Stencil Paintings

these are all stencils from the winamac mural.  the pattern is something i've become very interested in and i can say honestly that i would have never tried doing patterns if i hadn't painted a giant quilt.

since we returned from singapore i've been mostly putting in time on the mural in winamac.  but i've also been in the studio reworking some old paintings (by reworking i mean painting over) and working on some new ones.  i love some of the stencils i cut for the mural in winamac and so i've reprised them in some paintings.  the paintings are mostly works that i had already started or even finished, but some are new.

i tend to work on a body of work over a few months, producing many pieces and multiples that revolve around the exploration of an idea, a story and/or a technique.  some pieces turn out wonderful.  some turn out mediocre.  i paint over or reassemble many of them.  so, when i went back and looked at some of the paintings i did in the spring; they felt washed out.  not just that the color wasn't bright.  it wasn't rich.  it wasn't full.

 i've been using all of these commercial house paints and spray paint for the last 2 murals (3 months) and i guess the color palette has started to grow on me.  most of these paintings are 'in progress' and not yet finished, but i thought i'd give a brief bit of insight into what's going on in the studio since we've returned from singapore.

so this one is missing a few parts.  there is a light that goes behind the 'please gently turn the cranks' panel (its on plex so it glows).  and there is a crank that fits in the hold on the white panel.  then you turn the crank and the claw (that sits below the lighted panel) will lower into the framed box where you can try to retrieve one of these guys....

2 sided paper robot dolls with a wire between.  can be picked up from the 'robot claw' game with the magnet claw.

don't know what to paint on this yet.  i'm thinking of turning it into a game for county fair.

a piece i did in the spring and i redid today.  not finished yet.

the tv is a light box and has the paisley pattern behind it.  you can see it clearly when it glows with a light in the box.  again with the pattern and the stitching.  this was actually one of the testers for stitching the mural quilt.

birds a tree and clouds

the tv is again a light box.  there are more birds on the other side you can only see with a light on in the box.  i thought the bubbles becoming sheep was funny as they floated into clouds.  i think i must have been staring at clouds this day.

corn!  i used the idea of advertising signs to create this one.  dee-lish-us!  thinking about how we eat.