Matt Sketch/Art

Posters for thesis

2010-04-17T19:50:00.003-04:00

I wanted to make a few posters to go along with my comic book, so they could be displayed in the gallery, and I think people tend to ignore your work if you don't have something on the wall. Or if it's not a sculpture. Books I feel get overlooked. So I made a couple of posters, my friend Jon came up with these wonderful taglines for the comic. They just have a great 70s movie poster vibe, and it's awesome.

march 26 crit

2010-03-27T11:50:00.002-04:00

Not sure if we still have to do these.

However, I did get critiqued on Friday, it seemed like people liked what I'm doing, I just need to figure out the presentation. I was at work and discussing it later, and the idea of possibly drawing a splash page on the wall was brought up, and I could have the book presented in front of it, printed out in a large format. Which I think might be pretty cool. Going to have to think about it. I'm getting closer to finishing the first act of my book which is exciting.

More Sketches

2010-03-04T20:30:00.004-05:00

Sketches 1, 2 & 3: These ones are regarding the possible final shootout of the book.
Sketches 4 & 5: These two are some sketches, feeling out the way the final fight of Part 1 is going to work, I want it to be a really brutal struggle. These aren't quite there yet...

Note: All of the following sketches were most likely drawn during my art history class. (my excuse for the mediocrity)

Sketches

2010-03-04T20:25:00.004-05:00

In short order.

Sketch 1: Idea for the first page, Jake's getting shot. Clearly.

Sketch 2: Prelim for the first page of the book.

Sketch 3: Some cover layouts, none of them were used. Yet.

Sketch 4: Another cover layout, unused.

A Collection of Sketches

2010-03-04T20:17:00.003-05:00

This one's a cover 'idea' and the other is just...a drawing, of Jake, smoking with empty shots next to him, outrageously clever.

Updated Comic

2010-02-26T18:57:00.011-05:00

I have added the cover, and made edits to a few of the spreads, as well as added a new page, the other one should be up later tonight, along with a summary of the story. Also, I didn't care much for the blood splatter stuff on the cover, so I removed it. UPDATE: Changed the title to: Alone. Larry at work suggested it, and I thought it was a good idea.

Last Friday's Crit.

2010-02-02T17:30:00.002-05:00

So, that was helpful. It's got me thinking about a few different directions and ideas. Primarily it brought up the idea of getting more to the core of what I want to do, I think...

Victor brought up the idea of focusing on the cover, and maybe making the pieces be a series of covers, since, whoever is critiquing the show, most likely won't want to sit down and read through an entire book...which, makes sense...

Now I just need to solidify the direction I plan on taking.

We'll see how it goes.

I liked seeing what everyone else in the crit group was up to, it seemed to be a pretty eclectic mix of work, which is nice.

2010-01-22T19:50:00.004-05:00

Website

2009-12-14T02:45:00.001-05:00

Website

That's the website I made for my web authoring class, it's in regards to my comic, so I thought it's related.

The Comic Thread

2009-12-07T15:47:00.010-05:00

This post will have all the pages.Pages 1 - 5 are all done. Page 6 being colored...

zimmerli trip

2009-12-01T23:58:00.003-05:00

Catch up post, I went to the Zimmerli a while ago for the color blocks show and the 'modern artists' show. That place is a friggen maze. Some of the woodcuts were neat, I'm not sure how they actually do wood cuts, but I think it lends itself to a pretty cool style. I mean, there wasn't much that really stood out to me as being all that great out of that selection.

I did enjoy the Russian artists they had upstairs, they were members of a movement of some sort, but I totally dug the abstract collage like painting things, with like brooms and nails just thrown on the canvas, they were pretty awesome. I don't know what they were supposed to be, but they looked real neat, pretty dark though...

The modern artists exhibit also was somewhat underwhelming. The one guy had a piece that was just a picture of a basketball player with the number and name erased off his jersey. I'm sorry, but that is the lamest shit, the fact that some guy just learned how to use the damn clone stamp tool in photoshop. Either it's the same artist or a different one, but he makes videos and just erases the names and numbers from sports footage. I find it to completely lack and real work, or ability, they can use a clone stamp tool...awesome, I could teach a friggen six year old to do that, assign whatever meaning you may like to the pieces, but the lack of any real work on the artist's part I think removes merit, they're not even his pictures.
The rest of the exhibit was also pretty underwhelming, with a lot of the pieces just not really adding up, nothing really struck me.

Oh well...

grad school post.

