Watching Over . 24x30 inches . 2011

 1. natural light

2. artificial light

3. artificial and black light

4. blacklight only

5. darkness

When my collector Tina and I first discussed the making of this painting, she asked me to make it as Light Reactive as possible, using lots of glass and phosphorescent pigments. Done and done.

The moon shifts from violet to blue-green, depending on the time of day. The ocean waves shift from gold to white to green.

It's one of those pieces that can't be fully appreciated through the lens of a camera since it changes so distinctly as you walk past it. Two people standing on either side of the painting will think it's a different color.

I love making stuff. :)

Moon over water paintings are possibly my favorite pieces to do. It's not just that I find the concept and end result to be peaceful, but the very act of creating it and experiencing its progress puts me in a calm state of mind. (Something I often need anyway, especially when I have lots of work to do.)

Tina's father passed away a few months ago, just before I began work on this painting. Everyone called him Kick. I wrote his name underneath the moon, and I hope that this artwork will honor him and serve as a beacon of peace and serenity for Tina and her family. 

Japan Adventures: Karaoke

[Previously on: Japan Adventures]

You know what they say. When in Tokyo...

Also, remember that sake I mentioned 12 times? Well, funny thing about Japan. Not only can you drink openly on the street and buy massive amounts of sake in every convenience store in the city, but they sell it in juice boxes! Maybe that's what fooled us. It's just juice! Right?? We stocked up and smuggled it into our private Karaoke room. Don't tell them, you're not supposed to do that, even though everybody does that. Oh and also, you have to buy one drink per person when renting the room, so we went with Shochu, which can only be described as sake that's more like vodka. Hooray.

All good ideas. Another good idea was when we miraculously ran out of sake and Greg went on a sake mission through the streets of Tokyo to find more. WHICH HE DID.

Yup.

To be continued...

Japan Adventures: Okonomiyaki

[Previously on: Japan Adventures]

Say that 10 times fast.

After a long day of wandering the streets of Tokyo, the four of us finally met up with Laurence and promptly demanded one thing: Sake.

Well, that and Okonomiyaki.

Colin and Laurence and been scheming this meal since we arrived. To be honest, I had no idea what they were talking about. "Kind of like an omelette," I was told. What? Eggs? You want eggs in Japan? Uh, okay, if that's your thing, I don't care. As long as we get Sake.

So, given our requests, Laurence directed us to this little place down the way that he'd been anxious to show us since the word "Okonomiyaki" had first been uttered. It was clearly a local favorite. (yay!)

I humored them and their need for eggs, because LOOK AT THAT SAKE GLASS! No, that's not water. It's life. Hot, buttery, life. In a giant glass. Ahhhhhh, sake.

 

Laurence ordered for us. He's handy like that. We waited. We were all anxious to discover why the boys were so excited about eggs. The place was awesome though. I kind of wanted to live there. And the smell of whatever eggy thing was being prepared was heavenly.

Anticipation...

And.... here! Wait, that doesn't look like an omelette, that looks like... pizza? Paradise? Yum?

Actually it was served a bit like pizza, everyone took their own slice, but it was, in fact, eggs. I wish you could see the way the onions were still cooking and curling before us on the hot plate. You never think to take video of food until later. Now I could finally see what all this egg madness was about.

omg yum eggs aahhhh nomnom eggs yum nom. Or something like that. I don't think we shared a lot of words. There was eating. And more eating. AND IT WAS FREAKING DELICIOUS. The absolute best egg-based thing I have ever eaten ever. EVER. Yum. Good call, boys. I stand corrected. Woo eggs.

Oh, and did I mention that sake? ::cue the angels singing::

I probably should have gotten a picture of the glass next to something for perspective, but it wasn't a traditional sake glass. Actually I think they just served it in a regular water glass. Bless them.

I hold that sake directly responsible for the events that followed.

To be continued...

Morning and Evening Series

I started these many, many moons ago and had to put them aside during most of the last year due to time constraints with my Studio C Show, Japan, and Joey.

Morning Series:

 (natural light, mixed uv & artificial light, blacklight, no light)

Evening Series:

(natural light, mixed uv & artificial light, blacklight, no light)

I really do enjoy making things in sets. I have a couple of sets I'm planning for the next collection, although those are intended to be quite large. These are more like mini sets. :)

They're also the last I'll be doing at this size for a long time. I have a bazillion plans and at the moment, I'm out of this size canvas with no intention to order more until I have completed a bunch of other pieces. As of this blog post, one of them is already spoken for, but the Evening Set is still available. Be quick! They go fast.  --Now sold. :)

In other news, our house is finally getting put back together. Bizarrely, I felt as though the month and a half of life with cement floors may have been a blessing of sorts, since I was ultimately able to do four months of work in a month's period of time. I'm nearing the end of all my current commissions. Between the freedom to work over a larger (non-carpeted) space, and not having a car and therefore being trapped here with piles of furniture everywhere, I really focused in on my art, perhaps as a distraction from the chaos. Whatever the motivation, I'm going to try and keep up the pace.

I am, however, happy to have our house back again.

Happy June! I love June. It's always been my most creative month. :)