1. It began as another of my Sebastian paintings.

2. Some major fiddling later, the earlier version was nearly obliterated.

3. This round of changes was far less severe, and was more of a balancing and tuning, rather than a radical change

3. detail

I’m happy with where this painting ended up, but I confess that some part of me misses the first version pictured above.

Gameshow (Spectacle)
Pencil, ink, acrylic and collage on canvas
20″ x 16″
2007

is now

Founder
Acrylic, collage and block print on canvas
20″ x 16″
2009

Below are a couple of photos of another new painting in progress.

Phase 1 – I did the first layer of this painting in the same working session when I did the first layer of another painting (see the entry from last month).

Phase 2 – The main pictorial element is a late example from the Romance Comic series of collages. I added thie and the other layers of[aint in one session. Like the previous painting, it may or may not be complete. Actually, I feel that this one is finished, or at least mostly finished, but it is now making me question the finished status of the one that preceded it.

Detail

Here are a couple of photos of one of my new – thus far untitled – paintings in progress.

I’m not sure if it is done yet, but I like where it’s going. I’ll let this one sit until Phase 3  – if there is to be one – makes itself known.

Updated March 8, 2010

Phase 3

After working on this other painting, I decided that the surface seemed too thin or weak, and I worked on this painting once more. I think the palette in this iteration is much richer.

Here are two photos of a recently completed painting in the ongoing Sebastian Series.

Phase 1 – 2007 – “Black Site”

Acrylic and collage on canvas
20″ x 16″
2007

Phase 2 – November 2009 – “Questioning”

Acrylic, collage and block print on canvas
20″ x 16″
2009

Here is a painting that has gone through quite a few re-workings.

Phase 1 – A first layer of old journal pages is laid down, and some earthy-colored shapes are added.

Phase 2 – New collage layers are added in the attempt to create an entry point, a new center of focus. The figure, arguably the previous focal point, recedes into background. Additional paint obscures large portions of the journal text.

Phase 3 – The main focal point of the previous version is largely obliterated, and new text added from a different source.  The figure is further obscured by the addition of the kouros image on the right. The painting becomes increasingly dark and murky, and I set it aside.

Phase 4 – After moving to a new studio, I do a radical re-working of the picture with major changes to the palette and the submersion of much of the previous version. A few collage elements from Phase 2, as well as the text and kouros from Phase 3 remain.

Phase 5 -  I toned down the high-keyed palette and quieted the overall composition with large areas of texture and more subdued colors. All of the original journal text has now been completely covered. Nothing, in any real sense, remains of the first phase.

Is it done? I’m not sure, but I have once again set it aside, and it feels more done than at any another point since the first one. I admit I kind of miss the embryonic form, but I like where it is now.

I recently scanned a book I made back in 1994. I was living in Boston at the time, and happened across several old books that had been discarded. Actually, it looked as if someone had died and their apartment had been cleaned out.

Included in the pile were some old medical books, some children’s books in Russian, and central to the creation of this work, some notebooks used for practicing written English.

There were many interesting phrases. Why, for example, would one practice writing “to take a walk down quicksand?” It was an evocative image.

I began to tear phrases out of the notebooks and arranged them on a table top into a collaged narrative. The process took a few days as I shuffled the fragments around, adding new bits here, taking out bits there. I then began to collect images from the other books to create illustrations of the constructed tale, and arranged the pieces into pages.

Click on the first thumbnail below to view the complete story.

Here are three recent paintings, completed since the beginning of the year. Well, at least I think they’re complete. They feel complete but they are also still in that lingering phase, and they all need to be titled.

The first painting below currently has the working title of Collaborator. Previously it was called Captive (2). I’m not completely sold on either title yet. I think I need to get a better photo of it, but I’m very happy with the outcome of this painting. (Note 04-14-2008: new photo taken, the title is growing on me.)

The second painting is another in the series of St. Sebastian themed works. It has the working title of Deluged, but that’s not really working for me. Other titles under consideration include The Lonely Age, Darling Whore, and The Summing Up. Those are derived from chapter titles in the collaged table of contents from the book The Homosexual Generation. Another chapter from this ridiculous diatribe is called “The Wave of the Future,” which probably informed the addition of the wave shape at the bottom of he painting, as well as the current (non)working title.

Finally we have another Sebastian painting. This one is currently just Untitled. Someday the right title will fall into place.

As I have noted before on this site, sometimes a painting goes though many different phases before settling on a final form.

The picture below shows an early stage of a work. Hanging on the studio wall it acquired and shed various objects. It is taped and tied together like a temporary shelter. An assemblage of scraps, it includes a discarded silkscreen frame and a wire form, art tools used by my recent ex.

In this second state the work has taken on a more permanent appearance. Elements are screwed and glued into place. Layers of collage have taken hold. The coral branches have vanished, and the nest-like material has moved from behind the green field to the behind the metal grate.

A narrative seems to be forming. At the top of the painting to the right of the dome, a figure departs.

At the bottom of the painting a figure waits. The work acquires the title Divergence.

In the center panel, a hand hovers above a coiled spring as if feeling the vibrations. Standing below is the Page of Cups, a symbol of some sort of new beginning or renewal. Lodged into the hole in the canvas is a Resurrection Plant.

And now the painting itself diverges.

The center canvas is detached and becomes a freestanding work called The Hand That Takes. It receives a new layer of painting to tune the color.

The back canvas, previously largely hidden, becomes a separate work called Severance.

And they lived separately happily ever after…