Léger Study

So I'm reading through this essay right now on absurdism, and the author leaves this footnote on art:

It is curious to note that the most intellectual kind of painting, the one that tries to reduce reality to its essential elements, is ultimately but a visual delight. All it has kept of the world is its color. (This is apparent particularly in Léger.)

I'm probably doing the man a great disservice here, but I think there's something to be said for form as well.

Reversal of Incidence

Fiction

TMA-1

Wayne's World

I almost only like the Flaming Lips around Christmas, but when I do, I really like them.

Continued developments

2AM Op Art

So I'd love to know why one of my most relaxing distractions and unfortunate fallbacks is optical art. I love making op art in a digital context, there's just so much more room to play.

For this first one, I'd recommend setting it as a tiled wallpaper for a minute, just to get the full effect that it provides. The second is my first attempt at making my GIFs become more complex than simple color changes for motion in areas. I'll link to more of what I mean sometime, but good examples are few and far apart.

Scraping for Ideas

These latest pics all exude a kind of "PARTY MODE" aesthetic, and I have no idea why. Weird.

Anyway, I'm finishing up arrangements for the show, and should start setting things up next Monday! Cool!

Artifacts Part 2 and some GIFs

Received a free Wacom tablet from work yesterday! It's 6x8", and unlike my previous one it's compatible for the most part with The GIMP, my main art tool.

Speaking of which, I think that it's time that digital artists claim a verb for what they do. I personally like the programming term "blitting," which means drawing something to the screen. Any ideas?

Bad art at 1:30 AM

There is a time and a place for these things, and it is right now. Should I really be venting here?
Regardless, here is a collage made from my "really bad color layers that I will never post" file, and a clone stamp extravaganza made from a computer-averaged female face.

A little bit of everything

Thursday Illusions

If you're visiting the site to see my example videos mentioned in my King Creativity Grant application, please scroll to the post below this one. Thanks!

This week has been fairly productive for me, especially for the development of my current painting, Landscape Piece (4th from the top). Outside of that, I've been really into optical effects pertaining to 3D lately, as evidenced by the tilt-GIF bee below.

The op-art pastiche painting at the bottom of this post is part of a test that incorporates anaglyph-like 3D into a painted surface via flashing colored lights. I can't test it right now because there are critiques in the studio all afternoon and evening, but maybe tonight I'll have a chance to give it a shot. Other than that, enjoy the doodles and keep watching this space!

Recent Sketches

As always, these are best viewed at their actual resolution.

Gif Piece: Hallucination 3

This is Hallucination 3, a GIF I must have missed when I was uploading my earlier Hallucinations series. I'm in the process of meshing it with the physical - a new painting. Below are pics and a video of how it's progressing. I'll write in more details about the philosophy behind this one sometime when it's not 2 AM, but basically I'm confronting the momentary time aspect that the digital affords and binding it to a painting.

One last indistinction for the night

Weirdness of the Now

So I'm trying to take things in a more Dada/Surrealist direction right now because I've been getting sloppy with my AbEx work. Here are some exercises (my fav in terms of result is Sensations of Bob). The last pic is a painting that I spent most of the day on called Trouble on Ganymede. Wowee!

Rug

A reinterpretation of the work of Mark Tansey through the medium of animated tye-dye

A window on the world	A smooth, self-contained surface	A reflection of the self

Another Abstract and Maps

Here is another Color Layers composition (I do enjoy the deliberate destruction of Kinkades), followed by two images from a strange project I'm in the midst of. I've been working on these video game maps as minimalist compositions; gradating values through scenery and emphasizing the presence of the grid with houses. What I particularly enjoy about the concept is that it makes viewers wonder, "Where am I? What's in this house? Where does that highway lead to?" I came up with this idea when I was working on a pixelart black and white composition last month. There's a really big one in the works, so stay tuned.

I crack myself up