2009-12-01T22:49:00.005-05:00

Ok here's a list of schools i would possibly be interested in:
School of Visual Arts: If only because I was originally going there, and I'd maybe want to clear that out of my system.
Pratt: My Grandpa went there a long time ago, and they are supposed to have a good program?
NYU: A friend of mine is going there for a graphic design program, I looked at the materials for the program and it looked interesting. We'll see how he ends up liking it.
Mason Gross: Simply because I'm accutomed to living here, and I really don't care for the city much. But this would be a long shot, I really don't care to stay at Rutgers for another two years.

My stance of not caring for grad school is still the same though. . .

Page 4 in progress

2009-11-30T14:38:00.001-05:00

Page 3

2009-11-20T02:15:00.003-05:00

Here's the 3rd page, the title will be going on this page. Although I haven't decided on a title yet...

Pages 1 &2

2009-11-20T01:30:00.002-05:00

Here's the final artwork for pages 1 & 2, with page 1 having final letters on it.

Pages 1 & 2

2009-11-19T00:25:00.002-05:00

In progress, The text isn't quite finalized, I'm debating if it's hokey or not. Also the 2nd page is done with the grey tones, and it obviously hasn't been lettered yet.

Page 1

2009-11-18T03:39:00.004-05:00

First page of my as of yet untitled graphic novel project. Not yet lettered, but I'm working on figuring out how to letter a page without it looking dumb, it's harder than you'd think.

2009-11-13T20:36:00.001-05:00

Zach Bush

Wow, this guy's work is amazing. Simply put. Great design work and a lot of fantastic illustration and digital manipulation stuff. Talented.

MFA Show.

2009-11-13T12:08:00.004-05:00

The MFA show, despite it's lack of curation, seemed to work together pretty well.
A few of the pieces stuck out for me.

FIrst off the photos directly to the right of the entrance (there was no name up) I thought showed not only a great sense of craft, but an interesting subject as well. Particularly the one photo with the girl and the black paint splattered on her, I felt was effective.

The two landscapes by Caetlyn Booth, were...ok. I liked her use of color, and the actually landscapes depicted were nice and evocative. But I think the way they were painted I have a slight issue with, they appear to lean towards a simpler style, but their not quite simplified enough, but also aren't realistic looking enough, it's like they're straddling some line, and I feel she'd be better suited to go one way or the other.

Erin Dunn's installation was interesting, but I'm never sure how to actually respond to installations. I mean what's important? There are clearly a lot of things going on, but what to focus on is, I feel, an issue. I would have been happy to see her animation and images (I believe they were airbrushed) just hung up, along with all her wall decorations. The flowers, yarn, and chair, all those things around it, I'm just not sure what to make of all that.

Also the woodcuts and whatever the other thing on the hanging walls in the center of the main space, I liked those as well. Again, I think it comes down to the idea of they're a) cool looking and b) looked to require some effort to create. The colors cast on the wall from them I thought were neat.

On the other hand, the paintings on the back wall just didn't do anything for me. I'm never sure what to make of those things, I can enjoy abstract work, but I just don't get the color choices, and the look of those paintings. They're just not visually appealing to my eye.

Eillen Bhnke's paintings I thought were really well executed. I like the style she painted the people in, her use of colors like blues and teals in highlights, she made it clear that what you were looking at was a painting, and not an attempt at a photographic style image. The artist's style is clearly present in the paintings.

written stuff

2009-11-13T00:19:00.014-05:00

Admittedly, I don't read a lot (outside of comics...even those I've been pretty behind on)

Over the summer I did read the Albert Camus book, the Stranger.
Well, at least the first part of it. Which I actually really enjoyed, I should finish it someday, but I'm pretty sure I won't. However, the part I read, actually I found to be quite inspiring. The main character in it, is just completely and utterly uncaring, it's as if nothing seems to really affect him. He's just totally unmotivated, but not only that, he kills a guy, with no need, he didn't have to, he actually didn't even need to ever go down there. And he just doesn't give a shit. I like that. Here's a character who's utterly resigned from life, he's no longer really a person, just a dead man walking.

Design Article

Chuck is the embodiment of the dreams of thousands of DeviantArt users—he started out in screenprinting just after high school, worked for t-shirt maker Threadless by day and began creating a name for himself in the online art community by night. Under the pseudonym NoPattern (now the name of his design shop), he achieved incredible success at a startlingly young age: You've seen his work before on projects with Pepsi, Urban Outfitters, Reebok, and many more. My personal favorite has to be the cover art for Lupe Fiasco's fantastic debut album, Food & Liquor:

An interview with the designer behind the new Windows 7 background and login screens. I found it to be rather interesting to read about some of the choices and the process behind going from a small time designer, working for threadless, and moving on to working with a huge company like Microsoft.

