The museum series is chugging along nicely, but a couple pieces I'm currently finishing up need to be "walked away from" for a bit so I don't burn them in the backyard out of frustration. I know that's juvenile and ridiculous, but that's what happens over here sometimes.

Today's studio closeup is another offering from my past. These pieces were done in 1998 and was me experimenting with a more conceptual-abstract(?) direction than the realistic renderings I had been doing in art school.

This experiment is a quadriptych done in the style of the covers of "Dick and Jane" books that were popular back in my parents' day. I remember purchasing this book for creative idea inspiration and this was my brainstorm at the time. I loved the colors and design of these covers especially how they had lined them up for this photo shoot.

A few years back, after I relocated these panels in my upstairs studio stash, I think that's when it clicked for me to start hunting down my own reading materials from elementary school and give a nod to my generation's reading curriculum.

Please enjoy my tribute to the old "Dick and Jane" book covers.

Title: Dick And Jane Covers
Year: 1998
Media: Acrylic Paint, Canvas Board and Collage
Dimensions: Quadriptych, 5" x 7" canvas board panels hung 1/4" apart

Everything about this song written and created by Sara Bareilles is a work of art. The lyrics, the music, the harmonies, the instrumentation - all of it is a perfect musical package. She's also an amazing and dynamic performer as this clip certainly showcases. You can't help but feel like you're part of her world and not "just the audience" making it a complete experience. Not very common in this current world. Her voice is amazingly beautiful as she sings out the words of finally being able to stand up for herself and stop secretly hurting and hiding. It's as if this song gives her some power over always being polite and listening to everyone else's opinion but her own. I really relate to this. I have been going through similar experiences forever since my time began. Rewiring the perpetual chatter of your inner self is sometimes WAY harder than tuning out the words and thoughts of others.

Sometimes.

But you have to in order to survive on this planet.

Please enjoy my Carolaoke scratch track version of Sara Bareilles' "King Of Anything".

In this crazy journey called Life™️, the current state of the world and its terrifying unrest, I am at a point in my life where I need to find places where I remember being the happiest. That state of just being and enjoying and somehow create that same feeling in current adult life. That’s what I’ve been doing lately to keep away from the creepy dark edges of depression that really want to seep in. So I started digging deep and I’ve found a whole new world to escape into when this one is too messed up to remotely navigate in. This is how the museum series first came about because I was pretty much at the end of my tether with everything 6-8 years ago - and that was before the flood, before LuLu passing away, and before COVID.

Back to finding various states of happiness. I remember the reading series I had in first grade. It was a whole series from Ginn & Company and Theodore Clymer that they put out in the 1970’s. Not only do I remember the joy of learning how to read but I also remembered the beautiful artwork inside these books. Loose gestural black lines atop colorful translucent watercolor/design marker. Even today, the detail and fluidity of these illustrations are gorgeous.

The one I recall the most was “Pocketful of Sunshine”. There was Bill, Jill and their dog Lad. They had friends that were of a different race than they were - it truly was a world of discovery for me. I loved looking at it even when I wasn’t at school. Other titles I’ve been able to track down include “A Duck Is A Duck”, “Helicopters And Gingerbread” and “Ready For Rainbows”.

So, on a whim I decided to search for these elusive things on eBay and AbeBooks to see if they even still existed which I knew was a long shot. An obscure reading curriculum from the Racine Unified School District in the 1970s. Right. But I found some! The old brochures that came with one of the teacher’s manuals shows an entire filmstrip collection set that was available at the time, but I haven’t been able to track it down yet but I’m quietly determined to find it. This is when I’m thankful for and not irritated by the internet.

There will be more pieces in this series to come. This piece was a big battle between my heart (feeling the color combos) and my head (technique and composition). The art from the original books looks either to be watercolor or marker so I wanted to reproduce that childhood colored crepe paper translucency by making the acrylic paint do the same thing. I normally don’t think of acrylic paint as translucent so that was a big hurdle to overcome along with making it look “layered”. It’s also a throwback to vintage Sesame Street where I learned how to share, cooperate and that kids of different colors are kids just like me.

The off-white slightly yellowed top and bottom “bands” on these pieces represent the slightly yellowed pages of a book and the use of white space they used in the original illustrations that I never got over - the white space for the tiny illustrations and words to artfully make the entire page's design. The slightly yellowed bands on top and bottom are also chalky looking and feeling (gesso with a thin top coat of tempera paint) to contrast with the middle color strip that will be shiny and almost appear water-like after several layers of varnish are applied.

I’ll probably point this out again in the future but all these dioramas inside these pieces will have interior lighting added as well. The black button is the power source when pressed. But for now, I’ll keep including closeups of what’s going on inside the painted piece separately here on my blog. The dioramas themselves are illustrations cut from the original books. The OCD in me had a hard time cutting into these images along with preventing myself from ordering three extra copies of each book so I can have a perfectly untouched replica - yeah. I’ve been working on a few issues over here.

Please enjoy this first piece from this series. This is Jill and Nan releasing a turtle into a pond together.

Title: This Is What I Was Taught In School Part 1 (Pocketful of Sunshine Series)

Series: Museum Series

Media: Paper, acrylic paint, wood panel

Size: 11” x 14”

Year: 2020

I find myself in various stages of completion and agitation in the Carolaoke music department this week so Music Monday will be another blast from the past.

"Used To Be" is a tune I put together on my own about 12 years ago solely using Garageband. Including instruments. It was a grand puzzle to conquer. I had even less audio engineering prowess than I do now so keep that in mind.

The second "Used To Be" is a recorded acoustic version of the tune featuring Mark Miskelly on guitar and Aaron Johnson on upright bass.

Please enjoy.

Today is another retrospective of my work. I’m in-between a few new museum series paintings that I’ve been bringing up to completion, but I don’t want to rush my process "just to get it done". I’ve been getting these pieces to a state of completion and then I go and do something new to it and I take it two steps back again. When do you know a piece is finished? GREAT QUESTION. It’s definitely a feeling question more than a head question. But the technical part of it is important too. Design, color, composition are all important, yes, but that feeling of it “finished” - that, that’s how it’s going to exist forever is a tough question to always answer. Not sure if other artists struggle with this but I always have.

Back to today’s piece, the date on the back of this is 1998 and is another 7”x5” (hung 1/4” in-between) diptych. The title is “Masculine Arrogance”. I was heavy into the 40’s and 50’s magazines and music back then - trying to hold onto the stories my grandparents had told me growing up. My mom’s father had recently died, my mom’s mom was losing a battle with cancer and this was my way of dealing with and escaping from it. I was blown away how different society was and how women were portrayed. The bus driver guy is from a 365 day calendar of classic pinups. The art of pinups is a journey all on its own that I strongly encourage.

It’s also the first time I was trying out a more conceptional and narrative way of making art rather than drawing and animation so it was really a stab in the dark at this point in time. But I liked the possibilities and the meditation state it put me in while doing these types of pieces.

Please enjoy.

Piece Title: Masculine Arrogance (diptych)
Media: Acrylic and Collage on Canvas Board
Year: 1998
Size: Two 5"x7" panels hung 1/4" apart