I realize that I don't really have a page going over all the window art I've done. So here it is. From the humble beginnings to wherever its at right now. You can view the folder of more images including some of the process by clicking here
I've been working on the art for this piece for a while now… drawing redrawing sketching tracing redrawing and then redrawing again. I decided to put the drawing to the test and try out my new Montana spraypaints. You can see the process of the piece in my little photoblog below. This piece is most likely spoken for but if you want one like it let me know.
I recently re-licensed a couple of my fractals for elementary school math books and decided it was time to revisit the old fractal program and see if I could come up with some new designs. I also discovered a neat batch rendering window which I hadnt noticed before which really helps me to crank out variations. Feel free to contact me if you would like to license any of these images.
It's hard to trace where this fascination come obsession really started for me; from my early childhood I've been a fan of MC Escher and the way he conveys mathematical concepts through highly precise and ultimately unforgiving mediums such as lithography. As I've grown older and subsequently geekier I've come to understand more of the ideas that underlie MC Eschers work and meanwhile playing with my own process oriented art including the ever evolving window art Ive been doing, which while is nowhere near the same caliber it still really requires you to plan things out so you don't make a royal mess of things.
Line art study for the window
Orcas – window with spraypaint – for photos detailing the process click the photo
Since I've been using line art for my windows, lately I've been really taken with woodblock cuts, particularly the late 18th century Flammarion woodblock which depicts a man poking his head through the sky to see the inner workings of the universe (as depicted by the wheel within the wheel)
the caption in french stating "A missionary of the Middle Ages tells that he had found the point where the sky and the Earth touched…"
As I have a shared love for this print with my friend/ music partner Rubin I decided I would remix / redraw this piece to paint on a window and subsequently like any true nerd would, decided to research the subject and see what else was out there. Of course there is the piece that Rubin first sent to me – Tuefels Dudelsack which is an amazingly executed, albiet twisted, woodcut of a furry owly demon playing a human head as a bagpipe. I've only managed to discover a few pieces of information about this woodcut (though I plan on digging deeper when time allows) The name translates in german to Devils Bagpipe, and it is a satirical cartoon depicting the devil playing a bagpipe made of Martin Luthers head.
A few other favorites include these three – Ive chosen to ommit "The sale of indulgences" woodcut because I fear I would want to write a whole post on that alone and end up sidetracked… but if you are the sort that is familiar with the Catholic church selling indulgences thereby bringing the printing press to popularity I would recommend check the link out.
So we recently went to the MC Escher exibit when it was here in Portland and what I loved most about it was the chronological ordering of his work and through the years you could see him work with various media and really refine his craft. I realized how many years he worked to get it down to the razor sharp cleanliness we've all come to know. There were also a number of studies which were my favorite part of his work as it shows the steps involved and thereby makes the whole thing more human and inspiring. While gaurds were looking the other way I had to sneak this photo of a study of his geometric progression study for angels and demons.
Additionally I checked out which of his pieces might translate into a nice window painting to adorn my house and at first thought the ants & mobius strip piece would translate nicely though would be an insane amount of work as there are soooooooo many lines.
If i ever feel up for it theres always the final piece MC Escher did before parting our mortal realm – Snakes which is a three color lithograph – which was highly efficient in that it only created blocks for 1/3 of the image and rotated them to create the whole thing. If only I could do the same for my process. I plan to someday paint this onto a circular piece of glass which I will then use as a table.
Lastly while doing this research I stumbled upon this 3d representation of Snakes which is really cool and reminds me of playing with xenodream.
Indra's Web, is based on a buddhist spiritual metaphor of a web of consciousness connecting all life with each point in the web reflecting all the others. I first became aware of this concept through the book Indra's Pearls – the vision of Felix Klein. The book uses the metaphor to describe Felix Kleins work which is somewhat difficult to understand without a decent mathematical background.
I chose to use an Apollonian gasket (which is derived from a Kleinian Group – so named after Klein of course) for the artwork for Renas CD. I took some liberties and remixed the Apollonian gasket for the CD face. The CD fits inside a perfect circle created from the same design which covers the inside three panels – this conceptually embodies the concept of the "one point containing & reflecting all others" See images below
For the cover of the cd I did a remix and created an action in photoshop and transformed the scale of the gasket dropping the transparency a little every time. I then overlaid some transparent 3D fractals I created using Xenodream.
I am going into detail because a number of people have asked me how I did this.
Below you can see the long view of the inside of the digipack containing the larger gasket which encapsulates the cd.
And finally the back cover – with the famous bubble chamber neutrino image as a background texture and a couple of images from the processing application I coded.
I went with Alisha and classmates to the coast to collect seaweed and chill at the beach. I took a number of macros at low tide which proved to be pretty difficult considering the waves crashing around and the razor sharp barnacles and my fear or broadcasting buttcrack to the world at large. Additionally since its somewhat relevant I put up a picture of my newest painting which is based on the San Juan islands (yeah thats right Orcas peeps!)