I haven't spoken about it explicitly yet, but Bruce Springsteen is a big influence of mine, I had read an interview with him, about the song Stolen Car.

BRUCE SAYS: “‘Stolen Car’ was the predecessor for a
good deal of the music I’d be writing in the future. It was
inner-directed, psychological; this was the character whose
progress I’d soon be following on Tunnel of Love. He was
the archetype for the male role in my later songs about men
and women.”
—Songs essay on The River.
“[‘Stolen Car’] was the presentation of that particular guy, of
somebody who was concerned with those ideas, for the first
time: that if you don’t connect yourself to your family and to
the world, you feel like you’re disappearing, fading away. I felt
like that for a very, very long time. Growing up, I felt invisible.
And that feeling is an enormous source of pain for people.
To make your life felt, it doesn’t have to be in some big way;
maybe it’s just with your family and with the job, the basic
things you live for. So to have somebody who could feel himself
slipping away from all that, and who didn’t know what to
do about it, that idea was related to the heart of almost all my
music. The struggle to make some impact and to create meaning
for yourself and for the people you came in touch with.”
—MOJO interview, 1998

The River, as an album, is one of my favorites, and Stolen Car is one of the (in my opinion) best songs off of it. This segment really sums up a lot of things I feel and relate too, and the song cuts to the heart of the themes and subjects I'm interested in. Again, this song and Fade Away, both are tunes that have been of great interest to me.

I already wrote a post about Dan Fogelberg, but his songs have recently seen a resurgence in my life and influences, I think it's because I've finally actually started listening to the lyrics and I've realized while he has quite a bit of real positive stuff (which doesn't quite relate to my thesis) when the man is bitter and down, damn it he writes a good song about it, and damn it that's kind of what I'm into.

Tucson, Arizona rising in the heat like a mirage
Tony keeps his Chevy like a virgin locked in his garage
He brings it out at midnight and cruises down the empty boulevards
And he prowls the darkened alleys that snake between the city's thirsty yards
The lonely desert skies reflect the anger in his eyes and it is dawn

His father died of drinking and left five children sinking with his mom
His older brother Bobby never made it back from Viet Nam
With high school well behind him he lives at home and works this shitty job
And he thinks his '60 Chevy is the only true amigo that he's got
His heart is filled with sadness and his soul is like some ugly vacant lot

Mary Estelle Hanna came out from Louisiana for the sun
A deal gone bad in Dallas left her burned and broke and on the run
To make the rent and groceries she takes this job at $3.15 an hour
Serving shots of whiskey and tequila in some smoky red-neck bar
And she dreams some day she'll make her way to L.A. and become a movie star

Tony saw her working, he swallowed hard and asked her for a date
Mary laughed and answered "I would but every night I'm working late"
He said he had some cocaine that she could have if she'd just ride along
She said "What the hell, I may as well, I haven't had no fun in so damn long"
He picked her up at closing time they pulled out on the road and they were gone

Tony's mom got frantic when she found her son had not come home
Mary's roommate panicked and called the sheriff from a public phone
They asked her lots of questions
She tried her best to tell them what she saw
And late that night they found poor Mary lying in some narrow, dusty draw
The coroner reported that she hadn't been deceased for very long

Two weeks on they found it buried to the windshield in the sand
There inside lay Tony with a small revolver in his hand
The papers simply stated it must have been the drugs that drove him mad
The neighbors speculated what could make a good boy go so bad
Well, it might have been the desert heat
It might have been the home he never had

This song talks about the kind of character I've found myself interested in, the burnt out guy on the edge, who, no one really suspects. The pervasive loneliness that Tony exists in, and the last line, hints at this larger idea, that this guy, he wasn't some random crazy, it was a building turmoil.

Casino Royale:
I've always liked James Bond, but the thing that must be taken into account when discussing James Bond, is that the book and the movie are wholly different characters. The Bond in the Fleming's books, is not a nice guy, I wouldn't even say he's charming. He's a desolate loner, who is capable of being charming only to accomplish a mission, he's a cold bastard. And I like that. The movie softens it up a lot, but in the book, when James Bond announces 'the bitch is dead' he moves on, immediately, he just shuts it all down and doesn't care about her afterward. The way he's so damn cold and calculated, that he's just an efficient man, a professional. It's a theme that interests me, the professional, who really has nothing for a heart.

