquitex oils from the 70's.

The new colors have inspired me to reinvestigate my ides of mixing and preparing oils.  I decided to start out with a classic layout of the colors.  Starting with the Atelier stye of laying out ones palette in the form of the color wheel.  It makes mixing easy for any artist.

Then from there I just start the mixing and add colors as I need them...

It is a simple, and later on ill edit this post with some of my literature on oil color and mixing.

Artwork of the month: Immaculate Madonna.

Every now and then a work of art truly inspires me, or I just like it so I talk about it.  

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has been purchasing a great deal of quality works as of late.  One of the best acquisitions lately has been the "Immaculate Madonna" by Giacomo Antonio Ponsonelli.  It was purchased by Eike Schmidt, the curator of the decorative arts and sculpture.  Here is a link to a pretty cool video about the work.

This sculpture was recently acquired by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts at a bargain price, but that is another story.  I love this sculpture, it is truly a masterwork.  Now I can spend as much time as I want observing it, and someday if I feel inclined to do so, create my interpretation of it for today.

Giacomo Antonio Ponsonelli

Italian, 1654-1735

"Immaculate Madonna"

1710, marble


Go to the MIA and take a look at this...
...it is worth the time.

Starting over after the accident.

I have not worked on this blog for a long time. 

In 2009 I was hit by a car.  It was very serious, I suffered a traumatic brain injury that has changed my life completely. When I say it has changed my life, I truly mean every aspect of my life. 

My professional career as an artist suffered as a result of the accident.  Normally, over the last 12 years I have always had a rotating collection of oil paintings.  I would always have at least five new works, three or more that I was working on, and three or more that were leaving the studio door in sales.  I was able to keep that up because I was able to paint all of the time, every spare moment that I had I painted. 

As a result of my recovery time my remaining works were sold without me being able to create replacements.  

I intend to rebuild my collection, and then open sales up again.  I will be taking commissions and continuing with my commercial works during this rebuild of my studio collection. I will need some time, as I work slower than before.  

Before the accident...

I worked full time and very often worked overtime. I was never working less than 40 hours a week.  I went to college part time and maintained a 4.0 grade average.  I also was working on my oil paintings daily and maintaining a professional career in the arts as a professional artist. 

My average daily schedule was...

Wake up about 5:30 or 6am, get ready for my day and then start working on my oil paintings.  I worked on my paintings until 7am when I had to leave for work.  I worked a full 8 hour day. On school days I went to class then came home and did my study work until about 12 or 1am. On days I didn't have class I went right out to the studio and painted until about 12pm or 1am.  Then I was right back up at 5:30 again.

On my 2 days off (if I had not signed up for overtime which I did on a regular basis) I worked in the studio all day from 7 or 8 am until about 2am. 

I didn't go out more than once or twice a month and when I did I had a pretty good time. 

I also rode my bike everywhere and I was in fantastic shape. 

I had lived this very busy life for 12 years straight.  It was who I was and I loved it. 

This is my life after the accident...

First off, I was out of work for a year and four months.  The entire time I was completely unable to paint.  I first started back to work 4 days a week but had to reduce to my work hours to three days according to my doctor.

I can't paint for very long, and I am unable to work on paintings for very long because I live with a bad headache every day.  When I say a bad headache every day, I mean it. 

I have been on 15 different kinds of drugs to help with my headaches. Nothing works. 

I'm tired all the time.  Not just tired, exhausted. 

I can't ride my bike for several reasons, the #1 reason being if I exert myself I'll get a migraine headache that lasts an entire day. 

So needless to say, it will take me longer to create a new set of oil paintings as I cannot work fast and my responsibilities commercially are pretty heavy.  Eventually things will return to normal for me.  I will keep posting as I complete work.

-Adam

hospital update.

Hi this is Athena,

Adam was hit by a car that ran a red light while the driver was talking on her cellphone this week.  He was ridding his bike and he had a bike helmet on that we think saved his life.  He is hurt pretty badly and we aren't sure what is going to happen next.

All upcoming events, exhibitions and commissions will be put on hold until Adam recovers from his injuries.

Thanks for your understanding.
Athena (his love)

(This post was copied from an email sent to Adams mailing list in 2009.)