Ataraxia, Oil on Canvas, 45 X 60 inches, 2012

Work in progress.

I put in another productive session in the studio today.

Here is another painting that I am working on. It is based on diagrams of the eight iterations of the Hilbert space-filling curve. I encountered the diagrams when I was researching mathematical curves and fractals. I was intrigued by its space-filling function, so I decided to experiment with that idea. Putting the curve into practice helps me understand the concepts behind it. My drawings deviate quite drastically from the diagrams that I saw, but traces of it are apparent in the overall design. The scale is 42″ X 54″ and it is oil on canvas.

Please visit the Park Schreck Gallery website for more information.
http://parkschreckgallery.com/

I had another productive weekend in the studio. This painting is nearly finished. It feels great to be making work again purely for the sake of making work. I enjoy being able to let the work develop on its own accord without any concern for time or looming deadlines. I can wander further down avenues to see where they lead, and I can switch projects mid stream. I can take more risks and paint through my obstacles.

This is what I paint for.

This is the painting that I am currently working on. I started it in the spring, but it was set aside in order for me to meet exhibition deadlines and focus on other projects. At the time I didn’t want to force the painting into a series that it didn’t fit into. I also knew that I had enough work going for the exhibitions that I had committed to, and that my energy was best spent finishing that work. This painting was headed somewhere different, and I wanted to give it the time that it deserved. Now that the dust has settled, I have returned to this painting to see where it will end up. It feels good to be painting purely for myself again. Deadlines are great, but the compromises that you make to fulfil them can be counterproductive. At the start of a project, your mind is swimming in the possibilities, but as the deadline looms you shift focus to what’s probable. You choose to work on one thing over another, and sometimes you would have rather worked on the one you didn’t choose. That’s how art goes. I’m just happy that I have this opportunity to re-visit this painting.

The Real Book About Space Travel
by Hal Godwin & Illustrated by Clifford Geary.
Garden City Books, New York, 1952

Earlier this summer I rescued this book from a discard pile. Someone in my studio building had placed a box of books near the garbage cans when they moved out. I rifled through the box and I found “The Real Book About Space Travel” by Hal Goodwin. What caught my attention was the style of Clifford Geary’s illustrations and that the book was originally published in 1952.

I’m drawn to a book like this because of what it represents. It offers a nostalgic vision of the future, one bridled with optimism and wonder. The depiction of space travel is utopic and it was designed to spark the imagination as much as, if not more than, it was to inform. The illustrations convey a sense of hope and inquiry. I can only imagine what the reader thought about the future when they flipped through these pages sixty years ago. For them it may have represented a future that was attainable or just out of their reach. Whereas now, this book provides a better glimpse into a past than it does into the future.It marks a period of time and a specific world-view that was held then.

That idyllic future has faded, but this recorded vision of it remains.

My Crowded Desk

I have begun the arduous task of learning the 3D modelling program known as Blender. As you can see from the above image, my  desk is a little cramped at the moment. On the left, I have the donated computer up and running, and booted with Ubuntu 12.04. On the right I have a Mac-mini running OSX 10.6. I’m primarily working with one while watching tutorial videos on the other.

My goal is to use Blender to design objects and components for 3D printing. Blender has a steep learning curve, but I am gradually picking it up. I always remind my students to not set out on learning everything at once. It is best to only concern yourself with the task at hand. By this I mean, if my goal were to build 3D models, then I won’t have to worry about animation functions or camera panning. However, I do need to learn more about modifying meshes and sculpting objects.