Frank Sinatra. There's going to be a few entries about his songs, because I got into some of his 'concept records' that he recorded when he was at Capitol, and they follow and pertain to the characters and themes that I want to investigate with my work.

Sinatra lovingly calls these songs, 'Saloon Songs'. His live versions of them are wonderful if only for his introductions, the way he describes the characters in the songs, as a, 'guy whose girl left with all the dough, and he's out wandering the streets, down at the bottom, looking for someone to connect to, he thinks he'll find it in a bar'. That's the gist of what he says, but it's something that I think about a lot.

First up: One For My Baby.

It's quarter to three, there's no one in the place, Except you and me.
So set 'em' up joe, I got a little story, I think you should know
We're drinking my friend, to the end, Of a brief episode
Make it one for my baby, And one more for the road
I know the routine, put another nickel in the machine
I feel kind of bad, can't you make the music, Easy and sad
I could tell you a lot, but it's not, In a gentleman's code
Make it one for my baby, And one more for the road
You'd never know it, but buddy I'm a kind of poet
And I've got a lot of things I'd like to say
And if I'm gloomy, please listen to me, Till it's talked away
Well that's how it goes, and joe I know your gettin'
Anxious to close, Thanks for the cheer
I hope you didn't mind, My bending your ear
But this torch that I found, it's gotta be drowned
Or it's gonna explode
Make it one for my baby, And one more for the road

Again, the themes that interest me, are heavily present here, and the song itself is a character study, about a man at the end of the road. Someone who's looking to drown out their problems, and let them loose on some stranger.

last artist related post.

2009-11-13T00:09:00.005-05:00

Sean Phillips.

Yes, it seems he occasionally paints. But really, he's a comic book artist! (suprised?)
I do really love his oil work, I like the weight of his paint and the colors he chooses, the way he uses contrast.

But his comic art is what I enjoy the most (see the trend here?) His work his reminiscent of old black & white film noirs, like Blast of Silence (which he did the DVD cover for) Maltese Falcon, Touch Of Evil, things like that. I'm a big fan of his brush work, the way he uses shadow, and his handle on composition and form. The way he handles action is how a competent director would, he frames everything clearly, but each panel could be framed on your wall too.

More images

2009-11-12T23:18:00.012-05:00

Continued from the last post:

This is a series of posts outlining my artist influences over the years. So far I've covered two. Moving onto the next...

Mike Mignola.
Yes, the guy who created Hellboy. For those who've only watched the movies....forget them. They capture some of the ideas and themes of the comic, but they're really inferior in comparison. The comic deals with so many different ideas, especially with plenty of literary, biblical, mythological, historical, and folklore references and connections, that no movie could really contain.

Also the whole tone and look is all it's own.
Mike Mignola is one of those artist who is completely and utterly distinguishable. He is absolutely his own style, imitated often, but never quite equaled. The way he uses shadow and graphic elements to create atmosphere and depth, is wonderful, everything he draws feels like is has weight. The way he tells a story and the way he focuses on the smaller details, like a bird chirping, or a closeup of a statue in the background to create dramatic tension is something I've tried to incorporate into my own storytelling. He works a style consisting of line and heavy shadow, and it works, amazingly well.

Again, Mike Mignola's stories tend to deal with that darker side, with the idea that you are what you are, and your path can only be changed so much, but eventually you will have to face down that beast inside. The idea of redemption is something also present in Mignola's work and it's something that I've been interested in as well.

FRANK MILLER:

Ok, this was bound to show up, Frank Miller, back before he became Hollywood famous, was incredible. The Dark Knight Returns (written and illustrated by Frank Miller, in 1986) effectively turned comics into an 'adult' medium.

While his recent stuff has been....well let's just be nice and say, kind of crappy. Back when he did Dark Knight Returns and Sin City, Frank Miller was awesome. Both books feature totally different styles however, and they suit their different genres perfectly. Sin City is stark black & white noir, while Dark Knight Returns is this detailed look at what happens when our heroes get old and the world around them is falling apart.

Frank Miller's art has really been one of the biggest steady influences on my art. The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City books follow me around wherever I go, so much so that I actually refuse to allow my copy of Dark Knight Returns to leave my room, it's the one book that I won't let anyone borrow.

I think it's really how he draws people that I've always liked, the way he exaggerates forms, where they have their clear realistic underpinnings, but they're more than what is real, not in that whole muscular to the point of insanity way, but his heroes seem larger than life, even when they're beaten and broken, dead even. Also the way he writes, while he is consistently becoming more and more of a parody of himself, he used to write books that weren't filled with camp.

