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"Art"
An epic memorial to the great Magic wars of ’09.
Oil on canvas. 24×36″
Below: George ponders the complexities of his winning strategies.
Below: Matt bristles at Fate.
Below: Andy observes while tinkering with Ableton Live.
After playing Brutal Legend and being perennially entertained by supernatural cataclysm I was in the mood for something that Boded Ill for Humanity. After doodling some colossal beasts I began this small painting. After getting a round layout done I needed something to show the scale, so I got a couple of friends to pose for me for a quick photo reference.
After finishing the painting, I took a photo and pulled it apart into layers in Photoshop so I could animate it in After Effects.
This past summer Lauren and I overheard our niece and nephew as we had ice cream together.
This was prompted by a request for a cow robot from months ago. I decided to try oils again, and was pretty happy with the way the oil paint behaved compared to the acrylics I’ve been using.
As a companion piece to the other WoW druid painting, I present to you, Caturday Nite is All Rite for Fite.
The chief inspiration again is Alamo’s guide, somehow combined with Elton John for no real reason. The Alamo is in the background on the left.
There are a few other details alluding to some other things. The cat in the left corner is inspired by this video. The robot references Keith Kadera’s main complaint about WoW: not enough robots. Pilot Mountain looms in the background as a reminder of my native region.
I found an awesome frame for it at the flea market.
In my early years, I often spent time absorbing the pages of my mom’s art books. It was invaluable, and at least in this one case, amusing. At some point, maybe I was 10 I stumbled upon a reproduction of Odilon Redon’s painting of the Cyclops.
Odilon Redon's The Cyclops
I don’t remember exactly what I thought, but I think I found it a little creepy. Although this monster seems soppy and is probably harmless, the fact that he’s leering at a naked woman didn’t escape me.
Regardless of speculation on my psychological response, I now have hard evidence of an artistic response.
The Cyclops and Pegasus
Here we see the monster is back, but wears a pointed horn and carries a spiked club. A knight wearing a spartan style helmet challenges the beast. Pegasus is tied to a rock and is none too happy about it. Now that I think about it, couldn’t Pegasus just fly upwards pulling the loop of the rope off the rock? It reminds me of how I got my bike stolen in Savannah.
The triumvirate of spartan warrior, Pegasus and the Cyclops certainly recalls Harryhausens work in the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Clash of the Titans. Clash of the Titans was released in 1981 and it was certainly an influence.
Harryhausen's Cyclops
My Cyclops' Ugly Mug
Perhaps the knight is saying “Stay away from my woman!” or perhaps I was just disappointed with the flowery sentimentality of Redon’s impressionism and wanted to create a more meat and potatoes take on the Cyclops.
I finished this painting a month or two ago, but I’ve been busy with a lot of other things that have prevented me from updating the blog.
A while back, Lauren was singing this nursury song :
In the leafy treetops, the birds sing “Good morning.”
They’re first to see the sun. They must tell everyone.
In the leafy treetops, the birds sing “Good morning.”
In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.
“How do you do?” they say. “How do you do today?”
In my pretty garden, the flowers are nodding.
But she was changing the words a bit. In her version, one of our cats named Max was saying “Good Morning.” I was amused by the idea of our bright eyed fluffy cat cheerfully greeting terrified birds in the morning.
There’s also a tiny tribute to Q*bert in this one.
When I was about 16 I was pondering centralized control of media, especially TV, and the fact that most people didn’t seem to mind the pablum they were fed. Possibly inspired by the Macintosh commercial of 1984, I drew this pen and ink drawing of a mohawk festooned punk rocker jabbing an oversized needle into the glassy eye of the idiot box.
I started a new painting late last year as a 20 year re-visitation of the theme. A lot has changed in the realm of media outlets, distribution and the offerings available to anyone anywhere. Between the Internet and Tivo, I’ve been able to jab my own sharp needle into the baleful eye of the thing I really hated about TV, the commercials.
So I thought it would be a good time to revisit the theme.
The painting is 24×30 on hard board, and was larger than anything I’ve attempted recently. So it took me forever to finish it. It has the recurring one eyed monsters and lizard men I’ve been painting and drawing reecently, but there are a few other noteworthy cameos.
Here is the punk from the original drawing, 20 years later. Now he’s married and is trying to figure out how to plug the TV in. The original tv is also there, on its side, obsolete and useless.
Here’s my mom and dad riding around in my dad’s a-model hot rod project car.
Here we can see David Rose, Tommy Long, and Doctor Who peeking out of the Tardis. He’s not sure he wants to get involved with this mess, because it’s a tangle that can’t be solved without guns, face punching and biting. Dave on the other hand, is in his element, gleefully chasing a monster with a broken beer bottle. Tommy is putting his hockey equipment to good use as well.
Matt Turner is wearing part of his Spartan costume while George uses his MTG cards to cast some sort of spell. Behind them is a LARPer, casting a level 1 Lightning Bolt.
Finally, there’s Lauren, reloading her Beretta, while my brother Jon lines up a shot. The Time Bandits are making a quick getaway. The item they were after has already been stolen . . .
Man, this is an old post from last year. I never got around to publishing it until now. It’s an interesting note about my varnishing process and the musty old frame I found.
8 coats of varnish. Here’s my varnish schedule!
1-21-08, 9am – 1st coat
1-21-08, 12:40pm – 2nd
1-21-08, 4pm – 3rd
1-21-08, 9pm – 4th
1-22-08, 9pm – 5th
1-23-08, 8am – 6th
1-24-08, 7am – 7th
1-26-08, 2:30pm – 8th
And that’s when I ran out of my varnish mix. I could have mixed some more, but I was satisfied with the wet glossiness by this time.
I found an authentically crusty old frame from the flea market. It had a reprint of a photo of Confederate Army Leadership in it when I bought it.
