Nasty, Great movie, and Jester Spikes

Its nasty outside today. Really rainy that will be drizzling at one point then gully washer the next. But, it usually works that way. Feet stayed dry due to my nice pair of Hi-techs, which is very beneficial through out all the classes.

This song is amazing but this (unofficial) video for the song just brings it off the awesome scale. It's a very dry video in more ways than one which I thought appropriate for the weather. (BTW) The video features main parts from the end of the movie "Once Upon a Time in the West" so don't watch i f you haven't seen the film, which is a great movie.

Here is some charcoal work I did for high school in 2007. I was having fun with it and was going for a surrealistic image. I used my buddy and classmate at the time Q to model his open mouth for me. He sat next to me a held his mouth like the image for a good 45 minutes. I added all the other imagery after that, like the jester spikes, the tubes, and the eye. I have this hanging in my room, sometimes if you stare at the mouth long enough the eye will blink at you. 

TECHNO!, Barbra Streisand and shacks

TECHNO! Yes I'm a fan. Always had a little thing for the electronic. Here is a cool jam but the video will send you a curve ball. As it end everyone I had show this to has said something along the lines of "Haha, No way!" or "Totally didn't see that coming". Either way its a fun time or at least looked like one. 

Plus...a little Duck Sauce....Barbra Streisand, this is awesome!

Here is another pen & ink from 2006, about two months after my tractor guy. It won the Russell County Fair Art Contest pen & ink for my age group that year. I was really proud of this one because it was done outside of school and didn't need a teacher to get it done. I went out to where the new CGI build is today, there used to be just farm land up there and it was where I played as a kid all the time. But when developing started to begin they cleared a lot of the land. You began to start to see into the woods and there was a few old shacks still standing back there. They are everywhere around Lebanon. But this one was like a gem, it really stood out to me and I grabbed a picture with my dad's camera and did this. Everything was overgrown, you could really tell how the forest gobbled up these little houses over the years. Really cool back there, during the XC years up to 08, I would run back there but now the shacks have been torn down. Bums me out a bit seems like a bit of history to me but just trash to others.

Pepto, Free Translator, and the Farmer

I ate so much last night. I came back home and I guess I didn't realize how much food is always in my parents house. As soon as I got here I got a hold of some homemade fried rice which I ate like 2 plates of. My mom decided to buy like 4 or 5 boxes of girl scout cookies which I got through 2 of those boxes last night. Plus They gave me 20 bucks which my brother and I quickly spent on pizza and lasagna. I went to sleep with a crazy full belly which was kind of awesome, but pepto was definitely in order this morning.

Here is a nice wholesome tune to start your day. The Books are definitely out there and they are probably one of the most interesting groups I've had the privilege of listening to. This song is just nice, that's the only way I can put it, really nice. Free Translator by the The Books

Taking it back to 2006 with this pen and ink. I think I started thinking on an artist level long before I started pursuing art as a career. I grew up in Lebanon which is a tiny southwestern Virginia town and I definitely had a feel for what the town enjoyed to look at. My art teacher wasn't very different. So in 10th grade I pound out this pen and ink of a farmer, featuring a tractor and everyone kind of went ape shit about it. I did work hard on it and I like it myself but shew-wee, the high school and town really bought into it. It was entered into the county art contest which included art from Lebanon High, Castlewood High, and Honaker High. I hated how the contest was ran though, only one entry per student and only one work per medium. So I got entered with my pen and ink, but this meant no one else from my school could be entered for their pen and ink which I thought was ridiculous considering we had some great work that was just excluded. But this piece won the pen and ink medium, overall winner for LHS and the county. I was pretty stoked about all that but who knows if I still would have won with all the other work in the contest. But I really base a lot the success of this work on content, my area really likes farming( which is funny considering the image depicts a farmer in the midwest, I didn't tell them that back then though). Also this piece really opened the door for my work with stencils 2 years later. I really played with the 2 values here and it does have a stencil feel to it until you look at the rough texture of the fields.

pen & ink, 8 1/2" x 11", 2006

Waking up, Oi Ju and Splatter Painting!