Image collection.

2009-11-12T22:38:00.009-05:00

I'm working on finishing up my image collection, and I went looking through what got me into this whole mess, what I was looking at when I first started putting pencil to paper, and attempting to scratch out a picture.

So what I'd like to do is just post about the artists that really influenced me throughout the years, and present it as a time line, what inspired me and why. Here goes....

I'd like to begin with Derek Yangier. My first memory of drawing were pictures of Transformers.
Yes, the robots that turned into vehicles and stuff. I have fond memories of them. But what I really remember is my Grandpa taking me to the comic book store to buy my first comics, he wasn't so much person, but he was a draftsman, and I think maybe the mechanical nature of Transformers maybe convinced him to buy me more Transformers comics. Either way, Transformers comics, were what got me into drawing, I wanted to create my own adventures for these characters and try to learn how to draw like the guys who did the comics did.

Derek Yangier was the original artist on the Transformers comics from the early 90s, I remember looking at his art before I could even read, I'd have to wait for my mom to read the comics for me, but the pictures were all that really mattered (at least that's what my memory tells me, I'd have to look up dates to confirm this, despite looks, I was able to read at a regular age...). I was just enthralled by the way he rendered these machines, with this bulky energy, and the way he used shadows to create dramatic scenes. Somehow in the excess that permeated comic books in the 90s, the Transformers comics (while they gave in to some extent) were tackling mature subjects, dealing with betrayal, death, morality, hopelessness. Yangier's art seemed to reflect this more mature feeling, with each character showing the scars of years of battle.

See covers like the one above, those were the things I was looking at, Megatron is holding a guy's disembodied head. I couldn't have been older than 8 when I saw that, that's what I grew up on.

I feel like, maybe that has something to say about my current fascination with the darker side of man, and the things that drive us to the edge. It also marked the beginning of my fascination with comic books and telling stories through a visual medium. Thank you Grandpa.

Next up: Joe Kubert.
Joe Kubert, again, an artist I sort of grew up with. My first time seeing his art was when I was in middle school. Joe Kubert, for those who either don't know or don't care, is an artist who began working the the 40s, drawing war related comics specifically Sgt. Rock, a character who has continued into today, with Kubert illustrating a few new stories featuring the character. Lately he's done a number of books dealing with the Holocaust, Jewish gangsters in Depression era New York, and Fax from Sarajevo (which dealt with things in...Sarajevo, I haven't read it yet, but it's serious).
Anyway, Joe Kubert lives in Dover, NJ, and has a fully accredited college where the old Dover High School used to be. Dover just so happens to be located right next to my hometown, and the Joe Kubert School holds Saturday morning sketch classes for those that aren't of college age yet. I attened those class throughout middle school and high school, I think that's where I learned a lot of what I know, I never took any art classes in my regular school till my senior year, so what I learned, was learned there.

While I didn't actually begin reading any Kubert books till high school, he clearly had a huge influence on my own art education. When I finally began looking at his work, I figured out why it is that he's got his own school. The man is really a master of his craft. I've tried to pick up on how he uses line and brushwork to evoke emotion and mood. His storytelling is always very clean and easily understood, and the way he inks his work has this wonderful loose quality, that just oozes style. I've often found myself trying to incorporate his use of brushwork into my own pieces.

2009-11-08T02:04:00.001-05:00

http://www.moccany.org/

A museum that features only comic book art?!?!? Awesome.

2009-11-06T10:38:00.001-05:00

Ask the artist: Chuck Anderson

An article about the designer behind the new Windows 7 background. Interesting stuff.

Grad Schools.

2009-11-05T11:41:00.004-05:00

Catching up on this post.

I have no desire to attend Grad School.
There, said and done.

I've already spent the last 4 years being screwed over in a variety of ways by universities, between transferring switching around my major, and all in all being neglected and left out in the cold pretty much. (no I'm not bitter or anything.....)

The absolute last thing I desire to do is attend grad school, accumulate a stupid amount of debt, and for what? To gain a graduate degree for something that I don't really intend to do? My 'plan' as it were, is to go into the design field, which from what I've read and been told by people, you don't need grad school for it. So why bother? I'm just fed up with all the bullshit of school, I'm ready to move on and do something new, maybe not better...but at least different.

This class has opened me up to some to the art world, that book 'Seven Days in the Art World' has told me more about the 'art world' than I ever cared to know. I simply have no desire to go to grad school and struggle to get into that world, and deal with the pretentious asses that seem to permeate every corner of that book. It's just simply a world I have no desire to live in.

