Various New Houses

Here are some more of those folding house-like things. The first one’s called Radio House and the second one’s called Henry’s House. And that’s it for today, I guess.

Low-Res

So these are some pretty fuzzy pictures of some of my project-things, which I’ve got like 1 more week to work on. Fortunately my degree, if I get it, won’t be in photography, ’cause no one should ever give me a degree in that. Anyway, the first piece is called Noisy Neighbor and the second one’s called Bawdy House, not that you can read the bawdy comments and whatever written all over it. Although I guess un-readableness was sort of the point for some reason. Meanwhile, I don’t know about you, but as I upload junk to Ziggy Stardust, I keep getting reminded how extremely heartbreaking the end of the American version of Life on Mars was…and not in the good way, either, but in the really bad way, like those couple of dozen of times some of us got dumped in high school, with like no warning whatsoever. Not that I don’t get it that they planted about ninety clues they were heading straight toward the Mars mission ending, but, jeez louise…I think I kind of on-purpose ignored the clues ’cause they seemed like really bright red herrings. Turned out they were fishy, all right, just not in the traditional misdirective way. Yikes.

Whatever, I still think it was a good show up until the last five minutes, and it was extra-nice for me ’cause my wife unexpectedly liked it, too, even though we have on occasion had heated discussions about the time travel on Lost, and how it works exactly. Anyhow, I guess that’s all I’ve got for now.

Bawdy House

Right now I’m working on a bunch of linocuts for a book project, which is one of the reasons I don’t have as much drawing time as I’d like. ‘Cause I for sure need to draw about 700 more drawings before I can get close to where I wanna get, wherever that is. But, it’ll be worth it if the book thing turns out halfway decent, which, of course, it may or may not do. Anyway, all I’ve got for today is a scan of the most recent block. I’ll maybe start printing everything a coupla weeks from now, or so I gigantically hope. Meanwhile, gotta go work on redoing my lame old website (the goal for that project is: fewer images, easier navigation, more consistent design, way simpler everything).

Proof

Kind of extremely busy all of a sudden, but I did sort of manage to get around to cutting some lino, for whatever it’s worth. Anyway, I guess this is a really crummy proof, but you can sort of see what’s going on, although the final version of this thing I’m making won’t have a lot of readable text on it, ’cause of how I’m gonna layer and collage together a whole bunch of disparate prints. We’ll see if it looks like anything when it’s done. (Even if the whole idea of “done” seems like a pretty relative concept in art, not that I know much about such things.) I think I used to be better at cutting letters, but I can’t really remember now. Not that it matters…these linos are based on hand-painted signs that used to be all over my old neighborhood, so it’s probably okay if the words are all crooked and whatever. Plus, who has time to cut stuff nice? Maybe someday down the road I’ll be a pro linocutter, able to render shadows and light and everything, but for now I’ve just gotta get this stuff done, since my project’s gotta be finished in a few short weeks, and the point of the project in any case is it’s supposed to be sort of cruddy around the edges and stuff. Meanwhile, maybe I can get back to drawing in maybe a couple of weeks.

Unreadable Book

Yet more pictures from the mysterious book-like thing I’m sort of working on in mock-up form before I commit to actually ruining some nice blank lino blocks. And, yeah, I know, on the real thing, the title won’t be on the cover. Also, I’m already aware I apparently have an inordinate fondness for triangles (if I may paraphrase J.B.S. Haldane, which is always fun to do). Anyway, mostly while doing this stuff, I was thinking about the Assyrian reliefs we saw in London, and all the beautiful old writing that encodes more stories than we’ll never know. Although, of course, this stuff came out different from what I was thinking. As usual.

Buying Tomatoes

Just working out some print ideas, in case I can ever get my hands on some lino and a press (or at least a spoon). Also, yes, it’s supposed to be like that, how the colors are skewed, even though without the right amount of transparency, it’s just a headache trigger. Which, you know, maybe that’s someday gonna be a fad again – art that hurts to look at. So, whatever.

Moonbase

Okay, this was supposed to be a drawing called “Megabase Lunatron,” but now it’s a drawing called “Moon Crystal.” What happened was, the crystal was going to be a crooked-style Fullerine dome, but then I couldn’t crowd in all the dumb little rovers and space workers and moon trucks I’d planned on drawing, so I drew it like it was a couple of folks out for a sort of outing. With, of course, their space dog and a future kind of digital camera, which will be bulkier than the modern kind. Again, I was going for a crummy chipboard look, like this thing was a linocut, cut with the dullest possible gouges and then printed with cheap sticky ink on the back of a newsprint pad. I guess, in fact, I could just do it that way instead of on the computer…but, whatever, maybe later, if and when there’s actual extra time laying about. Thing is, lino doesn’t feel as natural anymore as a Wacom tablet, so I’d have to relearn some muscle memory or something. Not that drawing’s ever natural. Anyhow, gotta go and take a break from the internets.