Head Games

Finally sat down to render this image that I had.
In my mind, it's about casual manipulation. Putting up a front as an endemic part of culture, even when it comes to those exchanges which are thought to be the most intimate and communication-based.

Folks often read it as "the game" of sexuality and sexual experience, which I think is a valid interpretation. If anything, I think that this reading supports my theme. Folks regularly think of sex and relationships in terms of game stratagems. I think the catch-22 is that intimate sexual relations invariably have foundations in the sexual "game". Relationships are founded on fronts and strategy, in an almost business and market-like atmosphere.

A Smashing Pumpkins line comes to mind: "Love, it's who you know."

Charles River Esplanade

Painting I had been working on over the summer.

I'm in love with those big fat trees on the Charles River Esplanade.
Some more experimenting with texture and atmosphere.

Perceval

My finished painting of Perceval. The colors have come out vastly different from what my original thoughts of the piece were, but I like them.

Perceval's father and brothers have died in the service of knighthood prior to Perceval's birth. Not wanting to lose her remaining son, Perceval's mother relocates to an isolated estate in the Welsh mountains. The boy grows up with little exposure to the outside world.

One day, a retinue of knights comes through the wilderness pursing a thief. Never having seen such mounted warrior Perceval only imagines that they might be angels. He is bold enough to approach one of them, and asks a series of questions which dispel his ignorance. The episode is a turning point from which he learns of his patrimony and determines to become a knight himself.

The Eagle's Nest

Just a visual meditation on human development and appropriation of resources.
I recently finished reading Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra and was charmed by the various visual metaphors that the writing evoked in order to communicate its ideas.

Continuing to work more line into my pieces. I've realized that dominant line is both something that attracts me and something that I can manage, and there is no reason not to employ it. I feel that my education has veered me towards certain sensibilities that do not often serve individual style or expression. For better of for worse, it's quite a task to keep oneself afloat of one's various influences.

A friend said to me recently that it's of utmost importance to research and to expose yourself to a variety of forms and sensibilities. You are going to be influenced no matter what you do; you mine as well have some responsibility over what those influences are going to be.

Someone suggested that the eagle's egg is a threat to the eagle herself; I think so too.

Head Games

Been inking alot of work lately. Expressive style is served differently through different media. I'm still trying to find a good medium that I think accommodates for the energy I find in my sketch stages.

The piece is about interpersonal manipulation as a standard human activity. For the longest time, I've felt the need to be totally blunt with people. I don't like dishonesty in any form. Even exaggeration is akin to lying in my eyes. But in the interest of "putting your best foot forward" individuals are very selective about information that is impressed onto other people.

However, I believe it's a slippery slope, and in the interest of social maneuverability and gain, playing to the impressions of others eventually involves an outright falsification of self. Or at least, that sort of gain will invariably take priority over representing the genuine self.

This sort of behavior is endemic to culture, and doesn't hesitate to cross the line into intimate relations.
Regardless of what folks will admit to, I believe many "intimate" relationships are largely self-serving,
attempting to reach profit at the expense of honest and open communication.

Romanization

 A little multi-media piece I did a couple months back.
They're Romans and Gauls. duh.

We have no king but Caesar. 

finalized "Perceval" sketches

These are images of both my finished sketch and then the ink outlines I did based on the sketch for my painting of Perceval. In this scene, Perceval sees a retinue of King Arthur's knights pursuing a thief.

Perceval's mother has intentionally raised her son on a isolated estate in the Welsh mountains. Consequentially, Perceval has no knowledge of anything martial, and as he watches the armored calvary move through the mountains, perceives them as being angels.

The composition was originally going to be orientated horizontally, due to the strong right to left movement. However, I decided to expand the inked drawing upwards to reveal more of the environment in the final painting. I thought it would be important to show more of the surrounding country in order to get a sense of the estate's isolation.

I've realized that there is little need to transfer all the detail of the pencil sketch into the ink drawing. The details and expressive line quality of the finished image will have to be done over with ink and brush or gouache anyway. If I make the ink sketch as detailed as the original drawing, I will end up covering most of that inkwork with paint early on. So I leave the ink drawing relatively simple, and improvise details later. I guess I'll see if it works.