I wanted a nice vector line file of one of my favorite crop circles – the 2004 Silbury Hill "mayan" cropcircle so I sat down to recreate this from a series of files I found through google images. I also learned a lot about illustrator along the way including how to turn paths into guides and then to use smart guides to constrain all the new points I added.
With all the inspiration coming from our upcoming Glacier Backcountry hiking trip – my heads been in the clouds – well if the clouds are around 6500' elevation in a valley carved out by glaciers. Below are a series of photos detailing the progress of this painting from sketch to finished piece. If you want more – theres another blog post about window painting as well as a gallery of different windows Ive done – By the way this window is for sale – inquire if interested.
Because I never have before: I decided to do a whole bunch of deco for Sol Invictus – the fundraiser for our yearly free outdoor summertime park parties in portland. Im working on a number of ideas including: 2x 6 foot tall window paintings, 32 suspended tealights in madrone trees, and stretch fabric installation. Im posting the updates here as they happen
Hanging Votive Lights
Due to the fact that we would be hanging these lights in large madrone trees (flammable) and the firecode in the venue is semi-strict we needed to make sure the flame wouldn't be exposed and that at no point would there be a risk of burning whatever it was suspending our lights. I came up with a system of bending these wires to allow for easy hanging as well as ensuring the wires we were using would stay put (in a triangle for maximum support)
Cat Tested … Mother Approved – First test run of the hanging lights
BRANCH!! Quite an adventure getting this thing
Raw Branch pre-trimming
First Light hung
15 or so hanging lights.
Window 1 of 2 – Waterfall city
Here is the progress from start to finish on this piece – the windows you may recognise from the "Waves" window which was lost in the end by me putting too thick of a coat of spray paint on it
I've been wanting to find a nice medium in between the computer and the physical and the medium of painting windows is just that for me. It allows me to exercise what I know how to do on a computer to execute what would otherwise be beyond my means in the physical world.
It started with me finding two very nice 6' x 2' rectangular single pane windows at a rebuilding center. I thought these would make amazing art pieces so I bought them – that was nearly 2 years ago and Ive been carting them around ever since. Our landlord replaced some windows in our house and Alisha grabbed one that she wanted for us to paint together – little did she know what she was getting herself into – I am aware that Im nearly impossible to work with in a creative setting, my neurotic controlling side comes out and then I argue outloud with myself because Im simulataneously trying to be fair, creative, open and do things my way, which as far as I can tell is impossible to do. The window didn't end up coming out that great – It was a cool idea and took several days to do but in the end your first piece will always suffer. It did set the stage for bigger and better pieces and I decided to tackle the large windows. I started by converting the garage into a studio. We furnished it with random odds and ends procured on the streets of Portland – It will always remain a mystery to me how Alisha managed to get the table which is easily twice her size home without help but she donated that to my cause – I went out and started figuring out the best approach to all the dilemmas – masking, layers, cutting, securing the windows etc etc and within a week I was off and running.
I didnt really stop to think I should try some smaller pieces first and went for the Big Cheese right out of the gates. I started on the 6 footer as soon as I could; patiently cutting the mask in zen like states of focused relaxation until at long last it was ready to paint. The first layer went on like a dream – It was even better than I hoped
However after removing the mask tape and I was laying the second and last coat down the horror of horrors started happening – the paint was bubbling up and acting really strange and there was nothing that could be done to stop it. All those hours of work undone in mere seconds due to some unknown physical reaction – it could have been mixing of multiple types of paint or the fact that it was on glass – but through further experimentation I realized it was preventable by doing multiple coats of paint just dusting it rather than laying it on thick. see below for my rude awakening, (the super cool fractal patterns weren't lost on me.)
Rule 1: There is no Command Z in real life, no matter how many times you say it in your head when things arent happening the way you want there is no changing that fact.
Actually I take that back i did command Z this painting… with a razor blade.
Determined I put the tall windows aside and tried a few more hands at it – some more fun than others.
The first is a Celtic knotwork piece which seemed like a great idea at the time (like so many of my ideas) and remained so until about halfway into it when I realized just how much tedious work it was requiring – I eventually finished it and was pretty sure I never wanted to see if again, though currently its adorning my friend Liz and Jazz' wall and looks quite good there.
After this I wanted pieces that were very simple to execute and rewarding to work on so I did these two mountain scenes where I got to focus on technique a little – worked on fades and speeding up the process of cutting the mask. Both were sold to my good friends at Astral Buoyancy and shipped to Asheville North Carolina where one broke in transit despite being packaged to survive just about anything. The other is mysteriously missing in action – FedEx claims it was never picked up from my friends house so it might have been stolen – So Ill let it be known that if I end up at a house party with this painting on the wall – I'm first taking it off the wall and then I'l do something worthy of praise from Tucker Max. Oh the gifts that keep on giving. Thanks tuna in a ventilation shaft.
anyways thats all I have for now. thanks for reading