The Innocent Age

2009-10-28T21:53:00.004-04:00

I listened to this album in the car the other day. I wanted to write something about it, simply because I think Dan Fogelberg is a great talent, and while his music is (and I'm going to go out on a limb here) something that just about everyone in thesis would not be interested in (however if anyone does enjoy it, that would be awesome). I digress though, the reason I wanted to write something about this is simply because, albums are something that I've always drawn inspiration from, so I figured I'd talk a little about his music, and maybe the effect it's had on me over the years, maybe someone might find this interesting...

Dan Fogelberg's albums will always be labeled in my mind as 'my dad's music', in so much as he's a favorite musician of my dad's, and Dan's music is something I'll always associate with my dad. In that way, growing up there were a few songs I liked but I really never listened to most of it, since it was a part of dad's collection, not mine. As I grew up, I started digging through my dad's library of music, and Dan Fogelberg's work was prominent in his collection. The thing I began to notice with Fogelberg's music, was the intense personal connection it has, every song that he wrote is heartfelt, sincere, and something that he clearly feels strongly about. His music also covers a decent amount of emotional ground. The song Tucson, Arizona (Gazette) has become a favorite of mine recently, it's a song that tells a great story, about a man who basically takes this girl on a long car ride, and later on they find the two dead. (that's the real short of it) but the song asks the question of, 'what drove him to that point?' and the closing line goes "The neighbors speculated what could make a good boy go so bad,Well, it might have been the desert heat, It might have been the home he never had". I've just found the song interesting.

Hm....looking back, I'm not sure this post accomplishes anything. But check out some of his music.

2009-10-27T15:36:00.003-04:00

My good friend Jon goes to school at Fairleigh Dickinson for Graphic Design, he's really good at what he does, and he has started a blog (see the links to the side)

His recent post I thought made some really good points:

"I'm starting to get sick of having no websites or commercial media to use as a portfolio. I only have art that would be considered art-for-arts-sake. Why is it I can't find any other graphic designers who do the same type of work I do? All they seem to care about is making their brochures and event fliers and other commercial bull****. I understand the need for these things but when did the idea of art depart from graphic design. I challenge these students to make something that couldn't be used commercially. I have yet to see a fellow graphic designer in my classes who has art that was made for him or herself. /rant" - Jon

Thought that was interesting, and felt the need to share.

The Merry Gentleman

2009-10-27T14:11:00.003-04:00

On a separate note, I recently watched this new Michael Keaton movie The Merry Gentleman, which he directed, that was pretty fantastic. Unfortunately it's currently available only to rent at Blockbuster, but I believe it comes out on DVD sometime in November.

The Merry Gentleman Trailer

I like the style, and the sort of emotion behind it, the character Keaton plays has such an understated presence, I really enjoyed it.

Gallery Visits.

2009-10-27T13:55:00.004-04:00

This past weekend I headed into the city for a concert at the Fillmore, but hit some galleries on the way...because, well we had to....

Ah, we looked at a few shows and even hit the MET, which I'm not a fan of, we looked at the Robert Frank show there (which I actually liked, more on that later).

At the galleries we checked out a few shows, it happened to be a pretty miserable day, weather wise, and basically headed down the street stopping in each one getting drenched inbetween. now there were two shows that stuck out in my mind. The one had a bunch of cast objects most notably a car that was made out of leather, which was pretty neat, it was just hanging in the middle of this rather small space. What was neat was that the leather still had the number the cow was branded with on it. Pretty cool. David Baskin was the artist's name, at the Freight Volume gallery. I'm not sure if there was any substantial meaning behind everything, I just thought it looked neat.

The other gallery show that stuck out was the one that featured work by Sister Mary Corita, which was a design show. The works all had a really cool graphic use of text, but specifically hand-written text, it wasn't particularly clean. I liked how she took a lot of popular phrases and quotes, and mixed and matched them to create a new context. Another thing of note is that she was a Nun, and that a fair amount of work had a religious context, and a positive one at that, which was something different, and I thought to be really interesting.

The Robert Frank show reminded me of movies, and upon checking out wikipedia, I remembered why, he directed the really bizarre but interesting documentary on the Stones 'Cocksucker's Blues', which we had watched in Seminar last year.
The Americans photos were something I enjoyed, possibly because the subject matter seemed to be forgotten moments, and almost forgotten people. Most of the people in these photographs aren't really consequential, they're just regular, if not less than. The one photo that still stands out was the one of the man in the cafeteria, which had this haunting sadness and desperation, it told this guy's story with one single image.

