A Curve in the Norrkoping Library

A Curve in the Norrkoping Library. Libraries are warm and free. The library in Norrkoping not only had books and windows for walls, but also a stone statue carving of a curve.

Which is nice.

This library also had an indoor water fountain. I can only presume that placing a statue of a curve next to the water was an attempt to evoke a three-dimensional manifestation of a ripple.... We'll say, "A Ripple as it Emerges in Time". But, maybe not. I can't read Swedish... Actually, that's what's so nice about curves... they can be used to model lots of things...

Notice the English Bookshop bookmark?

A Museum Visit - Moderna Museet in Stockholm

A Museum Visit. Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The Four Elements by Alexander Calder.
Calder distills form and movement into essential symbols like few other people. I'm surprised he's so often associated with the Surrealists...

I'm also surprised at the artificially driven kinetic motion of each element. I had no idea....

The English Bookshop Guestbook

The English Bookshop Guestbook. We were wandering around Stockholm, looking for a warm place to have an adventure. Enter the English Bookshop in old town Stockholm.

"Yes! Julie, they have a guestbook... Grab a book to read..."
-Which book?
"Any book... You only have to pretend to read it anyway..."

Little did either of us know that she would pick the Horrible History of the World. Which is my least favourite type of book. Hers too...

-Do I have to keep reading this? I hate it.
"Yes! You picked it... Just pretend that you like it."

Sometimes I have a demanding personality. But fifteen minutes is not so long, is it?
The English Bookshop. Old town Stockholm, about 8pm. Fifteen minutes later, we were warm. Time for Julie to sign the guestbook too...
...so she signed the guestbook in the guestbook... get it?

Women Watering Plants

Women Watering Plants. A women watering plants. North London, late-July, 2008.

I'm in Sweden right now.

Putting the Pieces Together

Putting the Pieces Together. Meg is amazing! I came home tonight and found a box sitting on the shelf in my anteroom. Postmark: America.
Not knowing what to expect, I carefully ran a slice around the perimeter of the box lid. Meg had taped everything together rather carefully.
Hmm. A puzzle. I knew exactly what to do.

To read the letter, I had to put the pieces of my puzzle together.... so I did.

I love getting packages, and my favourite packages contain interactive art...

...Jackpot.

Interactive puzzle art via post. Never have I received such a package, such a letter, such an experience. A little adventure, sent to be had at my leisure...

Thank you, Meg :)

Purple Flowers Waving in the Wind

Purple Flowers Waving in the Wind. Imagine an outline of every purple flower that this plant has ever produced. Place each outline on top of one another. Every new flower would add another iteration, eventually approximating an ideal shape.

Picture that shape.

(Did you catch the Yoko Ono allusion?)

A Studio Visit

A Studio Visit. With Mike, from Detroit Transit Railroad. Sketchbooks hold the secrets of our lives.

They keep and capture the fleeting thoughts of an active mind.

One day Mike made a marquette. 2-inches tall.
He's designing plans for a dwelling, as tall as a water tower. With an observation deck.

Rain on the Roof

Rain on the Roof. Interstate 95 Southbound to Petersburg. August 2008. I like watching the droplets of rain move like organisms up the glass.

A random street in London. You can tell it's raining because I'm holding an umbrella. September 2008.

Just a few minutes later and I'm still walking in the rain. But you can't tell because the droplets were almost not big enough to be considered particles so I thought that I was sliding through a continuous mist.

Back to the Fan, Richmond, Virginia. August 2008 again. Vertical lines left trails in the night before landing light and liquid in my eyes. Then, there were puddles. And the droplets were discrete entities and I wanted to catch them all.

The Gnarly Tree

The Gnarly Tree. Notice the approach.

An alley in Richmond, Virginia. One sunny day in August.
This tree eats things. One of its' trunks is hollow to the bottom.
But, at least this particular gnarly tree is nice enough to return objects once it's done devouring them.

Painting Gabriela on the Couch with Pillows

Painting Gabriela on the Couch with Pillows.

Video. Look closely, and you can see the black and white sketch (in oil) leaning against the wall.

Second Letter to a Lost Love

Second Letter to a Lost Love. I really, really enjoyed putting this letter in its package. The people in the post office liked it too... I also included chocolate. and sprayed the pages with cologne. Dior. Fahrenheit 32.

Leave a comment.

paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Last Letter for a Lost Love

Last Letter for a Lost Love. Friday, May 23rd. 2008. You may have noticed that I'm not in Istanbul.
In fact, when my plane was supposed to take off (7:50pm), I was on the Millennium Bridge, opposite the Tate Modern museum on the southbank of the Thames river in London.
Luckily, the sun was guiding me. Bright and opalescent, I let the energy ride the wind and bring me peace.

It was really loud walking across the bridge.

The pages stayed together from the Millennium Bridge to the London Bridge, until they became bright lights in the waves.

I hope that these pages find their way home.

Leave a comment.

paintings.drawings.arithmetic.

Voyage Countdown Video Trailer

Voyage Countdown Video Trailer. Contains absolutely no drawings from London. Instead, a collection of thoughts, phrases, pictures, and places from the spring and summer of 2006. New York, Washington DC, friends, enemies, bottles, whirlwinds, the list of people to whom I gave over 200 paintings at my going away party... I drew numbers from a top hat (so as not to introduce favorites) to decide who would choose when... It's fascinating to compare the order of the draw (and more interestingly, the order of the choose) with my own estimations of a paintings strength...

The Influence of Symbols on A Pigeon I & II

The Influence of Symbols on A Pigeon I. Symbols are abstractions, defined by context. Remove the context, and you remove the meaning.

In this movement I conduct an experiment to see how a neutral participant, one with no pre-formed symbolic conceptions, would react to a rather ubiquitous symbol.

A Cardboard Painting of a Woman

A Cardboard Painting of a Woman. Lesson #5: Preparing the Ground.

Last week, Meral painted the cardboard white. We were using time wisely while waiting for the basecoat to dry on her official portrait.

Then. We worked on the couch pose a bit more before putting a coat of blue on the cardboard for good luck.

Last night, I needed to warm-up before putting in the next stage of color on the portrait.

So, I used the cardboard to make a quick sketch of Meral. It was a nice way to reintroduce myself to my pallete. At first, she hated it. But, then I fixed the drawing. Now she likes it more than the "real" picture.

You may recognize my red chair. While painting last night, I realized how beautiful Meral's portrait was turning out. Which is when I fell through the seat....

Sketchbook: The Necklace Video Trailer

Sketchbook: The Necklace Video Trailer. The week started innocently enough, a Sunday stroll through Camden Markets on a beautiful day. I was looking for a necklace, but wanted the right one to find me... I think that necklaces have to match your internal energy. Needless to say, I couldn't find anything until the right one was mailed to me from Amsterdam one month later. Made by a fairy, and a gift of friendship, I had no idea what I was getting into when I signed up to stay for a mere two-day layover in Noodjwick...

Graciously added to this fantastic list of online sketchbooks!

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (video)

Murals for St. Christopher's Inn (video). A brief approximation of the experience of rotating slowly in the center of the room while standing with one leg planted solidly on the ground. The other leg? That's the one contorted in a dire need-to-maintain-balance position, in choreographed slow-motion tiptoe between bed, bedpost, and floor. "peaceful" was the word most often heard as a description to the room once I had finished. Funny, given that my use of aerosol varnish set off the fire alarm. The entire room was thick with haze and post aerosol fume, but I didn't get it until several dirty looks and one really loud alarm later. But, I digress... Eventually, I had to cut open two onions, leaving one piece in each corner of the room, to get rid of the tremendous smell...