on the move!

Genna and I are just back from Gerton, NC where we spent a lovely week on the side of Bearwallow Mountain with my folks for Thanksgiving. On our way there, we stopped in Greenville, SC and BOUGHT A HOUSE! Here we are in front of our new place:



We're closing in mid-January and beginning our move in early February. We are both excited ane terrified. For those of you who don't know us well, Genna and I have been partners in a co-operative gallery and studio facility in downtown LaGrange GA for more than 12 years. Our artist partners have become like our second family and we've all grown together in our lives and careers. Upon our move to Greenville, we'll be working from home. Anyone out there who works from home and has advice for me on how to make this transition, my ears are open.

We'll be making an effort to whittle down our personal art collection through adopting out some of our babies and our art inventory by way of a big moving sale, so stay tuned!

an oldy...hopefully goody

I think I've mentioned before that sometimes as my 'artist skillset' evolves, I don't only gain things but often lose things, too. I look back at drawings from my highschool days and long for the laser focus I could hold for hours on end, rendering scenes with photographic precision. Nastiya still has this skill in spades, so maybe that has something to do with stage of life.

Before Genna and I began collaborating, I was creating texture and interest in my work with heavy 'impasto' style brushwork. As Genna brought me increasingly complex and nuanced 'start points', my painting style became increasingly flat and broad. This shift made images that used to be no brainers a huge challenge for me. I revisited one such image last week with "Logsled". Here is a 'pre-Genna' version, circa 2003:


(Logsled, oil on canvas, 85" x 65")

Each log end is a single, heavy brushstroke where the brush was loaded with multiple variations of the taupe color. The edges of some strokes are ragged and stuttering, a technique I have completed abandoned for now.

Here we are circa 2006. Simplification had begun but the underpainting process had not fully matured:


(Logsled, 40" x 30" oil on canvas)

And here's the current version, circa last week:


("Logsled", oil on linen with metallic acrylic underpainting, $2600)

Different, no? Check back in five years and I'll make it again!

my new favorite things

Last month I met ceramic artist Jenny Mendes at the Kentuck Art Fest in Tuscaloosa. I had seen her work there the year before and had despared at having not purchased any of her lovely, strange, sensitive little bowls then. Jenny had probably 100 of these enchanting little guys on view at the show and then further confused me by bringing me behind her booth to sift through a box of probably 100 more.

Her intimately sized creations would make lovely holiday gifts! Check her out at www.jennymendes.com.