Worth sharing.

Coming up in the next post, stay tuned for The Andy Summers photography review. The Michael W. Barnard sketchbook review and the Miro vs. Shag art comparison. I may even add in a photo or two.

I was noticing that the sun is setting much earlier here in California and that means we are now moving away from the long days of summer. This brings me to an interesting point, because this is where I would, normally, start writing about the paintings I am working on, something like this..

"Oh the sun is setting sooner and I still haven't finished the Reindeer paintings, bla, bla, bla."

But really one can only talk about the state of one's art project so many times without driving everyone crazy. So, I am changing things up a little bit.

It is more an adjustment than anything else, but, now I am going to add some links that I think are worth sharing, and I will also add in some thoughts and comments and photos.

This will be a break for me from painting reindeer, and also from talking about or writing about painting reindeer.

So,

All this coming next post! Probably Tuesday.

PS. Just to keep current...I painted Reindeer today.

A break from the the city (Santa Barbara) by going to LA,

On Saturday, I went to the Silver Lake Art and Craft market, where I was a vendor, of sorts. Actually, I was maybe the only person to ever, go to an Art Market anywhere, ever in the whole world, and pay the fee, and select my location and set up my table and not bring or try to sell anything. AND I was absolutely happy with the out come.

First off, it was June 13th and somewhat cold, then it even started to rain, so it made for a nice bleak LA day. Eventually, it cleared up, but at first it was even a little Leytonstonish. Anyway, my thing was to just hang out and paint and get a break from the the city (Santa Barbara) by going to LA, I know what you are thinking, but my life in Santa Barbara is pretty hectic, and well in LA, I usually am not equipped with a computer, or cell phone, and also, I try to go there on the week-ends, Sunday is like a quiet stay home day in LA, where as Santa Barbara is non-stop. So, it was a relaxing day, I was able to work on about 30 paintings, Scooter, our Dachshund came down, did some hardcore sleeping, and occasionally looked over as I was painting. I met fellow vendors, Margarette, Mark, Gene and Tracy sister of Fiora, the Ghettoglosser in charge.

And to top it off, Colleen, from the very cool Communicatrix.com stopped by.

As the morning progressed, I did start to feel a little hungry, so I checked the clock in the car, oops, it's almost 4PM and I've got pressing business back in Santa Barbara at 6:30PM. So, a few quick "See you next weeks," and I find myself racing up the coast. Still haven't slept, and there's a party starting tonight at 3AM so I gotta grab a shower and go. Santa Barbara, the city that forgot how to sleep!

Meanwhile I liked this (a lot), if you would, please, click below.

http://www.communicatrix.com/

Thanks, Brad-

the Metropolitan Museum seems like a good idea.

Reindeer paintings at the Metropolitan.

It had to happen, some old photo of a hand (perhaps connected to yours truly) looking for validation in an institution. 

The truth is, it was me, I actually had to deliver 6 paintings to the Frank J. Melie Gallery (1086 Madison Avenue) however, they were out for the afternoon, so I was stuck with a couple hours to kill. It was cold, and a walk down the street to the Metropolitan Museum seems like a good idea. It was only then, that I found myself in an well know art location with, by chance, a bag full of my paintings. Then the delightful Tara, my associate in crime, suggested a photo op. She's full of ideas, like me painting 2,009 Reindeer this year. 

Needless to say, showing my art at the Met was no big deal, if I remember correctly, the guard that eventually asked us to "stop with the photos" could barely bother to walk across the room. Well this all happened a few years back and currently I have more pressing business to attend to. 

Brad-

I may have met your ancestors years ago!

I am wondering right now as I start to write out this post, if I can't start it out in some different way? 

For instances, it is raining and our house has a metal roof, so the rain sounds nice, and there is an ant crawling along this keyboard and it is a very good thing for the ant and his recently arrived friend, that I use two fingers and look at each key as I type. Be safe ant, I may have met your ancestors years ago as we have spent considerable time, years in fact along this part of the world. 

It is clear that a year of blog entries stating that I have painted more paintings... again... is going to be, not only repetitive but also, impossible to find interesting for me or you, so instead, I will at least for now, not tell you about the paintings that I did work on since the last post, also, I will skip other efforts, like cleaning out the hallway (full of paintings) at my dad's house, that are part of, if not the main part of the energy it takes to make art.
So, really this blog could read. Yesterday I got up and went to work, I cleaned and organized some stuff and painted for awhile, then I went home. Today I got up and went to work, I cleaned and organized some stuff and painted for awhile, then I went home. Tomorrow I got up and went to work, I cleaned and organized some stuff and painted for awhile, then I went home.

However,  it won't read like that this time, because, today I got up in Morro Bay, had breakfast at The Hungry Fisherman, it was raining, then I organized some stuff and did some painting at Tara's mom's house, then we went back to Santa Barbara, the rain had stopped, then I went to my dad's house and cleaned and organized some stuff, then I painted for awhile, then I went home and started typing, the two ants mentioned above are still here. It is Feb. 16, 2009. I have over 1,000 paintings started now.
Brad-

or else, well... talk about sad.

