Projects seem to start and finish in waves - as Christmas and New Years approached, the latest wave crashed. I closed the year by finishing off a long list of various projects that had been staggering or zipping along over the past few weeks and months. Now I'm back in the planning stages for the next wave, sending emails and meeting clients and sort of feeling like I'm on an extended holiday - it's not 'back to work' until I have to wear paint clothes to do my job :) So, below is the latest little collection of the projects worth sharing...
But first!
My next grand venture is going to be building a ~*mobile studio*~. I currently rent a studio space to store my materials and tools, design murals, and work on some small-scale projects. As a muralist though, most of my non-office work is done on-site, and that results in me loading and unloading my car for every single mural. This means that whenever I need anything on-site, it's probably been left at the studio, and if I need it at the studio I probably left it on-site. Of course.
maybe like this?
maybe a little smaller?
My vision for this mobile studio is a renovated, small RV (under 20 feet) that I can park and work out of as my main studio, and drive to mural sites as needed. That way I have all of my stuff with me at all times. I wish to become an artist turtle!
CALL TO ARMS: Step 1 of making this happen is finding the perfect RV to renovate. Step 0 is finding a place to park this hunka-junk while I work on it. I am looking for a small space (slightly larger than a small RV) to rent or barter for that is covered, has power access for tools, is okay to get a little messy, and is more or less in Richmond - I can journey a little if it's the perfect place. Bonus points if it's heated (a garage?) and has other tools that I could borrow. PLEASE SHOUT OUT if you or someone you know might have a spot for me!
This thing is going to be hella sweet you guys. I can already tell because the pinterest board I've built for it is super hella sweet. Who's excited? I'M EXCITED.
and now...
Recent Projects
Over the past several months, I've been honored to have the opportunity to work with the luminary Sterling Hundley (a professor-now-friend-and-mentor) on a corporate art commission. Broadly, the project was to create an interactive piece that invites experimentation with the concept of gestalt imagery. 288 wooden blocks are the magnetic pieces to a giant unsolvable puzzle. Think finding shapes in clouds and Rorschach tests. I'll wait for Sterling to do the grand unveiling of the whole presentation, but I'm excited to share these images of the installation.
Working on this piece was a lesson in order of operations - we worked with Jim Daigle, a cabinet-maker and family friend who may be the king of planning and details, at least as far as woodworking goes. My role here was to ease the transition from a concept and prototype to a polished, functional piece of artwork. Getting to work closely with two masters in their respective fields gave me a huge boost of confidence in my own abilities to coordinate, envision, and push forward. This project has a future to it that I hope takes shape in the form of more puzzles and other fields I've harbored interest in for a long time, so it's very rewarding to see this beautiful incarnation come together. Hopefully the next incarnation will have a little less sanding though ;)
On a totally non-painting note, I created a new SquareSpace website for the local construction company Alex & Son Contractor LLC. My own site is hosted on SquareSpace, and it continues to be the best option I know of for making a beautiful site with basically no coding knowledge. Working on a website is cool because it's so easy to share - no pictures to take, just a link to pass on! Check it out: www.alexandson.com
I got my 2015 calendars printed, as planned and just in time, and did a little hand-embellishing on each one. Look for them next year as the first HerrSuite retail product! If you still need a 2015 calendar, I can do one-off orders for $45 for a 2' x 4' repositionable wall-sticker print (if you don't want it stuck to your wall, simply leave the backing in place and use thumbtacks ;) They'll have hand-painted signatures (like below) and big red markers to cross off the days.
new laid over old
A patron of the coffee shop I've been painting for commissioned a sweet present for the shop's owner:
And there's this thing, which I actually finished a while ago but never posted: an illustration started in Kansas City, MO in 2012, and finished in RVA in 2014. I'm fancying it part of a series, of which the embroidered piece below would be the second piece: