"Monster Artifice" Series, 2008

Silver gelatin prints (35mm) taken with a Canon AE-1 SLR. The outfit consists of a Speedo, those little white ringlets that stick on to hole-punched paper to keep them from tearing, swim goggles, and wings I crafted from plastic wrap and bailing wire. I think I was reading Donna Haraway and Orlan at the time I did these. Again with my own lens turned on myself. I'm sure I'll figure out what I'm trying to say, someday.

Life Drawing Studies / Men: Young & Old

The first two are the same young fella.
The third is a guy from a burlesque show I photographed and then drew my own thoughts.
The last two are different elders.

These were done anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes, done in 2006-07.

Conte crayons, chalk pastels, charcoal.

On the Idea of Painting

"What It Is Not" and "What It Is"
diptych set

Acrylic and oil on canvas. Each one is 2ft x 4ft. These were the last real paintings I did before switching to digital art as my concentration (previously I was registered in painting). Still haven't really picked up the brush, except for some recent video/performance pieces that deal with my criticisms of the medium that I used to use all the time, prior to this thing called a fine art education. It really is amazing, the processes we go through, to find out what it is we are trying to say and why we are trying to say it.

2007 Alexan Collegian Mural Contest, 1st Place Winner

Out of submissions by Colorado undergraduates, three finalists were chosen to paint their proposed murals on the inside walls of the fairly new Alexan CityCenter in Englewood, CO... each muralist had roughly 45 days to complete their mural, a dimension of 30 ft. x 10 ft.

I wish I had more photos of the mural... keep meaning to go back and take more pictures. I researched and photographed about 50 key locations in Englewood that had either public art or art & recreational ammenities & events, and included more than half of those references in the mural proposal (and final painting). The panorama was of Englewood and as you walked down the hall you could see the changing of the seasons occur throughout the mural. It's a slender hall and you can't really see the mural all at once; the photo tells the story.

On top of four other classes and a job and the Drawsome organization, I would go here at night and work late late late. I was a slave to this project. On the reception night I got first place, and the funny giant check to go with it. And I think I gave a half-drunk acceptance schpeel on public art and community engagement and education and what-not... whatever man, they clapped.

Selected oil paintings, 2007

"Christopher Lee" oil on canvas (one pigment: cadmium red and lots of turpentine, wipe-away method)

"Cesqua" oil on canvas

;) Welcome to Iconographilia...

Iconographilia is intended to be a personal reflection of my art education, and I will be expanding upon project explanations here, as my art as of recently has evolved from traditional media into video art, performative acts, and installed environments.

Here you'll find my art endeavors, art ramblings, links to other artists or organizations, etc.

Iconographilia.

What does that mean?

It is the affliction/addiction of studying contemporary icons. At least that's what I want it to mean. It explains what I am interested in as a visual artist. I take hyper notice of many forms of media, but I especially love to analyze text and iconography. The icons of the 21st century are increasingly being defined not in terms of reality, but hyperreality, as they are being born of the great Nothing (and yet everything) that is the internet. They icons are propagating within that realm, where they sit and fester and multiply via the amount of eyes that see them (memes), until they ultimately jettison out and into what we call "reality". Icons for happiness, sadness, laughter, confusion, anger, frustration, fatigue, goofiness, surprise, fear, etc. are all universal human emotions.

What once took the great writers and philosophers hundreds of pages at a time to convey timeless human emotions, now takes one or two seconds to convey through a keyborad or handheld device, and takes the receiver just as quickly to decipher it's meaning.

:) = happy

:\ = confused; hmmm?

;) = wink and a smile

:o = shocked

And so on.

The effective transference of specific, universal emotion from one person to the next - or, from one online social networker to the next online social networker - in a matter of a few seconds both in communicating and receiving emotions, is fascinating to me. I was born in 1979 and grew up using DOS. I was using computers long before public use of the internet was launched in the mid 1990's. I saw everything change very, very quickly. 

I am interested in where this huge social change is leading art. New media, web art, installation art, and interactivity in creative expression all suddenly seem to have forced a seat at the dinner table of 'fine art.' But even now, that is not enough. Soon this New Media creature's offspring will be old enough to demand, each one of them, their own seat at the table, for they will have grown strong enough, competitive enough and capable enough of providing what everyone wanted in the first place - great conversation, and wouldn't you know it, inspiration. You just didn't know how big the party was going to get by inviting New Media to the table. 

News flash, New Media's got lots of babies, and they're all hungry. Just wait until they can talk. ;)