 I just woke up and its 7 am right now. I feel like I should start being a little more specific because I noticed I had a hit from Germany yesterday. I feel if I'm going to talk about the time and what not, I'll add the details for my new friends in completely different time zones. So whoever you are you win a prize for being my first European. Hopefully you liked what you saw and will eventually be back to read this but you could have accidentally stumbled upon this blog never to return again, if so I'm whateves about it. I've got another couple hits from Brazil, but I know who that is..Oi Ju, manter as coisas frio no Brasil. cerveja é boa! And then 2 hits from Canada, I really hope its Wayne Gretzky. 

Feeling deep, me too. This is a great song and it is very deep, you may recognize it as being in the movie Little Miss Sunshine. Which, by the way, is a great movie. This song always makes me think, and therefore its a great one in my book. DeVotchka is a great band I recommend checking out their other stuff.

This is my attempted at splatter painting at the request of my mother in 2009. She got me this huge canvas that is around 5 X 3 ft and asked for something that would match the furniture in the living room. I'm not much of a painter and after staring at this thing for about a year and started throwing paint on it. I wasn't completely reckless and can honestly say that I placed certain splatters and most of the work was not an accident. My mom loved the piece and it is still in their living room so that makes this a success for me. 

5x3ft, Acrylic, 2009

REMIX!, Dreams, and Tattoos

RRREEEMMMIIIIXXXXX!!!!!! Let it seep in to your ears. Then its going to proceed to walk, prance and frolic all over your brain, only to curl into a comfortable yet adorably cute position right up  against your forehead. And its going to take a nap, while this song vibrates your pleasure chords. Empire of the Sun- Walking on a Dream (Johan Baath Remix)!

Here be some tattoo sketches I had drawn for a friend of mine. Now the images from the sketches are tattooed on to my buddies rib cage, one on either side. I do have some rough pics I'll post but unfortunately lack any photos of the actual tattoos, which look great and exactly as I drew them. Hopefully next time he comes by JC way I'll snap a couple.

TomCat came to me one day in 2009 and asked for a tattoo design. He asked for it to include eyeballs, zombies, skulls, shrooms, tentacles, and peace signs. And with this to go on, this is what my brain conjured up. I really enjoy the shroom clouds but the tattoo artist left out the spots on the caps/clouds but it still looked great finished. 

                            

Then in 2010 he came to me again for another tattoo. This one on the other side of the rib cage. Yet this time he had his own idea and a very awesome one at that. He asked for an octopus attacking a whale, and I gave him just that. The image itself is as straightforward as the delivery in which TomCat told me " I want an octopus attacking a whale." Tattooed ended up great as well kudos to the tattoo artists, fo sho.

All the Places and Color Skull

Another interesting song discovered through KEXP Song of the Day Podcast. MADE IN HEIGHTS - All the Places is original and very soft yet with a strong beat, I really enjoyed it and will continue to do so.

This a drawing I did in 2009 simply for fun. I had to draw a skull for my drawing class while at SWCC and used the same skull in this work but just drew lines of color within. The skull itself is flawed and not drawn perfectly as you can tell by the eye sockets and the nose but I felt this made it my own. I left the skull the way it was originally drawn and I started with the color on the right temple and then bounced all over the skull trying to produce a some what symmetrical pattern. I was extremely pleased with the out come and piece is displayed on my living room wall. It is a work I just enjoy looking at and is probably the most colorful of all my work thus far.

"Color Skull", Colored Pencils, 8 1/2" x 11"

Of Oceans, Banksy and Tank Hearts

Of Oceans, a band I recently stumbled upon and very glad I did. Their EP is on sell here for $1. Not bad if you ask me. Only two songs but both are just beautiful. This is my favorite of the two, has such a gentle vibe about it, hope you enjoy.

