from the studio: 5.9

i've got a lot on my plate for the summer, with several shows, events, murals and empty spray cans.  but i've felt like i've been in a rut lately.  i guess i'm getting bored of using the same images over and over again.  so, lately i've been in the studio reconfiguring some images, methods and techniques.  i've been rethinking ways i can layer stencils to get the images and textures to do what i want them to do.

i found this great little boarded up window/door/archway in downtown lafayette, and thought to myself: wouldn't it be great to turn that into a stained glass window?  and that sparked some new work.  eastern indiana/western ohio has a large german catholic population, and because it of, a lot of american gothic churches.  they all fit about the same bill, and the stand out features are the steeples and the stained glass.  Navy Pier in Chicago has an entire section dedicated to great local works in stained glass.  stained glass has a great link to rise of industrialization, art nouveau, and idealized culture of americanism. just look at the dollar bill in all its nouveau-ness.

cool shadows

so in thinking through some new ideas, i've cut several parts and pieces that can be linked and repeated to create the pattern i'm going for.  but they are a bit of a disaster right now.  they are wonderful stencils to work on a horizontal, flat, smooth surface, but will be impossible to take to a wall, and ideally, i want them on a wall.  i love making small paintings to sell and all that shit, but when it comes to making a statement, i like walls, not things hanging on walls.  and since i'm working with the idea of windows, a tiny wall hanging is just not gonna cut it.

window top section

humans

city

cul-de-sac

so far this is a very initial idea, but i have plans for these pieces.  i've got a lot to work through with this yet, but hopefully in the next couple of weeks, i'll have something a bit more concrete as to how this will work on a wall.

i'm excited for the summer.  we'll see where all this stuff goes.  hopefully not just into the trash.