Deal with the logistics later.

The best way to handle a large scale art project is to, 1st start, and then figure out how to deal with the logistics later. 

When painting with oil, the paint needs to dry over a few weeks or so, therefore storage becomes an issue. On this project, even though the pieces are small, 2,000+ pieces take up more room than most of us have, like 40 by 40 feet. 

So, I was painting and trying to decide how to make a storage system. One idea was to get sheets of cardboard and cut them into manageable sizes, then apply foam to the edges and stack them one on top of the other. This seemed like a lot of work as, I realized I would need about 100 of these. That's a lot of cardboard to cut and a lot of foam to glue. 

Anyway, I was over at my dad's and and he was painting and I looked at the canvas he was holding, I thought, I could build something just like that, about 2X3 feet. It would be perfect, then as some minutes passes, it came to me that I could buy the canvas pre-made. So, I called my supplier and one week later I had 85, 2X3 foot canvas's that I am using for storage. 

Look for new Brad Nack art in the 2X3 foot range coming 2010 and 2011.

(photo Credit: Adam Brown)

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-

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.