Mixed Media Book I'm currently working on 2019-20

A few more pages from my mixed media altered book I'm currently working on.
7"x 8" and 9"x 11"
Where it's going thematically I'm not entirely sure... perhaps it's a surreal take on our orbit in space but I think I prefer Embers From the Abyss. Here is a snippet of text I've written into the pages.  Into the splintered night are buried pieces of the day unmarked by wisdom or thought, they are echos, decoys, luminous effigies shattered under the dead stars.

Mixed Media titled Countdown reconfigured plans

      A new mixed media piece this one is 17" x 20"  incorporates drawing and a bit of collage.  I used some old blueprints for the foundation and then layered pen, pencil, color markers and colored pencils, thinking a lot about the fragility of life and how generally we take for granted our health and mobility.  

                                                                           

                                                                         Detail

                                                                              Detail

More detail

Mixed Media piece

This piece titled Outpost is 16" x13" and utilizes a variety of papers from old books.

I sketched out the skull, lotus, circles and lettering then came in with acrylic paints, pens and ink.

layered in some transparencies over the skull and a few images cut from books like the silhouetted people, a hand and moon. 

Incantation Mixed Media Collage

Incantation 5" x7" mixed media collage

09/25/2016 Photomontage

    

These collages are all 10"x14" and hand cut with an xacto blade or small scissors. Images culled from literally 60 magazines and books and more than a few hours spent on each one! I also used pencils ranging from 3H to 6 B for small details  and blending edges.

                                                   Clipped wings of Morpheus

                                                 Under a sheep's skin often hides a wolfish mind

New Collages 9/20/16

These collages are all 10"x14" and hand cut with an xacto blade or small scissors. Images culled from literally 60 magazines and books and more than a few hours spent on each one! I also used pencils ranging from 3H to 6 B for small details  and blending edges.

                                                       On a path to the Underworld                                                                            

                                                                          Wasteland

                                                                         Snake Charmer

                                                                            Graveyard Train

                                                             Beached Vessel to the Afterlife

                                                                     Meditation on Matter

Assemblage and some handcrafted collages

These are some larger collages I have been working on lately. I am busy working towards a series I've titled Embers of the Abyss. The focus is on my search for spirituality, I have no agenda, no motive to convince anyone to believe in any type of religion,  its an artistic expression of my meditation on spirituality. The journey, my intention is to cultivate a sense of belonging in this universe that we all inhabit. Find meaning in my coexistence with nature and attempt a glimpse into the mystery of what happens to us when we depart.   

 This as an assemblage I made for my wife Jennifer on Valentines Day.

It's made up from 35 separate pieces and held together with screws, glue and chain. It's 20" tall and 9" wide.

Earthbound Trancendentalist Assemblage

I believe I might be close to finished with this new assemblage that I've been working diligently on for the past two months. It's gargantuan compared to my other assemblages but I felt the need to break the habitual process, and for me at least, the repetitive nature of creating things that are only as big as my work table! This assemblage I tentatively titled Earthbound Transcendentalist and it's 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide and 7 inches wide. It's made up of from 80 separate objects that I've mined from various sources like swap meets and goodwill stores. This assemblage touches on the search for  transcendence beyond our physical reality. I incorporated representations of earthly life and aspects of the spiritual as guideposts towards another reality which that can be attained when one is contemplative and has a longing to find meaning in the suffering of everyday life. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote "We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness"

New assemblage and throwing some bowls

I've been working on this assemblage for  awhile now and I think its completed. I was thinking that I could embellish it more but I don't want it to be about excess or just going overboard for the sake of it, I believe in a bit of restraint,  I had to tell myself repeatedly to not go Baroque on it.
This assemblage touches on the subject of aging and coming to terms with it spiritually, physically and mentally. I'm over 50 years old and its a time as the noted Mythologist, Joseph Campbell, says "not of achievement but of realization"  A transition into assimilating the choices we've made, where we've been and where we are going.

I have also been fired up to throw clay again on the wheel and start altering the wheel thrown bowls. I watched a wonderful inspiring 30 minute documentary on Lee Kang Hyo, a potter from Korea https://youtu.be/ayDjp4yvF3o?list=PLw5HG1BBLUD-0xdwZYaXb0xV6Qt7PQzcQ
I'm rusty, but I am going to persist, be in the moment and I hope to make a few good bowls in the future!

Photomontage new works

 These are still works in progress, I'm going to have to sit on this one for awhile to see where the narrative can take this image.   The size is 13" x 5" and utilized 7 separate pieces to make up this image. Hand cut with xacto blade and glue stick.

I believe this one is complete and I titled it - Charon lunching by the river.

The size is 8"x11" and has 10 separate pieces making up this one. xacto blade and glue stick are the tools I used.

This one is an alternate version of a past work using the same text. Trying to poetically illustrate that

in the end its our humanity that connects us all, there are seemingly endless ways to connect with each other and the earth we live on for the short time we are here. I believe it's our shared humanity that is our immortality.