That’s right: Neeeeigh!
I’ve decided that I’ll post the progress of this destined-to-be-logo-stallion layer by layer. That way we can all share in the responsibility for whatever happens. Like a team.
The first layer:
My plan is to multiply this genetically modified cat x100 and then make a coat:
I have been thinking a lot about multiples and pondering printmaking lately. In particular I’m interested in artists whose “original” works are as much influenced by their print practice as vice versa.
To this end I’ve been listening to webinars (you try living on an outpost island for more than 2 weeks without developing a raging webinar habit) with printmakers, publishers, and people like Dick Solomon of Pace Editions. And this has obviously dropped me down Frank Stella/Jim Dine/Jasper Johns/Agnes Martin/Chuck Close/Ed Moses-type rabbit holes more than a few times.
As a result of all of this I find myself experimenting with a suite of Logo Creatures that I’m developing in layers. For example the above Obese Logo Cat was done in two layers: first I painted the cat using a wash of sumi ink and then I did the second layer of “K” branding in oil paint.
So far creating pieces using this type of distinct layering has been strangely liberating – my paintings are always very layered but in a different, more traditionally painterly way where I’m constantly pushing into and pulling out of various layers to find form. I think part of why I find this more print-based approach freeing is because I have less control over it: a layer happens quickly and then I move onto the next layer rather than going back into the first layer and developing the form from that. I wonder how/if these two methods of painting will meld? How can these ideas translate into actual printmaking? I usually find answers through the process of creating so I look forward to seeing what happens as I continue on with my kitties, elephants (my what lovely tusks you have!), aardvarks and other denizens of the savanna destined for the fashion market.
I do best with seeing things in hand so ordered some prints from Endless Editions which just arrived and I’m now delighted to have in my studio! Nothing inspires like Al Gore.
It’s easy to grow jaded with the island as a source of artistic inspiration. And I’m saying this even as someone who pulls from the island for artistic spiritual content. Thus how doubly slovenly and trite of me to be jaded. Slap my wrists and cancel my pedicure for the week because just look at what I saw on the way to the studio:
No joke:
And the damning thing is that as I drove past this abandoned Caribbean home (and then obviously slammed my car into reverse – I didn’t just narrowly pass my driver’s test for nothing…) I thought, “WHAT, is that ART?!”
The bias being that when I was living in NYC I passed by many such pieces daily and while I was really into them them I never questioned whether they were “art.” The Manhattan area is brimming with so much street art that one skips from questioning the merit to thinking, “is there a way I could steam that wheat paste off the wall in the dead of the night and abscond with it?”
I am even now in the air to NYC to check out galleries / art for a few days. There are always several layers to my shame.
This weekend was Sedona Lady Vacation and as expected much important work was done. We women got to the bottom of everything.
The view from my hotel room: 
The view from inside my head: 
The view at sunset: 
The view inside my head: 
And I don’t even want to show you the view inside my head that THIS inspired: 
This was terror moment when the ladies tromped out onto Devil’s Bridge because they hate me. I’m not included in the photo as I’m obviously plastered against the rock wall trying not to scream, desperately trying to get bars so that I can order a helicopter.
Now that I’m back in the studio my work on Logo Creatures continues with new energy.