Optimus Prime

2009-10-23T10:54:00.002-04:00

Interview

2009-10-12T20:24:00.003-04:00

Interview with Dominique:

Question: preferred medium?
A: Likes to work digitally, when she works non-digitally she prefers to work in oils and ink.

Q: Subject matter?
A: Mostly just draws people, it's her comfort zone. Tries to evoke a relaxing mood, where the people are at ease with themselves, there's nothing intense, she likes to have things be 'it is what it is', and not dark or brooding.

Q: Currently working on? Goals?
A: Short term she's working on finishing up a commissioned painting, hasn't been able to do much personal work, she feels she gets wrap up in school work, she wants to work on male forms because they tend to look girly. Also trying to work more realistically.

Q: Thesis?
A: Considering doing a series of oil paintings and somehow intertwining that with graphic design. Not sure about the execution. Thought she would just do the paintings, feels more able to express herself in paint, wants to do design commercially, not as a representation of self. Is searching for a healthy balance of the two.

Q: Commercial design?
A: Feels like all her design pieces just strike as advertising.

Q: Content for thesis?
A: Thinking about doing different stages of getting to thesis, doesn't want it to be a thesis type subject. Thinking of a type of conclusion like showing endings to stories with her paintings. Taking like a known story (ex. little red riding hood) where the story's ending is known, and she wants to portray the ending. Keeping her personal style between each of them. Afraid of being too orderly or messy.

Q: Influences?
A: Looks at all different types of artists. Liek some of the earlier work, like how they model people. Romare Bearden, likes his collage work. Aaron Douglass. Loves illustrators. Andy Warhol, for his ability to take like "lower art" but brought it up to fine art. And then some people who are her own peers. Not that crazy about modern art, where it's just too conceptual, says they take it too far, and feels they abuse what art is/can be.

Q: Influences outside of art?
A: Finds that movies, influence some of her ideas. Tries to make escapist art which is what movies tend to do, she likes comedies. Finds that music helps her go into that 'artist realm'.

Q: Post-grad plans?
A: Thinking of grad school, study graphic communications, if not that, maybe teach for a little while, doesn't want to teach for life though. Wants to start a non-profit arts program, is her big goal, things that she wasn't able to explore when she was younger. She feels there's so much more that kids can do with art, and they aren't challenged to think of it that way. Because they tend to just think of the starving artist. Interested in art direction.

I couldn't record the interview, so I jotted down notes as to what she had to say about her work.
I felt Dominique had some interesting things to say, and I really enjoyed her work, since she draws in a stylized illustrative manner, which is something that I'm always interested in.
I look forward to seeing what she produces for her show. I really hope she allows herself to use her digital work, because I think it's a strength of hers, and something that should not be ignored, despite what some people may think.

2009-10-06T15:36:00.002-04:00

Tumor - The Trailer from Joshua Fialkov on Vimeo.

Really interested in this comic, and I like the idea behind this trailer, the way it's presented is really cool.

bucket of blood.

2009-09-17T22:40:00.002-04:00

I really hate watching movies in those uncomfortable desks.
But this movie I thought was hilarious. Just the absurdity of it all. I liked the whole noir setting it establishes in the beginning with the main character just being this really sad lonely creature, and the whole thing just spirals further and further into this crazed story.

New Museum visit.

2009-09-17T19:59:00.002-04:00

Right off the bat, I wish I had a little more to look at everything.

I enjoyed the Emory Douglass show, I liked the style that was used in all his pieces, that crisp graphic style is something I dig. The way it was displayed felt a bit too much like a history lesson and less about the art. But I still found myself appreciating the work. I liked how even some of his looser work had a specifically graphic feel to it.

David Goldblatt's work really impressed me. I'm a sucker for any large scale photos or prints or videos that just are obscenely sharp and vibrant. I love that. His photos just looked HD, I mean the level of detail and clarity in some of those prints was just ridiculous. The fact that the subject matter was interesting and he had something to say with everything aside, the technical aspects of all his photo work impressed the hell out of me. Also the contrast between all the color photos and the b&w was really interesting and the photos of locations at two different time periods were pretty neat.

One thing about the New Museum that always bugs me, is that it reminds me of Home Depot (not that I don't like the Depot, I wouldn't be caught dead in a Lowes) but the place just feels unfinished.

Alex bag video.

