Category Archives: art

New Series – G.I. Joe style

…and KNOWING is half the battle… GI JOE!

This series will be a challenge… but a FUN challenge.

This idea came out of nowhere…it wasn’t looking for me and I wasn’t looking for it.

I happen to be listening to someone’s conversation.  I wasn’t intentionally dipping into it… it was just VERY loud.

One line of the conversation was: “Now I know.” That’s it.

A vast majority of males currently between the ages of 39-47 are likely familiar with the 1980s afternoon cartoon of a rebooted GI Joe franchise.

At the end of the show, there would always be a life lesson moment… to make sure kids learned something while being psychically compelled to beg parents for action figures and vehicles. Timmy would do something bad, one of the Joes would call Timmy out on his crap, teach him that he messed up and he was now a better Timmy. The kid who messed up would always say, “Now I know.” And the Joe would ALWAYS reply “…and KNOWING is half the battle.”

To this day, 35 years later, WHENEVER someone says, “Now I know” I ALWAYS say (out loud… not to myself) “…and knowing is half the battle… GI JOE!”

Dudes my age get it. If they hear me, I get a knowing nod. Sometimes, I even get help saying the line. It’s a thing that only we understand. That, and we’ve been programmed to do it.

So, it’s G.I. Joe action figure art style for the next series.  YO JOE!

 

Categories: art bob memory lane...

New Series – Modigliani

Modigliani and me

Yes. Amedeo Modigliani is back again. Previously, I used his style for a family portrait late last year. Even before THAT, in 2014 I did a quick colored pencil Bob in his style as well.

Now, as with the previous Hopper series, I felt the need to do every member of my family individually.  The motives are purely selfish – I dig Modigliani’s work and want to do more.  I genuinely feel at home in his style.  But, I’m sure I’ll learn a thing or three diving into his work.

Hope you enjoy this next series… I’m just as eager to see what I’ll do as I hope you are.

Categories: art painting studio thoughts

Covering the walls…

Walls were meant to be covered…

When we moved into our house in 2008, I wanted art all over the walls. The art that I liked and appreciated. Sure, I had (even in 2008) a TON of my own stuff I could put on the walls, but that can get weird if it’s all you and no one else.

Lez didn’t care what I bought… she was more concerned with other things… rightly so. Even so, when I ordered prints of what I wanted, I made sure she knew what was coming.

The three prints I ordered were:

Picasso’s The Old Guitarist Hopper’s Nighthawks and this…

My plan was to hang all of these in the living room. That plan was altered.

Lauren (at the time she was 5 going on 6) was freaked out by the guitarist. He ended up in my small studio. The 50 Foot Woman was deemed not suitable for the living room. We “debated on that one for a while… with her ending up next to the guitarist in my studio. The Hopper painting was acceptable. That’s when she asked to see more work like that… Two scrolls later I purchased a print of Hopper’s Cape Cod Evening.

Lez liked it because there was a collie in it.  I liked it because it was a Hopper… and as mentioned before, at that time, I was just starting Grad school with plans to become the next Edward Hopper. Lez’s collie Lady was still with us and making my life interesting.

I’d always meant to do a painting of Lady for Lez… but just never got around to it. Not that I would do something like the Hopper, but just something.

Fast forward a decade plus two and the guitarist, Nighthawks and 50ft. woman have long been rolled up and stored. But the collie is still hanging in the living room… in the same spot I hung it in 2008.

For the last Hopper in the family series, I thought it would be appropriate to put Lez and Maggie in Cape Cod for the day. Maybe someday this image will hang in Lauren’s living room.

Categories: art painting

Tags:

Edward Hopper and me…

Ed and Frank

I’ve always loved the work of Edward Hopper… I may have only said that 3,293,112 times to you and the world.
Hell, when I applied to Graduate school I fancied myself becoming the next Edward Hopper. Seriously. I managed to get in the program without a single cartoon piece. My entrance portfolio consisted only of paintings.
I wasn’t concerned with becoming a better Frank Page… I wanted to be the next Edward Hopper… which is the definition of illogical logic. I guess I really needed grad school (and the subsequent student loans I’ll NEVER pay off) to get that horribly idea out of my head and bury it. Still… love Hopper.
I’ve studied the work. I’ve studied the man. For years.
But… (there’s always a ‘but’)
Sitting before his work and trying to re-create it… I’m realizing that I didn’t know him at all… despite what my overloaded bookshelf conveys. You only get to know an artist (somewhat) by painting a mile in their work.
So, I think I know Hopper better. I also think he and I wouldn’t get along. Just a hunch. Probably a personality thing more than anything.

Categories: art painting Uncategorized