My mural days

There was a period where I painted murals when I lived in Texas. I design 2 logos, signage and a mural which I painted with the help of an assistant for the Ritz building in downtown Mckinney Texas. In the back there was a coffee shop called the backstage coffee shop. Since the coffee shop was opened during the day, I had to paint the mural after hours. The owners would make fresh pots of any coffee that I wanted right before they would lock me in for the night as well as give me free rain of the italian ice machine. When the mural was completed,  I signed it with a torn ticket stub. 

Jeff

Being Self Aware

Halibut, rock sole and flounder are strange looking fish in that the eyes are on one side of their bodies. When I did this drawing I was inspired by the halibut. The idea is that we only see in part or only part of what is going on around us. I've been learning a lot about being more self aware of my surroundings as if adding more eyes on my body to see more. See more, listen more and just be aware of what you do and how it affects other people. There are so many things in a given day that desensitizes us. I call this drawing "being self aware". 

art love

Jeff

Another textured fish painting

When I did this painting, I was experimenting using gel medium. Just a different texture. For the scales I used the head of a nail to get round scale like shapes in the texture. The fins I used a comb while the medium was wet. So many people have commented that this painting looks like stained glass. I guess it's because of the dark line around everything. The title of this painting is "Seize the Day"

art love

Jeff

Textured fantasy fish paintings

In the early 90s, I started a series of fantasy fish paintings that had a heavy texture. I called the series my "Textured Fish paintings". After doing so much tight airbrush painting, I needed to do something that had a wild rough texture. So I got some modeling paste. Opened the jar and used my fingers to wildly wipe it onto hard board. It gave me a sense of freedom to just make a mess. Well I had to dig the modeling paste out from under my fingernails but hey I felt better. No cutting frisket to airbrush. The first painting is called "Blue Freedom" which described what I felt like with this new technique. The next painting is called "Moon Dancers". I took the shape of the shadow of the moon crater and just repeated it. As the shapes come forward they turn into fish. All of these paintings have been studies of shape, color and texture. I use acrylic paint to block in the underpainting and then do dry brush acrylic on top with light colors to just catch the top of the texture. There are a few closeups so you can see the texture. Freedom is a good thing.

art love

Jeff

Art and Soul workshop

Last Fall, Sherri and I took our first art workshop together in Portland, Oregon. We took a class from an artist we admire. Michael deMeng. www.michaeldemeng.com

Micheal is an artist that takes junk and turns it into breathtaking art. Awesome concept. Take something that is trash to the average person and turn it into a treasure. Michael calls it Assemblage or Awesomeblage. 

We learned so much about our perceptions of what can be put together to make a cool art piece. The focus of the class was to take a tuna can and turn it into something. I took my can and added a beetle in glass, door hinge, Altoids tin, metal tooling foil and a taxidermist's fish eye. 

Sherri took her can and added a door hinge, wings, glass face, wire danglers etc.

We had a blast. 

Art is a journey. We wanted to try new things and experience them together especially without the cats getting into everything. 

I'm finding that as I grow there are two types of methods that are helping me open my eyes. One is reacting to something. Put things together and see what happens. Let it evolve.

Second way is by structured planning which tends to be additive by building on a strong foundation. Each method helps to keep me moving forward as an artist.

art love

Jeff

The Art Lounge

So there is this closet that used to be a closet in my house. Sherri had a vision one day and said this is now the art lounge. Why not. It sort of like when you were a kid and you put a blanket over a couple of kitchen chairs and made a tunnel to climb in. Well the art lounge has that kind of feel. It's the place that I have my quiet time and pray. It's a place I go for inspiration. It's a place I can go to pretend the whole world stops for a minute so I can think. 

We hung up art that inspires us and just made it a fun room. Sherri even made a sign.

Jeff

Fantasy Fish Sculpture with Mosiacs

A few years ago I wanted to try inlay mosaics in something. So I took one of my fish designs and cut it out of wood panel. Then I used a dremel tool and cut into the wood the thickness of the mosaic tile. After gessoing the board, I wrapped the fins with copper tooling foil. I used leather tools to pound in designs into the metal (wow that was therapeutic). Then I inlayed the mosaic tile. The blue and cooper tile chemistry was what got me excited. I've been looking a lot at ERTE's work with the iridescent metal embossing on his prints. Last I used acrylic paint to do a faux finish to the fish body. 

After Sherri and I moved up here to the Northwest, we started to see a lot of really cool glasswork. The translucent feel to the glass has really inspired me to think beyond the traditional surface of painting. All of these pieces are experiments, combining elements to get a visual chemistry. That chemistry of elements goes beyond words. It becomes part of the excitement of the artwork taking a life of it's own without me forcing it. I bought a kiln to start doing some clay sculptures and play with glazes. 

Once an artist said to me " Why do this stuff?" basically asking me what is this all for. My replay was "Why not!" Ok this is going to sound artsy fartsy but I don't mean it that way. I feel like the work that I have been doing starting with the fish, cats and landscapes have been honest expressions of my heart. 

honest art love,

Jeff