During my semester at UVA-Wise in 2008, I had an assignment were I was to "collaborate" with a famous artist who was still alive. The professor had a list of of artists with some picture of their work. This was the first time I was introduced to the famous yet unknown street artist Banksy. I've been a huge fan ever since. The assignment was to imagine yourself collaborating with the artist to produce a work through some method of printmaking taught in the class. I knew for a fact I was going to work with stencils to make a screen print. After studying Banksy's website, fan blogs along with anti-Banksy/graffiti sites. I learned that Banksy works are political, in many cases humorous and always carry a strong message. Here are some of the works that I referenced in creating my piece.

And here is my piece.

I felt like this embodied the essence of Banksy while I was still able to make it my own. This was the last screen print that I have done since. Now I work the same way only with spray paint, as you can tell from some older posts below.

Starfield, Self Portraits and Creepy

 Today's song is Starfield by The New Division. Its a very subtle, gentle song that just seems to get me going. Enjoy...

I took a printmaking class during my first semester in college in 2008. I was at UVA-Wise on a cross-country scholarship and only ended up staying for that semester before transferring to SWCC. Ray Stratton taught the course and was a great teacher, not to mention a great artist. We touched base on many different methods of printmaking but after a simple demo on stencils I created a self portrait screen print out of four stencils. I liked the look and effect you can get using a stencil. Almost all my art since has been made through this method.

Self Portrait, Screen Print, 2008

Here is a self portrait that wasn't influenced by and assignment or teachers but rather I simply had fun with it. I worked from a photo I took of my self one Christmas when my dad laid his camera beside me. I was just goofing off but when I found the picture later I thought I would do something with it. I personally like it and it is my favorite self portrait. I have it placed in my apartment so when you come through my front door you immediately see my face look down at you from the opposite wall. More people tell me it is creepy than cool so I'm considering putting up the other five editions throughout my apartment, that'll really creep 'em out. 

Self portrait, Spray Paint, 2009

Yellow Wings, ArtIfact and Peace Bombs

The jam of the day is Yellow Wings by Keepaway. I found out about this through the KEXP podcast and it is soooo good. I've had this on my computer for a little over a week and I'm up to 80 plays not counting my ipod, it just doesn't get old. It's really just a positive song that is uber up beat. 

Also I'd like to share one of my works of art. It is a done using a stencil and I sprayed it on cardboard that I covered in newspaper. It was in the 2010 ArtIfact show at the Appalachian Arts Center in Richlands, Virginia. I had four pieces in the group show consisting of four artist. This is also the first piece that I sold. All my work int the show shared the them of political irony and current events. I will post more work from the show as I gather the photos. I tried to play with the newspaper in each of the pieces to add some personality to the work rather than having just an image on paper. In this piece I thought of the act of bombing and I placed the newspaper randomly on the cardboard. This work perfectly in giving this work a chaotic feel.

"Peace Bombs", spray paint

This is another piece from the ArtIfact show. I really tried to explore different avenues in which I could manipulate the newspaper and use it in a way the reinforces the image itself. I simply angled the clean cut strips to accent the arm of my pie guy. Again, I was playing with the theme of political irony and current event, but there is definitely a level of humor that can always be found in my work.

"Just Dessert", spray paint

I tried to create a piece with a more obvious message and I believe the message is there in an ironic way. I personally believe the fact people are in jail because of marijuana is ridiculous. Living in a rural southwest Virginia town for most of my life I've seen first hand the effects of Oxycontin and meth on people and the community. Yet we have government paid agent busting descent people for pot instead of  working to help people and communities who are actually being hurt by real drugs. I simply was sticking it to the man in my own little way with this piece. I positioned the newspaper so that it radiated from the bong, giving the piece an ever more clear focal point.