2009-09-17T19:10:00.003-04:00

Ah.....damn.
That was painful.
I like the humor of it, all the satire and just, it was an utter rip on art kids and their attitude which is great. Because the stereotypical art kid tends to have the worst kind of attitude, with all this overly pretentious crap they tend to spew. But seriously....an hour? Most of the characters that weren't the art kid were just...annoying. However I loved the bit with the video teacher, but the hello kitty parts had me shut off the volume and go do something else while I waited for it to pass.

There were segments that I liked, in that they just made fun of a specific attitude that I really can't stand, but the length and and over use of the word 'like' bothered me and the annoying characters that she brought into it grated on my nerves, and I really just wanted to move onto doing something else...

2009-08-07T18:27:00.003-04:00

And this is the final version of the page. It's a work in progress. The black boxes are where i wrote stuff on the page...

2009-08-07T18:16:00.001-04:00

This is the second version of the first page. Still not quite satisfied. The third version is in the works and is my favorite. I think I'll be able to move onto the second page soon.

2009-08-07T18:01:00.003-04:00

First draft of a page for my comic. This is not the final format, just a compilation of sketches for the panels. The final page is more polished.

A few new sketches

2009-07-30T22:51:00.002-04:00

Here are some new sketches, related to a project I'm working on.
More to come.

Piece 05

2009-04-10T16:24:00.001-04:00

Piece 04

2009-04-10T16:23:00.000-04:00

Piece 03

2009-04-10T16:22:00.005-04:00

Piece 02

2009-04-10T16:22:00.001-04:00

Second one done in the series. Again....picture taken via cellphone.

Piece 01

2009-04-10T16:19:00.001-04:00

Ok, so this was the first in a series of pieces I've been working on. Shitty picture taken via my cellphone.

2009-02-17T22:35:00.002-05:00

Clearly...I am lazy.

2009-02-17T22:35:00.001-05:00

Paul playing video games.

2009-02-17T22:34:00.001-05:00

Paul & Stillie. They were playing video games. Nazi Zombies to be specific.

2009-02-17T22:33:00.002-05:00

On airplane.

2009-02-17T22:33:00.001-05:00

Charcoal, I think.

2009-02-17T22:32:00.000-05:00

I may have a problem.

2009-02-17T22:31:00.000-05:00

More of the same.

2009-02-17T22:30:00.000-05:00

Dude at a bar. I have a problem.

2009-02-17T22:29:00.002-05:00

One of the kids at New Orleans....came out ok?

eh.

2009-02-17T22:29:00.001-05:00

Drawn in airport.

2009-02-17T22:28:00.004-05:00

2009-02-17T22:28:00.003-05:00

2009-02-17T22:26:00.000-05:00

Garrett is asleep.

Airplane to New Orleans.

2009-02-17T22:25:00.001-05:00

Prime is just shooting up Soundwave execution style. How cool is that? I'll finish this sometime...

2009-02-17T22:24:00.000-05:00

2009-02-17T22:23:00.000-05:00

This kid still uses a CD player!?!

More drawing on plane to New Orleans

2009-02-17T22:22:00.001-05:00

Burk? Yeah, it was supposed to be Burk. He wanted to have a lightsaber.

2009-02-17T22:20:00.000-05:00

Done on airplane to New Orleans.

2008-11-06T14:41:00.000-05:00

Also like this sketch as well. I think those are notes for italian in the corner.

2008-11-06T14:40:00.001-05:00

I really like this sketch. It sums up the character like perfectly. One day I may draw it for real.

2008-11-06T14:39:00.002-05:00

More depressed alcoholic loner person.

2008-11-06T14:39:00.001-05:00

More italian class sketching.

2008-11-06T14:38:00.000-05:00

Sketch for a series I'm vaguely planning. It centers around a miserable loner who smokes and drinks too much, and eventually snaps. ...... .. . . .

That sounds terrible.

2008-11-06T14:36:00.000-05:00

Time in italian class is always spent drawing.

Fortunately people accept this and bring sharpies in for me.

Mr.Bear

2008-11-06T14:34:00.000-05:00

This is Mr. Bear. He stays on the fridge.

All of his accessories are movable. I plan to make him multiple sets of things. This is the burnt-out drugged up set.

2008-11-06T14:32:00.000-05:00

Work in progress painting. I'm not yet ready to play with like real colors. Second painting I've done.

I don't think it's ever getting finished.

Taxi Driver

2008-11-06T14:31:00.000-05:00

Acrylic painting. First painting I've ever done that I actually like. Based off of DeNiro from Taxi Driver.

2008-11-06T14:12:00.000-05:00

Quick drawing. Maybe I'll make it a painting sometime.