figuring it out

made this painting on top of someone else's painting that i had found in the trash. (this isn't the finished thing but it relates to the painting below, which was a second version of this stack painting)
this second one i painted over with purple paint and a pattern in white... it was AWFUL!
so i turned it to the wall, put some paper binding tape on the right and poured latex into the space between the canvas and stretcher.

the paint dried and cracked
i taped the top edge of the binding tape with a piece of duct tape and it was finished... i was realizing that i don't like making "paintings" right now. this is my first "anti-painting"

first piece in the studio

i found a bunch of bungee cord and made a ball from it

the next step was to dip the whole thing in white paint.
it ended up not being a very worthwhile object but when i put it on my newly fabricated pallet it totally changed and looked pretty interesting. sometimes, this is how i make discoveries. this is yet another "failed" piece, but this picture of the ball and the pallet might be important later.

a failed painting

this was an attempt at letting paint bleed under a bundle of wood... it didn't work out very well

the pallet for the prints

this is a bit of a step back but wanted to show the process of re building a pallet for the prints from the pallet that the paper was delivered on.
first i took it all apart

re-assembled to be stronger and better kind of dimension for being a platform for "million"

studio life and changes part 2

i wanted to build a wall so i needed to trim the floor.
building the wall
installing the wall
finishing the wall
the detachable portion of the wall is three feet wide, used to fill a four foot space and allow a twelve inch gap to slip behind the wall
the finished wall section with the detachable part leaning to the left
shot of installation for open studio event
the twelve inch gap is on the right side of the photo
this is the view from the alley where i had found my hardwood flooring... the tallest building with the fire escape is our apartment building from the back
i found another load of flooring recently (i can actually finish my floor and have a full floor instead of a half floor)
organizing
also found some nice old 2x4s and 2x2s that are actually 2x4 and 2x2 (i love old building materials!)

studio life and changes part 1

turning the studio into my own place. once i moved in it was a matter of organizing my collection of stuff so i could really get to work.

the pile of wood in the corner is hardwood flooring that i found in a dumpster behind our apartment a couple months before the semester started... i found it after realizing that i wanted to have a floor in my studio to record my activity these two years of graduate school.
Shauna came to the studio and helped me clean up the flooring and then installed it. the cleaning and installation took quite a while....

i soon realized that there wasn't enough floor to fill the studio. even without the whole studio filled i thought that i could use a half floor (kind of divide the space into work space and show space)
i attached the outside edge of the floor and while i was in class Shauna cleaned it and oiled it. a beautiful floor ready to be used.
the floor being put to good use with a heavy stack of paper on it.


i decided to put up a drape of two old paintings to cover up my collection of junk and show the million rectangles.
back to work again

million rectangles (VI)

this is what the million rectangles looks like as a finished piece (at least for now, i hope to show it as all the prints being visible someday). 6,945 sheets of paper, weighs 900 pounds, is nearly six feet tall (including the pallet it is on).

my studio

this is a quick set of pictures to show what my studio looked like right after i moved in. all of the stuff was either at our apartment (thanks to Brad for helping me haul the apartment stuff down there!) or at the school in the painting racks (i was taking up 6 painting racks and two lockers). having space to spread out and look at the materials i've been collecting has been so awesome! i love having a studio!

million rectangles (V)

okay, i realize that it is taking me a ridiculous amount of time to get this whole process posted, but i think this is almost the end of the million project blog posts... one more is probably in order but almost done with them and ready to move on to what has been happening this first month of the semester (i type that as i realize i'm well into the second month of school already!!!). these pictures are from the last day of printing. Shauna came with me to school and took photos as well as video of this day.

the first plate is on the top of the cabinet and the parts that i cut off of the second plate are on the ground. a fun process with hammer and chisel to knock off the rectangles that i didn't need.
since the plates are based on a grid of 144 i needed a second plate with 80 of the rectangles off of it so i could print the last 64 rectangles. sixty four is such a small number! GRIN.
this is the plate after the excess was knocked off.
the plate after one inking and printing on one sheet of paper. i almost cried when i finished, it was very good to finish and even better because Shauna was there to share the day with me (she is the best helper i could ever imagine!)... i spose that is all that i need to say, i hope that one day all of you who are reading this blog have a chance to see finished project. (i will post one more post later that will show the "finished" piece)