July painting marathon

Julie and I painted another 12 hour painting marathon tuesday. We decided to make it the kind of painting marathon that would challenge us to push our art boundaries a little, so she committed to making one giant painting in the 12 hours, and I gave myself the task of trying to create a visual narrative with my paintings. We probably had way too much fun, and though we had our moments of doubt, we made some pretty kick ass art.

Here is a bigger version of Julie's painting, it transformed so much as she worked on it, and I love the finished product. We decided to call it bottel rocket:

Here is a bigger version of my story about a star-keeper. He collects stars in a large net and takes them to nebulas where they turn into star honey. When this honey drips through the night sky it fills up this constellation of a woman, and she falls into the ocean. There she decides to tie feathers to sharks. The end could use a few more panels. I think she might attach messages to the feathers or something like that.

the light

The quaker version of prayer is called holding someone in the light, which has always struck me as a beautiful way to think of it. Today in an effort to hold someone in the light, I made this series of paintings exploring the concepts of prayer, support and love. 

Contemporary role models

I've been think a lot about what it means to be an artist lately. I have spent the majority of June/ July so far hanging art in shows and going to art events, to meet people, talk about art, and look at art. While this hasn't given me much studio time, I've only made about 7 or 8 paintings this time, it has given me much to think about in terms of what an artists is and what their role can be in the larger world.

Since then I've been on the search for contemporary artist role models. Interestingly a friend sent me this video of a TED talk featuring artist Shea Hembrey. Who in search of artist roll models seems to have invented his own. http://www.ted.com/talks/shea_hembrey_how_i_became_100_artists.html
So much of what he said about the creative process and many of the general trends in contemporary art are things that I have been struggling with myself. I especially appreciated his ability to create a project that not just allows, but encourages him to work in as many different styles as possible.

So he is my artist role model of the day. Also TED talks are probably going to change my life.