"Bong Hits for Authority", spray paint and acrylic 

This was the second piece I sold which I actually did on my on outside the gallery. Again, I play with the idea of authority and do it in another humorous way. I placed the cut strips of newspaper vertically to make the figure seem more daunting.   

"Stylish Intimidation" Spray Paint

Homework, Ultra Violence and Beethoven

Not much to talk about today either, been busy though. Got me lots of homework so I'm trying to get ahead now, so far so good though. If I keep it up at this pace i should be good to go before the weekend rolls around.

This is a killer song by Baby Monster. Its called Ultra Violence and Beethoven, when I first clicked on it I thought it was a Clockwork Orange video, but I had to settle for just a uber cool tune. This is just one of many by Baby Monster, definitely worth checking out.

Think, Bikini and TV Girl

I couldn't think of anything to really blog about today though. So, here is some music.I was fooling around on youtube when I came across these two songs. They kinda have the same vibe going, or at least it does for me. 

This song by Bikini is great. It's been thumping in my apartment for a couple days now and it defiantly brightens up my day, especially with this awesome cold weather here, all cold and stuff.

This is another jolly little tune by TV Girl. Song tells a funny story too. Also on the youtube page you can find a link to download the album for free. Its four songs including this one but they are all pretty good. I would recommend it, plus its free.

Art from Footings

Here is my work that was nominated for the ETSU Footings Exhibit. The first two, my Uncle Sam and "Personally Confused" were featured in the show where as the others were just shown on the website.

Color Theory Project, Beer Boxes,  24"x 24"

This piece took me longer to complete than anything else in the fall semester. Took me 32 hours total and I had a lot of fun with. I used the cardboard from 1 six pack of Budweiser, 2 Bud Light cases, 1 case of Natty, another 18 case of Natty and it took around 8 large glue sticks to attatch all the pieces. The project was a lot of hard work but I really like the result. This project really got some things rolling in my head so hopefully I can produce more work feature collage and such.

"Personally Confused" Spray Paint and Acrylic, 22"x 30"

This piece was also selected to be in the gallery. Originally this started out as a sketch based off of a photo of myself at age 3 that I did because I was simply bored. It stayed in my sketchbook until I had an opportunity to modify it a bit to fit the criteria of a 2D Design class. I made a single stencil which I sprayed, then I went in and painted some details and highlights. I added black border and allowed a level of overspray to get the hazy effect. We had to represent two sides of our personality. If you haven't already guess I modified the original by adding more bubbles and by adding imagery in the bubbles. I was trying to represent my more positive, friendly etc. side through the self portrait of me as a child. The images in the bubbles depict political issues and worries that have occurred and are occurring right now that always seem to make it into my brain. I find myself thinking about the world around me and what is happening in it and some of the stuff happening is crazy, hypocritical and in most cases confusing. 

"Keep an Open Mind" Spray Paint, 22"x 30"

"Keep an Open Mind" was a 2D project in which we had to depict a personal survival kit. I had a hard time coming up with a concept but got there eventually. On the left side of the image is a collection of art supplies and past art works that I've completed. On the right is my more entertainment side of life with my N64, ipod, frisbee and many more things. In the middle is myself with my backed turned. Im wearing a shirt and a beanie my dad gave me, and both are my favorite clothing possessions. My head is open and a hand wielding a flashlight is seen popping out. Basically I spit the survival kit in two, showing on the left my art and on the right my entertainment, both of which I would have to survive without. In the middle is me an the open white space is simply my insight or thought process, which I consider necessary to survive. To play into the concept and the appearance of the work. I inverted the colors of some objects. For instance, the shirt in real life is black with white stripes. I play with this I little bit more when I placed some objects overlapping the white space.

