I hate beginning posts with I, but since it is about me and things I'm interested in and or care about, I guess it makes sense. Worked some more on the paintings that I showed last week, except for the one with the verical lines splintering the image, update photos will be at the end of the post. I started thinking about my thesis more, and I thought of George Bailey. Who's George Bailey you ask? Why would would I think of him? Why he's the main character in It's A Wonderful Life. Gerorge gets the opportunity to see what the world would be like without him in it, and it's not great. George gets to be in another reality, so to speak, with the help of an angel, second class. I thought, what if George saw a world that was not only not great for the people he cared for, but also everyone in general. What if his very existence held together something that kept things in order. As soon as he was subtracted, things fell into chaos. Well, that's what I'm trying to paint in a new painting. It has George seated at a bar, with the one door boarded over and a chaotic lanscape outside the window behind him. I used a reference for the face, but quickly stopped looking at it. I think I need to work more on it, the colors some just a little too bright. I want the colors to be muddy, but right now something feels off. George should be bright, more colorful than the world he now inhabits. George will surely think he did truly have a wonderful life after a couple minutes in this world I've painted him in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's nice to have a whole day where you can just relax and paint.  Finally finished the first layer of the 36x42 inch painting. It was really fun peeling the tape offf and seeing how what was underneath worked with what I did on the second layer. I think it looks good, but I'm not sure if I want another layer. Started three new paintings today, two of them I actually took pictures of. I'll post the other one I did sometime tommorow.  In other news, I like Stephen King. No, you do? I never would have figured that out! I find that when I'm thinking of something to paint or draw I often think of how what I'm drawing or painting will fit into a narrative. That doesn't neccesarily mean that I go out on a quest to do an illustration. I just want to the viewer to be able to look at a painting done by me and develop a narrative from it, which I guess all paintings do to a certain degree. Wht I like most about Stephen King is how he puts his novels and stories in a larger universe(s). For example, in one of Stephen King's newer books 11/22/63, Jake Epping,m a high school teacher, discovers a portal that goes back to September 9, 1958 at 11:58 a.m. So, with some help, he goes and tries to prevent JFK's assassination. Along the way he runs into a town, called Derry, in Maine. That town has been the host to many supernatural occurences in King's work. Perhaps the most well-known is IT. Well, Jake runs into some familiar people from IT, himself sensing that something had happened. This is just one example of how King interweaves his novels. True, some you could read on their own and you would undestand everything. But when you read another book and there are references to another book, including names, people, places and events, it makes it seem like these novels are not dissparate stories but part of a much larger whole. Wow, kind of got a little to into that, didn't I? Well, I guess what I'm trying to say is that for my thesis I would like to have the same connections, references to not only pop culture, but to the paintings themselves. I think this is the most I've ever written in a single post. I'll update this post tommorow with the one painting, but for now here are some new and semi-new works.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I've started to work on the big painting that I posted a picture of last time. I'm trying to have areas that look different from each other; in both the way they are painted and the color. Then, I want to remove the tape and continue taping and painting sections until I'm satisfied. I imagine it will take two more iterations. I'm hoping when I remove the tape, what's underneath will unify the image, and give a sense of how many layers there are in the paiunting and give a sense of where it started from. By the way, the BFA reception was fantastic, lots of people there. I hope that we'll be able to carry what we learned from setting up this show and bring it into our Thesis shows. I did some little works that were sold at the silent auction ( well, only Stephen King, Ellen Ripley and Clint Eastwood sold), the photos are below. In a last bit of news, I think I hopefully figured out what I might be doing for my thesis. I'm interested in depicting alternate dimensions or realities. I want them to be cohesive, so throughout the works there will be subtle and not so subtle nods to popular culture that I hope people will be able to see.  Long days and pleasant nights ( Stephen King reference, couldn't help myself).



The colors are a jump from what I usually do, I am however worried that it will look too muddy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so below are the new paintings I've been working on. The two smaller ones (18" x 24") are almost done.  I like how abstract the one face is while still being able to tell it's a face. Also, I like the feeling that the face is glowing from inside. Started a underpainting on the large canvas, just a face, I might change it. I just wanted to get something down just to get started.  I've started my thesis proposal and it's looking promising. It really helps to write down your ideas, not always, because I fear writting a bad idea down and being stuck with it, but for things like this it's good. I knocked out two pages. I'm not really sure yet about the details, what size will the work(s) be, how many, things like that. I have an idea, it might not be the best one in the history of art, but it's one that I find to be interesting and will hopefully allow me to make intersting work. See you next time!

 

 

 

I got back to painting this week. I've started mixing more colors on my palette and on the canvas and i'm pretty happy with the way things are going. The colors are more muted than my other paintings, but I think it's a nice change. Anyway, I'll post some pictures, probably Friday of the two paintings I've started. I have a 36 by 42 inch canvas that's waiting, I'm just not sure what to put on it. I do know it's going to be a portrait, just not to sure who I want to paint. Perhaps Barack Obama, he's kind of popular right now. There are some sketches I did during the 4-5 days I didn't have power at the end of this blog post, none of them are finished. I just started on some and then moved onto others. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, you know the title of the blog, Morgan's Art and Other Things of Interest, well this falls under the latter category. I just got my power back in Helmetta New Jersey, like literally 20 minutes ago. I've been without it since Monday night at 5:15pm. Well, what was I doing, well, reading, drawing, and going to sleep at 7:00pm every night. My family and I were worried that our apartment might flood like during Irene, but it was fine. Needless to say, I have nothing really artsy to post, next week I'll post some of the drawings I did during my 4 or so days without power. Hope everyone is okay and doing their best. Until next time, see ya!