Today I’m posting with heavy news that my studio had been broken into a couple weeks back. It lead to not only important items needed for the day to day operations but included sentimental items. I’ve been playing catch up to keep projects with crucial deadlines in priority and some have suffered along the way. Mainly printing as so much was taken from the office that I am working to replace still.
All that aside, I’m still working as I do with optimism and hope. I believe that the items taken were for survival of one kind or another in desperation in the times we’re living in. Far from being happy about it, this will take time to recover from but I believe in the people who support my work and those who have reached out during this time as snow covers the ground here on this Valentine’s day in the Pacific Northwest and across much of the country.
Earlier in the week the installation I had been commissioned for was installed and I managed to get video of it to share here. It accompanies work I had done for what seems like forever ago when we all went into lock down and riots took place in Downtown Seattle. The piece that went up depicts a wolf figure holding on to a clock that has the moon in place of the standard hands and numbers. A face looks down on the wolf that is holding the structure symbolic of both protector and watched over. Facing a light that comes directional from the waterline bouncing light onto the right side of his figure with the mountain as the backdrop tucked behind the trees.
As with anything of value, art takes time. I learned quickly with public art anything you see of significance went through a lot just to be in its place. For me with almost any project I’ve taken on it required new tools of some kind or at the very least the replacement of others whether it be brushes or even an outdated hard drive. With the items I’ve made by hand or even the skill I may have taken for granted they required time over money itself and are irreplaceable and valuable lessons within them are treasured experiences.
At the end of the day we’re all caught up at times in our day to day. In isolation which many of my fellow artists can relate is a part of our reality we make peace with early on. On one hand I get to meet a lot of new teams and learn their dynamics but few are long lasting but for clients, galleries and museum relationship or colleagues like anything those are crucial to keeping grounded.
When I started making Valentine’s prints with James Bender and Bruce Cook III years ago it was spontaneous and out of the love for making art and challenging one another to what we could make just to make something. My work with sculpture is informing my graphics and my graphics informed by the idea of light composition and in turn bouncing back and forth.
I’ve been asked many times over the years where ideas for my work come from and I honestly couldn’t point to one source. It’s a mixture of so many things whether it’s a movie or a song or remembering a walk I took when I was stuck from years prior that drifts back into my consciousness while I’m sitting at a table or driving on the freeway stuck in traffic.
In the case of my print I am releasing this year for Valentine’s day which will have to be delayed, it is ambiguous in character. I don’t know of any old story of Wolf and Hummingbird in particular. Regardless, I didn’t question the idea as it came across the paper. I included a sketch in the time lapse video where I thought I would make something dark and try to have empathy for a serpent figure and it wasn’t working and it ended up in an entirely different composition. The beauty of these projects that are outside of commissions holds the freedom to let something happen that I am not approaching with a set depiction or premise. What did stand out looking on it was the need to break the fourth wall of sorts and explore the depth and dimensional exploration that could still read overall and be true to the style of work that I’m finding myself work in now at this moment.
Happy Valentine’s day to you all.