"Soft Spill" Pipe Cleaners

I made a wire frame for Soft Spill and then wrapped the structure with pipe cleaners. It was for my 3D Design class and it the first representational 3D piece that I've ever done. I though it would be that easy starting out. This project gave me so many problems and I was able to work them out but probably could have gone about it differently. I'm embarrassed to say how much I spent on pipe cleaners alone for this. Once I got so far into it I felt like I could just start over or scrape it so I kept going back to the store to get more. I bought out both of the Walmart's stash of blue, gray, tan, and white pipe cleaners about 1/3 of the way into this project. I ended up clearing out most of Michael's supply by the end of it too.

"SHARKPLANE!" Wire

Hi, I would Like you to meet SHARKPLANE! I made him out of wire for my 3D class. Are you scared of sharks in the water? Try sharks in the air! I had a lot of fun making this but it will be a while before I work with wire again.

Blahs and Remixes

Got me a bad case of the blahs today. The snow ain't helping much either. Walking to campus today it seemed everyone was bummed. Maybe it's just me but even the cars seemed to be driving slower, which was nice because I didn't have to dodge any speed demons at the cross walk. But anywho, I actually don't have class today which is pretty sweet. I still have to stay on campus though due to work. I'm sure I'll survive though.

Got me a real chill tune today. It's more of a gentle jam but I enjoy the crap out of it. It's a remix of Active Child's song Wilderness by Houses. I got the last Houses album All Night and it was pretty good, and just recently discovered Active Child (especially the song I'm in your Church at Night, which is killer) but I like everything I hear so far. Plus I'm a sucker for a good remix, its like hearing a different perspective.

Hope I shake the blahs and hope you have a good day!

Skateboards, Footings and Future Islands!

Weekend went great. I didn't really try to find the time to blog it up on here during the weekend because it was pretty full of all sorts of activities.

On Friday though, I saw a middle aged man on a skateboard then I saw a middle aged man catch gravel and fly off the skateboard. I felt pretty bad but I still laughed. He was a little ways in front of me so I couldn't really help him out. He got up though and walked it off.

I had a couple of pieces in the art show Footings and that was really great (click here to view pics of the work and of the reception). Friday night was the reception and the show looked really nice and there was quite a crowd out. I showed up early around 6 to make sure I could find the place, which I did surprisingly. The reception didn't start till 6:30 and the gallery was already pretty much full. The work was really good and I'm really happy I was able to be apart of it.

The rest of the weekend was pretty usual and lazy. Oh, and here is my tune for today.

 Been really feeling Future Islands this morning. Been jamming with these guy on my ipod for years and its still not old, I really like there sound. All their music is so original and different that my ears never get bored...it's so awesome.

Ya'll taker easy now, ya hear

Downtown, blogs and Jam

TGIF! Kudos world, you made it another week. This is post two and today I'm not sure what to say. I just woke up and maybe thats why. I do have a pretty cool day ahead of me though. Only have one class, then I have an art show tonight along with other students, and since I'll be downtown anyway I think I'll just stay there all night.

Been thinking about this whole blog thing and I figure I'll incorporate a little bit of structure by posting certain things everyday. I'm a music lover like most the world and I always have one song I'm really feeling on my ipod everyday that I just wear out by playing it over and over. So, I'll share with the world what my jam is.

It's mega chill tune by Washed Out that really sets a great vibe. Its a little older but I'm going to be rocking it today for sure.

I think I'll come up with some more nifty things to post everyday later. I think I'm going chow down and head out, peace.

First Post Yo

Hi, my name is Spenser but you can call me Spenser and this is my blog, my first blog. And this is my first post. I'm starting this because of my Computer Art class. Although this is a requirement to better my web presence in this online world especially as an artist, I really would like to embrace the idea of sharing my thoughts and ideas.

I am a definite newbie at the blog game. I do use Facebook but I am slowly but surely learning to despise it. It started out as a fun way to connect with friends and now it seems to be a substitute for real life. I hope I don't get sucked into extreme blogging but I sure am going to dive right into it.

As of right now my plan is to post something at least once a day. I enjoy many aspects of life and hope to share what is really at the front of my brain when I sit down to post.

I guess this post covers me for today, Later