I know there has been a flurry of activity lately that we can hardly respond to but I wanted to keep this up (at least for now).
 
 This was the result of some accidents playing with ink recently.
Category: Art (Page 3 of 7)
I suppose this could category could designate different things for different people. It could mean art or shows that you’ve seen in the past decade, art that’s been created in the last decade, performing arts, movements in art, news about the arts, etc.
I used a photo of Kara Walker’s artwork, because I think I remember Shotts talking about seeing her show at the Walker in 2007-2008.
Let’s talk about your favorites over the past decade….
Has anyone seen this? I watched it in four parts after discussing The Fantastic Mr. Fox with my sister. It’s absolutely worth the twenty minutes (even if full grown wolves don’t have blue eyes). Here’s the link to part one:
Here’s an image from my sketchbook (with close-up), collage and acrylic and ink, that deals with the demonizing of wolves throughout decades of American History. I’d like to call it Demyth.
I finished Fahrenheit 451, Life Is a Miracle, as well as Midnight’s Children earlier this fall.
Here’s the poster for the exhibition at UWEC Foster Gallery I designed. I’m very excited about having the work of these illustrators, writers, film-makers, character designers, theater producers, and creative producers.
Thanks, JE, for hosting Amanda and me last weekend. We had a wonderful time and were thoroughly inundated with artistic inspirations at every turn. I left with more motivation to return to my artistic nature than I have felt in a super long time, it was good for my soul. I would like to incorporate one of my current creative thoughts/challenges with the group. My proposal is that we craft a worthy children’s story with animation, a good message/lesson (perhaps like a fable) that would be timeless in nature and be something that our children would incorporate into their lives and share with their children. I recognize the huge undertaking here, but I think we definately have the talent between the lot of us to put something together. I have seen middle school projects where their work has been made into quality hardback form. Perhaps we could find something like this and have nicely bound copies that could be in each of our homes. I would think the logical place to start would be with the story’s arc and outline. I would like to extend this challenge to each of you. I would really like to be able to share the collective wisdom of our friendships with my child/children. So, who’s with me? Any thoughts about characters and stories?
On a second note- I am going to do some work on a graphic novel (semi-inspired by Maus) based on a character I will call Promi the Squirell, who steals a flaming marshmallow from a suburban fire pit. My initial sketches ceertainly aren’t of the caliber of Ned’s but, whacha gonna do?
Here are a few pages from one of my sketchbooks that I plan to turn into a full grown painting when I have a moment to paint.
Peters may remember a friend of mine by the name of Jason Neulander, then Artistic Director of Salvage Vanguard Theater. For the last decade or so he has been working on-again-off-again on The Intergalactic Nemesis.  It started as a radio show, then live performance, then comic book, and now live performance/comic book/online serial?
The Intergalactic Nemesis is obviously pulpy but I think you all will find it interesting. And I think that more meaningful work could be (and probably has been) done in this cross media format. Anyway I’m looking forward to the live performance.
Check it out if you have time.
This morning I heard about this piece, “The internet is killing storytelling” by Ben Macintyre of the Times from Steve Inskeep of NPR who heard about it from Tina Brown of the Daily Beast. I haven’t finished reading it yet but it seems relevant to many of our concerns. Hopefully I’ll find time to turn my attention to it later today and post some comments.
This is from a series I am doing on animal/human territory collisions. Somewhat related to my painting Apex. This is a parking lot near the Eau Claire mall where I saw a fox darting between two SUVs that inspired this painting of a trio of foxes. There should be two more to come, but right now I am very busy painting muslims.
Part of a series of three I am doing. The others will be quite different.
Don’t know if anybody’s reading this anymore, since there haven’t been many posts or comments. My last painting only received comments from Toby, but here I am undaunted. I infer that many of you have moved to Facebook, but since I am not “friends” with you, this is still the best way to get people’s attention. And I kind of like this mode. Recently, I have finished reading E. O. Wislon’s Concilience, a good challenging book which was a faculty discussion book at the University. I ended up discussing the book with a bunch of scientists. I watched a pretty cool movie called the Visitor, which personalizes the immigration dilemmas in this country. Eliot turned six and Claire will soon be three. James and Sarah will likely be parents, and Kathleen has a boyfriend. Here’s a new painting called Apex. I am going to relate a bit of history that means something to me.
This painting is, of course, about some of the reading on wolves I’ve done. They have studied them for about thirteen years with regards to their return to Yellowstone and their impact on the Ecosystem there. I could go on about this, but long story short, they’re very healthy for the ecosystem. So one Sunday night I was getting ready to read with Eliot, and Sara was checking the Internet to see if there was a mystery on PBS. She called me over to show me there was a program called “The Wolf that Saved America” starting in a few minutes. Of course, I ran downstairs with Eliot, and we watched it. It was fun to see how much Eliot enjoyed it.
It was a mix of history, science, and myth, as they retold the story of an outdoorsman named Ernest Thompson Seton, who was well-known for a time as a professional exterminator of wolves. He boasted that he could rid ranches of marauding wolves in three days. A wolf in New Mexico, that he called Lobo, evaded him for three months. One incident tells of the wolf collecting four chunks of meat Seton had carefully poisoned in a pile and defecating on them. Anyway, Seton was filled with such sadness when he finally killed the wolf that he had a bit of a conversion. He began to promote conservation of the west and influenced T. Roosevelt to protect Yellowstone. One incident about Lobo tells of their ploy to catch him by trapping his mate first. Supposedly, he cried all night, howling strangely. Doug Smith, the head of the Yellowstone project, was interviewed and related a similar incident in Yellowstone. He said, “You’ll forgive the expression, but he sounded as if he was mourning.” I brought this up in my book discussion, questioning why biologists aren’t allowed to anthropomorphize animals, but they must stress the links we share with animals biologically.
When I spoke to my dad, the only person who wanted to listen to my excited rant about the program and wolves, he told me that after Seton became a conservationist, he went camping with my grandfather Clell a couple of times in the Badlands and once down south. I guess Grael has several of Seton’s books dedicated to Clell.
Thanks for listening. If you’re curious about some of the articles that influenced this painting, I’ll be happy to post more.
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