"CONTACT HIGH" BY ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI

Existential 2: Phoenix Rising?
WiP 4 [detail]
acrylic, watercolor, charcoal powder, ink on muslin

Right now my vision is gone and magic's to blame
It's silent down here, hey I want to get loud again
You'll hold the thunder while I bring the rain

I might be busy doing nothing but I've had my share
You've got a strange infatuation with the love that's in the air

Contact high 

lyrics: "Contact High" by Architecture in Helsinki 

Mother

Mother
charcoal/ink, acrylic on paper
15 x 30 "
2011

Mother [on drywall]

Mother [comparison: equal composition]

I'm not sure it's not better composed by including the wall.  [Uh-oh, a double negative, that's just terrible grammar.  It's as if I didn't have a father who was a stickler for proper English.]

I'll just Amanda Ross-Ho-it.  Should be simple: cut out wall, display.  I can even disregard framing.  A little Spackle and the wall will be good as new. 

EXISTENTIAL 2: PHOENIX RISING? WiP 4.b

Existential 2:
Phoenix Rising?
WiP 4

    "It's very angry," Erin comments from the doorway. 
    To model a line from a much better writer, disconcerted "isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind." Taken aback.  Peturbed.
    "Ya think so?" I ask feigning curiosity.  I squish my eye to the corner of my lips and shake my head back and forth.  "I don't see it."  Sarcasm seems the appropriate response to expressed concern.
    "Do you want to talk about it?"
    "Nope.  That's why I painted that," I say, pointing back with my thumb.  
    "Well, I know you're not happy," she responds, cutting closer to truth. 
    "I'm sublimating my emotions," I say, trying to allay her worry. 
    "So the painting is helping?"
    "It is."

JUST WHAT THE FUCK MAN?





Just What the Fuck Man?
acrylic, watercolor on paper

23.5 x 52.75 "

 

After reading Trish's email that the Arts Incubator was closing permanently, I just sat dumbfounded.  To sublimate, I went to paint and this lyric from The Dance Party - 'Lipstick' kept repeating in my head, " 'tious what the fuck man."  

Existential 2: Phoenix Rising? WorkinProg#4

Existential 2:
Phoenix Rising?     

WiP 4
acrylic, watercolor, charcoal powder, ink on muslin
95.5 x 75"
2011

Existential 2: Phoenix Rising? WorkinProg#3



Existential 2: Phoenix Rising? WiP 3
acrylic, watercolor, charcoal powder, ink on muslin
95.5 x 75"

Sublimation 1 WiP03



Sublimation 1
acrylic, charcoal, ink, pen, shellac, latex on mixed papers  
104 x 88 "
2011

SUBLIMATION 1: WORK IN PROGRESS 1.4

Sublimation 1

acrylic, charcoal, ink, pen, shellac, latex on mixed papers

88 X 104 ”

2011

ASSUAGING ANXIETY 1

Assuaging Anxiety 1

17x23"

ink, acrylic on colored paper  

May First Friday 2011

 

  

As the Arts Incubator withers away, I look to efflorescence, just months ago.  I’m trying to do so many things to prepare; I'm getting nowhere fast.  As my mind plans, curates, structures the next 14 chess moves, anxious whirlpools threaten.  On replay, I envision Scratchy's skeleton ripped out of his body: Itchy laughs, Scratchy dies.  It's a most uncomfortable kind of tension, a paradox of sensation: my outer body stationary and my marrow sprinting forward.  I often have this psuedo-agoraphobia before social events, which I don't really understand.  If I truly believe that painting can heal, then I should let it do so. 

So this was me, in the afternoon, sublimating my anxiety before my first First Friday.  

Sublimation #2 WiP 1



Sublimation #2.1
acrylic, shellac, charcoal on cotton fabric
64 x 96 "
2011