I think keeping that for this project lightness is necessary, at least somewhere in the back of my mind is really important to keep it that way. It would be really easy to quit, but so far I have kept a pretty positive approach. 

If I am able to be sort of open to anything, to experimentation, and not letting preconceived ideas of art - especially other peoples ideas, or my own idea of what someone else might be thinking, creep in and side track me, then it is possible for some good work to happen.

There is so much "art thinking" and "art ideas" and "art world reality" out there, that it makes it hard to paint directly and to the point for a lot of people. 

Luckily, I have figured out how to try filter out all that stuff. You know what I mean, the anti-academic yet learned at art school vibe that we have been stuck with since the 60's. I think it's very much as if the art scene today is equal to a Classic Rock Radio Station. The same stuff over and over. Jeff Koons a.k.a. Journey, © MURAKAMI a.k.a. Hall and Oats and that other Hirst, I can't remember his first name, the guy who has the dead stuff, I mean if you think painting Reindeer is lame, that guy Damien Hirst (I looked him up) is really somewhat sad, that's what I think, I don't mean any disrespect. 

Then again, if I didn't know me, I would probably think my work was weak too. (maybe not).

I was talking to Ken Nack the other day and I said how Andy Warhol (who's art I sometimes like, but I also have a lot of reservations about) got the part about the "in the future everyone being famous for fifteen minutes" statement wrong. How it's turned out is that everyone is really famous nowdays, (facebook, myspace, blogspot, youtube etc...) but the thing is no one has more then 15 minutes to care. So, he was sort of right, it just turned out opposite.

Therefore, because I actually work at being open to letting things develop as they will, with a total lack of focus, and a non-detail orientation etc..., I was able to get the idea of taking a bunch of canvases and setting them up and then painting a larger reindeer on those canvases. They are canvas # 331 through # 420. The thing is this is just really background paint. These individual canvases will all become their own paintings and the image pictured above will be gone forever, unless I make a postcard out of it. Should I do that? Please comment. Also, please become a follower, I need to heave more than 10 followers or else, well... talk about sad.

Anyway, I was thinking that I could take the shrink wrap off of the one thousand seven hundred 4X5 inch small canvases in a few hours. That is not the case. I am up to the low 700's and that has been since Jan 29th. Today is the 3rd of February, so, it has taken me 5 days to do just over 700 of them . In this time I have also managed to paint the initial backgrounds on around another 300 canvases, this I described above.

Brad-

297 Lbs. of art supplies

On January 28th, the art supplies arrived and now I can get going. These boxes contain over 2,000 small canvases. To see the paintings that are already started please click here.

Today I feel really optimistic about the whole concept of painting all of these images, however, that feeling is not consistent.  I know that having the materials to actually do the work is a big step and that it is an important step, one that makes me feel cautiously sure that this project will move forward to a successful conclusion. 

However, there are a host of challenges that need to be resolved.  For example,  where do all these painting end up being shown? I would be disappointed to paint for a full year and not have a place to actually show the work. I have figured out that I will need a wall that is about 500 feet long. This wall should be in a place that is accessible to people who would like to see the work. I am still less than a month into this project, but the logistics of the show need to move forward now. Actually, they should already set up. 

So, now I feel less optimistic and more stressed out. Big building - Big wall. 

Brad-

http://picasaweb.google.com/reindeerproject

MUG-SHOTS!

(unfinished Reindeer #58 - 2009)
I know this is going to be overwhelming. I am posting photos of 2,009 paintings in progress. So, as the images progress, I am going to be taking photos of them and then posting them as the year moves along. Last night I dragged out the lights an took 75 photos, then, I spent the rest of the evening uploading and color correcting the images. Next, I broke them down, named and filed them, then I uploaded them to a series of Picasa photo albums.

The overwhelming part is that this process took about 8 hours, and that was for only 75 images. Each painting will probably end up having about 10 photos of  the progress. That, in turn equals 10 times 2,009 or 20,090 photos. 

I am now looking for at least one person to commit to looking at all of them at some point this year. Also, what's up with only 4 followers? That's embarrassing, comon' people, follow the herd!

Who's in?

Photo Albums, click links below.

Reindeer 2008 Portfolio

Reindeer Preview 2009. 

Now, it's time for your help. If you bought a Reindeer in 2008 could you go to the portfolio (the link is above) and leave a comment below your piece letting the world know what your painting is up to right now and what it's plans are for 2009? Thanks in advance for that.

If you are new to this blog, you can get a good idea of what these annual Reindeer Art shows are all about by clicking on the links above and investigating last years herd and the start of this years crew.

I have finally posted all of the Reindeer Paintings from 2008. There are 72 of them. Perhaps that doesn't sound like that big of an accomplishment, but consider this. Every year I plan to create a portfolio of the images from the past year, and I have been doing this for 10 years. This is the first time that I actually spent the time and energy do finish the portfolio, and by Jan. 14, that's pretty good. 

And finally, today I started a film, well video, about the making of the 2009 reindeer show. I have a cool idea for the film, but it is a secret for now.