Mixed Media Assemblage Titled Gravity June 2018

Heres a new assemblage sculpture i've made 24' X 25" x9"  I've tilted it Gravity.

Incorporated into it are collage, ceramic, metal, wood, glass. The words that are on the wood on the left and right side of the sculpture are:

Prepared as I am to watch my step

 I have to keep a vigilant eye

All this time I've had eyes in my head

Yet I couldn't see that I've been dead 

For as long as I can remember.

I hope its interpreted in the spiritual sense!

Mixed Media Assemblage 2018

This Heart Has many Dead Ends

Mixed media assemblage 

11"x16"
2018

A new piece I've finished this week. I trying to add ceramic into my work with the word Hypothermia embossed into some clay and fired in the kiln. I know its a small piece of ceramic but I don't want to draw attention to the fact that I'm using clay in my work. I like to be subtle about it, to try and  combine materials seamlessly. Ive been taking a ceramics class and love working with clay I can't wait to explore ways to include it in my work.

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

Sculpture assemblage latest one 08/07/17

mixed media collage

A new one I've been working on part of a triptych this is one panel of the piece. This one side is 9'x7" the total size of the triptych is 27"'x21"  It is titled -  In and Out of Consciousness. I'm using as the foundation the covers of hardback books and then I glue paper that is sourced from various old books, maps, typewritten paper, transparent paper and finish up with water color and pencil.

Mixed Media Collage

This is the latest mixed media piece I'm working on I've titled it Periphery and its 8"x10".

Im trying to reduce the amount of cut images from the media and incorporating more of my own mark making and drawing into these pieces. Im utilizing watercolor, variety of numbered pencils, ink pens and a bit of acrylic paint.

I'm using paper from old books and transparent paper i like the different shades of browns that these  papers give. 

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. 

mixed media photomontage 11/7/2016

    Two new artworks 

This photomontage I titled Negotiating the Afterlife, is 11" x 14" and made up of 20 separate pieces. includes penciled in details on the walls of the corridor and the floor.

This one is a small 4" x 6" mixed media piece, watercolors, collage, pencil. I titled this one A Province Neither Here Nor There.

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

collage july 1 2016

A new collage 8"x11" hand cut and glue stick 17 separate pieces

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe

Handcut collage 2016 june

This hand cut collage is 8" x 11" and uses 11 separate pieces to make up this image 

took me a few days for this one.... searching for the right black and white images that have depth,   images that have contrast ranges from soft to sharp and interesting subject matter. All juxtaposed to create a surreal scene!

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.