Some stuff I am working on for Art in the Yard

All wood stain on panel

Elora Art in the Yard

I was accepted to Elora's Art in the Yard on July 9th and 10th, here is the flyer, come check it out.

This aint Kansas anymore

 

This diptych is a social commentary on transgender stereotypes and is meant to bring the viewer’s perception of gender into question. Two nearly identical images of heightened female sexuality are seen next to each other.  Upon first glance the images read quite similarly, but upon closer inspected the viewer becomes aware that the female form in the one piece is actually that of a man.  How does this affect a viewer’s reaction to the piece?  Does this unexpected variant change our over all perception of the image? Does the phallus make this image any less feminine than its counter part? These works are meant to ask the larger question of biological gender vs gender identification. 

  

woodstain, graphite and acrylic

 

note to viewer, the format of this blog does not seem to want to let me show these side by side as i had intended :S

death of the nic nac

 

Growing up there were always alot of nic nacs in our home, this has carried over into my own home.  I still cherish many of my kitchy childhood porcelain figures, though many are broken.  This series represents desires for lost childhood, and depicts the injuries of porcelain comrades .  Acrylic and woodstain 

 

This deer is from my grandparents house, my estranged cat Windekinde broke its neck

 

This is drimble the hedgehog, I bought him already broken cause i felt bad for the little guy

 

This one is also from my grandparents' house and suffered from decapitation... I have named it ISADORA after isadora duncan who died when her billowing scarf got caught in her car's back tire and snapped her neck

 I have two of these tiny porcelain kittens, one with a broken tail, one fortunate enough to be in good condition

 

This guy i bought with a busted ear to keep the alien deer company

  

This poor little guy has his tail busted

 

A squirrel's worst nightmare, losing it's tail.

Self portrait of a dreamer

In my memory and desire class everyday at the start of class we sit down and do "flow drawings"  he are asked to draw things like the feeling of an ice cube on our tongues, or to draw emotions using only marks, music etc.  The assignment was to make an over all piece that combined 10 of these flow drawings.  Mine turned into a self portrait and includes, kitty swans, kozyndan hokusai bunnies, mushroom clouds, tornados, alien abduction and the sagitarius constellation.   I tried to stay as true as possible to the natural wood grain. Acrylic and woodstain.

this picture sucks

december 5th 1984

self portrait done for my collage class.  Went with joey to the textile museum annual fabric sale, for 2$ they gave you a garbage bag and you got to fill it full of scrap fabric.  So i cut the woodland scene all from scrap fabric and then sewed it together, gel transfer of a toilet, matchsticks, grommets and hemp to suspend, and made this branch frame.   It was a small disaster, had so many extra branches in the house that i knocked stuff off the walls, accidentally ripped down the bead curtains and cut my leg trying to remove the access.  (never do that again indoors)  Joey helped talk me down when I was panicking and threatening to skip my critique.

CAT POND!!!!!

 My cats always sit with their legs folded under them, and I often think they look like ducks.  I have wanted to paint kitty "ducks" for quite some time now.  In my collage class we were to combine 2 images in an unexpected way.  I went for a nice spring walk in wychwood park, took a picture of this pond, and then added kitty ducks.  On first glance of this painting they looks very much like swans.  I am hoping to work on this more in the future as I only had a couple days on it, but i'm pretty pleased with it.  Seems to make me, and those who see it smile.  :)
acrylic.. approximately 2 x 3 feet

Mike does Camilla D'Errico

 For an assignment we had to pick a contemporary artist, and try to make a painting that could pass for theirs, not a reproduction, more of a "missing piece of work"  I chose pop surrealist artist Camilla D'Errico from Vancouver.  Camilla's work always includes animals, so I chose 3 that i often use in my own work, and configured them into poses that she has used in previous works. - acrylic

the dangers of fire

so, i have a collage class... this was project number 1.  I stretched a transparent fabric over canvas, thought it looked very american flaggy, so i decided to go for a kenneth anger punk rock americana sort of thing. I sewed, used hair, buttons, pins etc, lit things on fire, threw a bunch of junk at it, pennies, matches etc, and am ultimately pleased. 
A bit of a statement on consumerism, the value of material things, and how they can be eradicated, also the damage of smoking, and a continuation of the matchstick house on fire, metaphor for my life kinda deal.