I recently had the privelege of shooting a Friday Night Boxing event in downtown. Not the big time stuff mind you, just the scrappers, with only near a thousand people in attendance. It was pure bliss. I wasn't prepared at all this time for what shooting boxing would entail (easily the most difficult thing i have ever shot), but next time i will be ready.
The event oozed concepts i have been dealing with in my work for some time now. I guess some would see the whole thing as an exercise in machismo -which would be true if only given a quick look from some far away perspective. But really, the vulnerability hits hardest. 
4.11.2007
Ringside
4.04.2007
In memoriam
in memoriam (the unknown military contractor)
suit pockets, brass, bronze, blackening chemicals on canvas
4x5' 2007
This is a work i am wrapping up at the moment. Well, letting it sit anyway... one of its gorgeous features is that it continues to change due to the chemical reaction that is going on (so i keep working on it). I am still mulling the title... haven't settled. It keeps changing like the metal.
I had written awhile back about fragments of memories changing and overlapping. (This work changes as one moves around it, and the light catches it in different places... the photo doesn't do this part justice). The work ties in a lot of the memorial work i've been doing, with a look at current war issues, and reflects some nuance of sorrow and apathy (trendy american sentiments).
In the beginning I was contemplating memorials for military contractors and war profiteers. But i am not a big fan of finger pointing art, or one liners (that take more than one line to make). I do believe however in a one liner that can transcend itself (like a chocolate easter bunny jesus), and that is something i am looking for here. I think that is possible when the personal is evident, when someone participating with the work can feel that coming through (if the chocolate jesus was the typical image of jesus, it would not move past the one liner), and when the work keeps its compassion.
(oh yeah, and this work would be really amazing if it were big, on a really long wall... so if any of you wealthy readers out there have an itch...)
That all being said, i should acknowledge my one year anniversary that passed last week. I have learned quite a bit from this whole blogging experience... the closest thing i ever kept to a regular journal, or even sketchbook for that matter, sad to say. I won't go into it all cept to say this weekly revealing myself to strangers has been, if anything, an excellent exercise in saying, "fuck it." --an essential tool for any artist.
NonProphet then and now, one year later...
3.28.2007
Miss Phyllis
This is my latest painting in the golf series (taken outdoors on a cloudy day... sorry). She is 3 x 5' tall, sosyouknow. For those catching up, I've been painting some golf lately... for monetary interests, and for personal reasons. I've been focusing so far on more the anonymous golfer (also the less white, or less male golfer), or unsung hero of golf as another way of dismantling the current popular attitude towards the game (and returning it to its roots).
This is all reminding me of why i am so drawn to painting portraits. It is an exercise in compassion, and an incredible vehicle for self transformation, this focusing not only on a person, but a quality for long periods of time.
Plus, as most of the amazing portrait painters in history have found, portraits are the ultimate trojan horse. While we think we are merely looking at a picture of a person, we are actually ingesting entire messages and qualities. Sure this happens in other kinds of painting, but with a portrait... people linger longer.
3.20.2007
Spring Break
Hey faithful readers (both of you crazy Uzbekistanians), I am going on a wee bit of a break for the next week. I have some family coming into town and we are going to hang out and not blog. Can you do me a favor though and remind me to come back? I don't want to drift off the blog too long, it gets harder to return. Alright, much love... enjoy the transition into springtime, g
3.15.2007
42K$ for the new Louis V
I'm not going to go into a big long spiel about how 42K is more than the yearly income of 99% of the global population, but i will share a story of which i am reminded. The way this all turns out is not pretty.
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